The Free Motion Quilting Project

Torrent of Fear - Part 2

2012-01-30T01:01:00.000-08:00

Last week I posted a bit about the background of Torrent of Fear, the first quilt I'm tackling this year as apart of my personal goal to create 12 goddess quilts this year. Today let's discuss the construction technique that managed to get her together in just 3 days.

Yes, you heard that right - the top of Torrent of Fear is complete! I'm happy to report that this quilt top is ready to be quilted!

Just in case you don't believe me, check out this video which details how she was constructed and a fun reveal as each piece of freezer paper was peeled off one by one:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

So how was Torrent of Fear pieced so quickly?

Very simple - it wasn't.

This quilt was put together using No Sewing Until You Quilt It, a method of applique that allows you to put together a quilt top without taking a single stitch.

Essentially this quilt top is TOGETHER, but it is not stitched, appliqued, or pieced at this point. Instead it's all being held together with glue and french fuse, a lightweight fusible interfacing.

Way back in 2005 when I was first getting into quilting, Ann Holmes, a member of the guild I joined, shared her technique for putting quilts together very similar to a stained glass window.

I was instantly hooked on the technique because something about this construction and design really worked with my brain. I was suddenly able to design and create any quilt I could think of so I used it to create many quilts, including the first goddess in the series Life and Fire:

So why haven't I been using this technique for all my quilts?

At some point in 2010, I became obsessed with perfection. I wanted the pieces of my quilts to fit seamlessly together and the quilting to flow effortlessly to the edges, and in order to achieve that look I used alternative techniques that used a lot more precision and finicky steps, but also produced much more "perfect" results.

I say "perfect" here because even the quilts I created with these methods had issues. They were not any more or less perfect than my previous quilts, but they were much more complicated and time consuming techniques that gave the illusion of perfection.

Looking back, I think I was mostly into the idea of making my life difficult.

Thank goodness that phase is over! When I settled on the design for Torrent of Fear I took a good look at the techniques I was using and decided enough was enough - I'm returning to the older methods that worked great before because if it was good enough when I was a beginner, it's definitely good enough now!

And it is! Torrent of Fear came together quickly and was very exciting to put together. I forgot how much I love the big reveal at the end - peeling each piece of freezer paper off the surface to reveal the fabric underneath. It's like unwrapping a present!

Now that the quilt top is complete, it's time to consider the quilting. Rather than quilting the snot out of her, I'm planning to keep the quilting much more open and play with many interesting techniques like couching decorative threads and yarn over her hair and glittery threads in the blue section.

Overall it's all about having fun and letting go of fears of imperfection and inadequacy. Who would have thought making quilt about fear would make me so fearless?!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day

Multi-Colored Insanity

2012-01-28T06:18:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is what insanity looks like:

This month I've been in the process of taking all 365 designs from the project and putting them together to create one massive quilt.

The thing is, 365 is not a square number! I can either add 15 designs to create a quilt that's 19 rows by 20 rows (380 blocks) or take 4 away to create a quilt that's 19 by 19.

But that seems a bit cheap. The last thing I want to do is create a quilt that's SUPPOSED to have all 365 blocks, but in fact it only has 361.

Or maybe I'm obsessing about this a bit too much?

One solution would be to place the 4 blocks in each of the corners and add a long outer border to the quilt. I could even combine many designs together to create a fantastic design flowing along each side.

I could even quilt the name of the quilt along the top border - 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting - but I'm worried this will get the quilt disqualified from shows because it's essentially like stitching my name to the front of it. Any judges want to weigh in on this idea?

The technique to join the blocks together is a very simple Quilt-As-You-Go technique. Binding strips cover the blocks from the front, fully encasing the 1/4 inch seam allowance from the edges of the blocks. On the back more binding strips cover the raw edges.

Here's a very, very simple run down. I actually go into much more detail on this technique in the DVD Beginner Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs.

How to connect one quilted block to another quilted block

1. Trim down your blocks to a desired size. Whatever size the blocks need to be, they need to be EXACTLY the right size. Don't eye ball it - square it!

2. Cut a 1 inch and 1.5 inch strip of binding fabric as long as the block.

3. Fold the 1.5 inch strip in half, wrong sides together, and press the snot out of it.

4. Place the 1 inch strip on the front (right side) of the quilt block.

5. Place the 1.5 folded in half strip on the back (wrong side) of the block with the raw edges matching up with the raw edges of the block.

