So my newest quilting endeavor is learning how to free motion quilt on the machine. I never even knew you could lower the feed dogs on the machine, and certainly had never tried it before. But you never know until you try!! So, down they went! I started practicing by creating practice sandwiches of scrap fabric with batting in the middle. I found that it takes a lot of practice to get uniform stitch length. Upon further research, I found that using a darning foot on the machine would work much better. I purchased one on line, and that helped a lot. After practicing many styles on many different sandwiches, I decided to get started on a real project, and knew I needed to start small. So here's what I completed:
It has turned out to be pretty challenging to get uniform stitch lengths. Although the instinct is to go slow on the machine, I have found that it is actually better to go faster while moving the fabric around at a uniform slow speed. Although I still have some practicing to do before I'm ready to tackle the task of free motion quilting on an entire quilt, I feel like I'm one step closer to the project!
