I have been freemotion-quilting now for a good 13 years and while I do have a general idea on how to start and what to teach I wanted to demystify the journey a bit. Started to do some research on the internet and was very surprised. There are hardly any sites that cater for the beginner...while they all talk about what you need in terms of freemotion-quilting (i.e. set up of machine, gloves, slider, needles etc) I have not found any real assistance in where to start and what to practice, i.e so I can stitch a bit...what now? If I was a beginner I would not know how or what to practice. This was really perplexing and somewhat disappointing. I guess some of the online workshops might address this issue though.
In thinking about this further I really struggled to identify what a beginner needs to learn until I thought further on what particular skill is needed to progress in your freemotion quilting journey. Here is what I did come up, five skills you will need to practice (and ultimately master) if you want to be able to progress and be able to finish those quilts that are waiting in the UFO pile.
1. Ability to stitch a line, either straight or wavy with a somewhat consistent stitch length and the correct tension on the machine, including stopping and starting with minimal wobbles.
Easier said than done. In my workshop we are going to stitch some straightish lines in different directions in a four-patch block, just up and down, then sideways, and for the adventurous also diagonally and discussing how else you could practice that (eg. stitching-in-the-ditch freehand or using the help of a grid). Following on from this we are going to learn how to meander or stipple. Always flagged as a beginner design I don't think that it is actually that easy to do, so we are going to spent a whole session on just that.
2. Ability to follow a drawn (or stencilled) line. Once freed from the feeder dogs and able to doodle or meander, it's time to get more serious and start trying to stitch out simple motifs. Again, not that easy...you need a good dose of concentration and steady hand movements and speed to follow a line. However if people want to make use of motifs they found on the internet or stencils they bought, an absolute essential skill to have. When doing my research I read somewhere on a blog that stitching out a pre-marked design was not really freemotion quilting...I was a bit stunned at that because I was wondering whether the author thought that I sit in front of my 40in fabric square and just stitch out my wholecloth designs just like that, all freehand out of my head. No marks, no guidelines, no nothing...had to smile at that. I am good but I am not that good! Definitely consider myself a freemotion quilter though.
3. Ability to backtrack. Nobody (maybe myself excluded) likes it, however the ability to go over an already stitched line is something that the beginner quilter will have to learn not only for stitching out non-continuous motifs/designs but also to travel from point A to B over an already stitched line unless they want to tie off every five minutes.
4. Echoing a shape. Echoing about 1/8in from an applique shape or around a motif, but also useful for varying or extending an already known design. In the beginning the beginner quilter is probably only able to stitch out 2-3 designs which is absolutely enough to start off with. In order to make this a bit more interesting, echoing can be used to vary a design or even extend it while practising to become more proficient at the design.
5. Internalising the quilting path. My personal favourite...in order to fill a space, any space, the quilter will need to know and be familiar with the direction of the design, including direction changes. This does not come naturally, it is something that has to be practiced. In order to do this the quilter will need to know beforehand where they are going to go and what they are going to do well before they come to the point of a direction change. Improvisation rarely works out at this early stage as the beginning quilter is still preoccupied with executing the shape they are trying to do plus their hand movement and speed. I think structure is the answer to this, similar to going somewhere in the car. You certainly would not just jump in the car hoping to get to where you need to go somehow...you usually have a very clear idea which roads you are going to take to get to your destination.
So I build the workshop around those five points, keeping the designs to a minimum (just meander, loops and swirls) hoping to enable quilters to go on their actual quilts to practice or get themselves one of those cute panels you can buy and just follow the lines. I did include some basic grid work on the last day as some people might find that easier than filling an empty space. This should be very interesting to watch...I hope that me building everything around those five points will make sense to people and sink in and provide a rudimentary roadmap for beginners to continue their journey. But most importantly, I hope that it will encourage participants to tackle their quilts.
Karin