Stitch a super accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance, stitching through the block and BOTH binding strips at the same time.

6. Finger press the 1 inch binding over (leave the folded binding alone). Place the second block on top of the first, right sides together and line up the edge of the block with the edge of the 1 inch binding.

7. Stitch the second block to the 1 inch binding with a super accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Spread the blocks flat and, if your seam allowances are stitched properly, both should nest into the space created by the 1 inch binding.

8. Now finger press the folded binding on the back over to fully encase all raw edges and either zigzag stitch or hand bind the fold in place.

9. Repeat with each block to create rows of your quilt, then repeat more strips of binding on the front and back to connect the rows together. So long as the blocks and strips are cut accurately, and so long as you stitch with a perfect seam allowance, this method can join any set of quilted blocks together.

Keep in mind this isn't the only way you can do this! This is simply the way I'm putting the blocks of this 365 quilt together because each block was quilted and trimmed which means there's no remaining space around the edges to attach the blocks in any other way.

I also prefer this method over just satin stitching the blocks together because it puts a bit of space between each block, almost like sashing.

I can already tell the most time consuming part of this project will be finishing all the binding on the back of the quilt. I still haven't decided if I want to hand stitch each back binding strip or blanket stitch it.

Multiplying the number of blocks by the size of this quilt means there will be 324 - 4 inch sections to hand bind, plus another 18 sections the full length of the quilt....yeah...I really think I should use the machine for this job unless I want to finish it around the time James goes to college!

Time to shut up and quilt!

Leah

Note - I realized when I first published this article that I wasn't clear about the border and adding the title. What I meant to ask was this - what if I actually quilt the words into the top of the quilt "365 Days of Free Motion Quilting"?

I guess I could cover it with fabric if I enter it into a show, but the photos for entry will always have the title showing front and center. Any thoughts?

Question Thursday #4

2012-01-26T06:52:00.000-08:00

It's another Question Thursday day and I have a wonderful term from MC at Slair's Lair for the perfect scale to stitch with. You know you've found the perfect scale when it's not too big, not too small, but it's just the right size - the Goldilocks Zone!

I've seen lots of wonderful stippling from everyone that has linked up so far to yesterday's post! It's so exciting to see your progress in just 4 weeks of quilting together.

Now let's see if I can answer some of the questions that have come in this week:

To paraphrase what Mimi said in the comments earlier this week:

Do you take notes of tension changes / machine adjustments to help you remember how to get the machine back to normal?

This is a great question because many quilters are afraid to touch any part of the machine for fear of not being able to get it back to normal.

The best solution for this is to keep a small notebook or journal close by your machine and jot down where your tension, stitch length, stitch width, and even the pressure of the foot, if you have that knob, each time you fiddle with your machine.

Personally I keep notes on what I change the machine to when I do something different, and especially when I'll need to return the machine to this exact setting again in the future.

For example, I often applique with a blanket stitch set at 2.0 stitch length and 2.0 stitch width and use the open toe applique foot. Would I remember this if I hadn't written it down? Absolutely not! I can't keep specifics of stitch length and width in my head so it really does help to write it down.

When it comes to tension, it really is different with each machine. On my old Juki, I was fiddling with that tension knob every single day, on the Janome Horizon the tension is set on "auto" for piecing, applique, and free motion so I never have to worry about it.

It's totally different with each machine so figure out if you can either leave your tension alone, or if you can set in one place for FMQ and leave it there. If so, make a note of it so you'll remember!

Next let's hear from Mrs MomMegan Craftsalot (love your name by the way!):

How do you properly finish the ends of thread when are quilting and back yourself into a corner? Please tell me when you "break your thread" are you suppose to hand sew it in? Can you just cut it off and move on?

I showed this just a bit in yesterday's video, but this is such an important question, I have a better video to illustrate what to do with your loose threads:

Just in case you can't watch the video: To properly finish off your loose thread ends, first tug on the top thread to bring the bobbin thread up to the same side of the quilt. Next take a cheater needle and pop both threads in the top of the needle. Then run the threads into the middle layer of the quilt for around 1 inch or so, then cut them off.

I keep my single cheater needle on a Pin Place so it doesn't get lost in my big magnetic pincushion.

Please, whatever you do, don't just cut off the thread tails and move on. Many teachers will show you how to build up the threads to "lock" them in place at the beginning and end of a line of quilting. The only thing this does is puts a knot on your quilt and a potential for your stitches to come unraveled.

