Let Freedom Ring

So tonight's blog was supposed to be on the importance of proper lighting for the quilter. Lighting is something I took for granted when my quilting area was above ground. Once I created my new studio in my basement, I realized that moving my operation underground created some serious lighting challenges. I have since installed track lighting on the ceiling and purchased a fantastic desk lamp for my cutting table by OttLight. The biggest problem I was having was in cutting accuracy because I just couldn't see if my ruler lines were lining up. That problem is corrected now, but I quilted like a pioneer woman in the wild west for a few weeks. If anyone has any input on lighting that they'd like to share, please leave comments on this post. I'm sure there are other great lighting alternatives out there. Once I have my friend/electrician finish installing more electrical in my basement, I intend to install task lighting directly over my cutting table as well. But tonight I really want to talk about free motion quilting. Wow! I had forgotten how fun that was. I am renting a booth at a craft bazaar at a local church in two weeks and I'm making all sorts of small quilted items to sell, so as I went through my stash, I found a ton of Americana fabric that I've been using to create trivets, mug rugs, candle mats, etc. While trying to simply straight line quilt a trivet, I screwed it up and decided to just make it my test piece. I haven't free motion quilted in years. Feed dogs off, darning foot on and I took off making lazy e's and thinking of one of my past quilt instructors saying "just fill the space." My lazy e's are lazier than some at this point, but it came back to me and I did get one trivet completed with a stippled pattern. So exciting, so creative, so fun and I'm proud of my old brain that was able to recall that information. A really great book that I own to reference for machine quilting is "Machine Quilting Made Easy" by Maurine Noble. In this book, she goes into great depth about the different feet you can use for quilting in general, of course, your walking foot for straight line quilting and the various types of darning feet for free hand, or free motion quilting. You really want to be able to see what your stitches are doing when you are free-handing and my particular machine came with a clear darning foot, however, I still felt like I couldn't clearly see what my needle was doing because while the foot was clear, it was a closed circle. I actually purchased an open circle darning foot and I like that much better. In the book, the author suggests making your own free hand quilt sampler with muslin and batting so you can just practice and experiment with free hand quilting. I did this and I think it's a great idea. Free hand quilting is one of those things you don't want to to just wing. You want to give yourself the opportunity to experiment with different stitch lengths, tensions and thread types. The author also includes patterns you can practice such as a feather wreath. I'm really happy that my first free motion quilting experience in about 10 years was not a complete bust, and yours won't be either. Again, if you have any great quilting techniques,tricks or know of some great reference materials you'd like to add, please leave your comments on this post or message me on Facebook. Now get out there, let your freedom ring and get free motion crazy!