If you're in a big hurry, just leave your thread tails long and pull them all to the top of your quilt where you can see them. As you quilt your quilt, just shift them out of your way and only after it's done, sit down with a cheater needle and hide all of the threads within your quilt. Your quilts will thank you!

Pat from Color Me Quilty asked:

When quilting with a good quality cotton such as Aurifil, is there a way to keep it from breaking?

If you're using a high quality thread and it's breaking constantly, something is obviously rotting in Denmark.

First look at the way your top thread is being fed into the machine. Tug on the thread a bit. Does it glide off easily or is the spool sticking and not turning easily?

If your thread isn't gliding easily, chances are that is the problem. Unlike piecing where the thread is slowly unwinding from the spool, free motion quilting uses thread a lot faster and requires the thread to feed much more quickly off the spool.

So a thread like Aurifil's awesome 100% cotton, which never breaks for piecing, might suddenly start breaking when you quilt with it.

What is the solution here?

It's simple really - fix the way your thread feeds into the machine.

One of the best possible tools you can buy is called a Spool Stand. I don't carry these right now because the ones I like are way too heavy and huge to ship, but they're truly awesome:

I keep a spool stand next to every one of my machines. The Janome Horizon even has a spool stand attachment that you can screw onto the back of that machine so it takes larger spools.

Even when piecing and appliqueing now, I always put my thread on a spool stand because it will feed much more evenly and effortlessly into the machine, which in turn reduces thread breaks and issues that happen when the spool doesn't glide easily.

Of course, your thread could be breaking for another whole set of reasons. When I buy thread, I always write the month and year on the side of a spool when I buy it. This helps me remember how old a spool of thread is because thread can actually go bad.

Recently I was piecing a quilt and my thread kept breaking even though I was using high quality Gutterman 100% cotton. What is going on here? Then I remembered back to when I bought that spool of thread - James was 6 months old! No wonder it was breaking - it's at least 4 years old and has been stored unprotected in my basement - all things that could weaken the fibers enough to cause frequent breakages.

The lesson here is simple: if you're getting frequent thread breaks try to ask questions and diagnose the problem. It might be as simple as your thread is too old or it's not happily feeding into the machine.
The next question is from Karin from the Quilt Yarn:

When I did a workshop on FMQ we were advised to start the stippling from the bottom up so that you could see how far apart from the preceding lines you were. Is there a right way of doing this or is it a matter of personal preference?

Karin, have you ever met someone else named Karin? Did they sign their name the exact same way you did? Chances are your signatures might have looked similar because you were writing the same word, but you definitely had your own unique touch to your name.

I use this example because it's the best way I can illustrate that every single person will stipple differently. You will start in different places, you will move across your quilt differently, you will fill the quilt itself in different ways. And that is OKAY!

There are MILLIONS of ways to stipple your quilt. Each teacher teaches this a little differently. Every quilter will learn and apply those lessons differently.

So the best thing you can do is focus on what works. Always move to what is easier, to what feels most natural for your brain and your body. If starting at the bottom and working upwards feels natural for you, do it!

I hope it's clear that everything I post here are IDEAS. It's not a scientific law or a rock solid fact. These are all ideas which means some work and some don't. Just keep moving to what works and what feels right.

In the comments of yesterday's post DrMary asked:

I've noticed that you are using a new type of pin set-up to baste your quilts?

Yes, I'm now using Pinmoors and simple flower head straight pins to baste my quilts. This is a new product developed by Loretta Ivison that works by locking the sharp end of normal straight pin so you can now baste with the normal pins you already have around the house.

I've started using Pinmoors to baste my quilts because they're a lot easier and faster to use than safety pins, tear my hands up far less, and are easier to take out, especially when I'm filming a video.

You can learn more about this cool item right here in the Day Style Designs Quilt Shop!

Helen and Tsigeyusv both asked pretty much the same question in the comments of yesterday's quilt along post:

I noticed in this video, when you paused in your quilting, that in one part the needle stopped in the up position and in another part it stopped in the down position. Do you have a preference and is it different based on quilting a straight line as opposed to a curved line?

If I have the option on the machine, I will always end with my needle in the DOWN position.

This makes almost all aspects of free motion quilting much easier:

When shifting and squishing the quilt, you won't lose your place if the needle is down.
When stitching on a line, you can always stop with your needle down on the line to stay on track.
When quilting a filler design, stopping with the needle down makes it much less likely for the stop to show.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. If you have the option, always set your needle to the DOWN position.

The thing is, not all machines come with this function. Right now I'm quilting on the Janome HD1000 which is a $300 machine and has almost no special features.

It doesn't have a button to select to put the needle automatically in the down position so in order to get the needle down, I either have to carefully tap the foot pedal or move my hand to rotate the hand wheel.

So sometimes, as in the case of yesterday's video, I forget to do either! I apologize if it was confusing, but for the record, I usually stop with the needle in the down position every time I stop.

But this just lets you know how easily you can learn how to use a machine with fewer, or no, special features! Once you get comfortable always taking one hand off the quilt to rotate the hand wheel, it will become a habit that you don't even think about.

Never let the limit of special features make you think you can't free motion quilt on the machine you have right now. Chances are it will work just fine, but only if you put some time and effort in playing with it.

Finally Brenda K asked in the comments of yesterday's post:

Where do you look when stitching?

When stitching a normal straight line I tend to look about half an inch ahead of the needle. But when the line curls around and to the side and behind the needle I tend to lose the line and start looking right at the needle. Then I hesitate and wobble as I search for where I'm going. Any advice?

This is a great question Brenda! I'm like you - I tend to focus on the area I'm stitching INTO, not right at my needle.

When you lose the line, the best thing to do is either shift the quilt a bit or move your head slightly so you can see where you're going.

Sometimes I'll lean forward and tilt my head to the right to keep a line of sight on the line I'm stitching on.

The trick is just remembering to sit back up when you're out of that area so you don't get a backache!

Whew! That's it for this Question Thursday! It's high time I shut up and go quilt that little Sawtooth Star quilt so I'll have something to show you next week!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day

Quilt Along #4 - Quilting on a Line

2012-01-25T06:28:00.000-08:00

Is it really Wednesday again already? That means it's time for another Free Motion Quilt Along lesson!

Last week I promised we would work on something other than Stippling and I didn't lie - this week we're focusing on stitching on a line in free motion.

So let's watch the video and learn many different ways to master this skill:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Stitching on a line is a super essential skill to free motion quilting. It's right up there with travel stitching and echoing as in the top 3 most fundamental free motion quilting skills to master.

Why is it so important to be able to quilt on a line?

It's super important because one day you're going to want to stitch in the ditch or quilt around the edges of an applique to draw more attention and focus to these shapes. You might also find a stencil design and fall so madly in love with it, you'll want to stitch it on ever quilt you ever make.

Or you might find a gorgeous fabric that can make a pretty quilt all by itself. You'll mostly likely want to quilt that awesome fabric by following the lines on the print rather than quilting all over the design.

As you can see there are a lot of different places this skill is used and almost all involve quilting REAL quilts.

Of course, it is possible to quilt a real quilt without ever stitching on a line or stitching in the ditch. This is All Over Quilting where you cover a quilt with one single design on a large scale.

All Over Quilting is fast, efficient, and certainly gets the quilts done, but not everyone is satisfied with this method of quilting.

If you spent 3 days piecing special quilt blocks, don't you want them quilted in a way that enhances their overall design and shape? Don't you want to get credit for your hand work? Of course you do!

Not everyone wants to cover their quilts with wall to wall quilting which is why we need to know how to stitch on a line, or in the ditch, so our quilts can be quilted with designs that ADD to the piecing or applique design.

Of course, this involves quilting a real quilt, which can be tricky to film on video, and even more tricky for you to follow along with.

So far I've been demonstrating my lessons on practice quilt sandwiches created with plain black fabric so you can clearly see what I'm doing in the video. For this particular lesson, I've demonstrated on stripped fabric, printed fabric, plain black fabric, and a "real" cheater cloth quilt (more on that quilt below).

It's entirely up to you what you want to practice this lesson on, but I would advise at least trying to quilt on the line of stripped fabric and a fairly simple print.

If you want to baste a small quilt top for this lesson, go for it! The more you practice this technique, the better you will get at it so it really doesn't matter what you choose to practice on.

Now let's learn some tips on quilting on a line:

Stitching on a line 101

Tip 1 - SLOW DOWN! Stitching on a line requires more concentration and focus than stitching random wiggly Stippling shapes. The best way to learn is by slowing down and running your machine slower so you can move your hands slower too. Once your brain catches up and you feel more comfortable, then start slowly increasing your speed.

No matter how comfortable you get, stitching on a line will always be slightly slower than stitching free hand.

Tip 2 - Don't Rip. Don't you dare pick up that seam ripper if you stitch off a line! Keep stitching and learn how to correct the mistake you made in another area of the quilt.

Ripping will only ever increase your skill at ripping, and I've never seen awards for "Best Seam Ripped Quilt" at a quilt show though it would be an interesting category to judge.

Tip 3 - Use your hands. Your hands can do more than just move your quilt around on the machine. Your hands are useful guides if you learn how to position them properly.

When you're stitching straight lines, keep your hands parallel to the needle. If you can, use the index finger of your right hand as a guide to keep the line straight. I show this technique a bit better in this older video right here.

Tip 4 - MOVE the quilt. If you start stitching off the line a lot and can't seem to get back on it consistently, take a good look at the quilt. Is it positioned in an awkward angle where you can't see where you're supposed to quilt next? Rotate it!

Look at where your stitching - is this angle and movement difficult or easy for you to maneuver? Rotate, reposition, squish, fold, curl - do whatever you need to do in order to make that section of the quilt easier to quilt.

Of course, you're not always going to have the opportunity or ability to rotate the quilt for every single angle you quilt. Sometimes it's just not practical to continually move the quilt around that much.

So also spend time stitching in some odd angles. Stitch straight lines from left to right and from right to left. This will probably feel a bit like writing with your non-dominate hand - a little awkward, but not unbearable. The more you do it, the better you will get at working with many angles AND staying on the line at the same time.

Now let's talk about the quilt I'm working on in the video:

Now I'll be honest - this isn't a REAL quilt. This is a cheater cloth quilt I designed and had printed at Spoonflower.com. You can purchase this 1 yard quilt in green or blue right here.

Here's a quick disclaimer about these prints: Keep in mind that the dyes in Spoonflower fabric is more delicate than traditionally printed fabric. I've personally found a lot of fading with these prints, and I'm being honest about it here because I don't want you to be surprised when it happens.

Instead of throwing these quilts in the washer, instead soak them in the bathtub and don't use detergent. Also don't prewash your fabric when you get it - just add a border and baste it so it's ready to be quilted.

I'm designing these prints mostly for my use to teach and show you how to quilt something that at least LOOKS like a real quilt because I don't always have time to piece a quilt AND quilt it in one week. For this reason, the cheater cloth I'm designing has to be very dark, which means the fading is even worse.

Just keep this in mind if you purchase these Spoonflower cheater quilts - they will be great to practice with, but probably not the best hard wearing quilts.

Now let's talk about quilting this quilt in free motion:

I could easily quilt all over this quilt with large scale stippling, filling the quilts in rows as we learned in Quilt Along #2.

But if you had pieced all of those Sawtooth Stars, wouldn't you want to get credit for them?

So I don't want to quilt all over the stars and ignore all those piecing lines. I'd like to draw attention to them and make sure they stand out in the finished quilt. To do this, the first step is to stitch each star in the ditch.

But here's another point - you don't have to stitch EVERYTHING in the ditch.

If you choose to pay attention to the piecing design that doesn't mean you have to stitch every single seam you pieced in the ditch. This is not only overwhelming, but also a big waste of time.

Take a look at your quilt and decide the major elements you want to focus on. Only stitch the outlines of those particular shapes and ignore all the others.

For my sawtooth star, I've decided to stitch only the star shape in the ditch. This means I'm ignoring the center square shape and the outer square shape (the edges of the individual block). The lines I quilted are in white below:

You can always decide which lines you want to quilt and which you want to ignore. The lines you ignore can then be quilted over with any free motion filler design.

So this is the way I stitched each star of my practice quilt in the ditch. Below I've numbered the blocks in the order I quilted them - always working from the center of the quilt to the outer edges.

I also quilted in the ditch between the green sashing and black border. I now have three distinct areas to quilt in: within the stars, within the sashing, and within the border.

Each of these areas can now be quilted with different filler designs to finish the quilt, or if the batting was rated high enough, I could even bind this quilt as is and call it done.

Now you may be wondering - why in the world are we doing this in free motion?

Can't we just do this with a walking foot?

Yes, you're absolutely right to wonder about this. A walking foot can easily stitch straight and slightly curvy lines with no problem, and because it slowly moves the fabric forward, it's much easier to stay right on a line.

But here's the major limitation of walking foot: it's not free motion.

A walking foot can ONLY quilt straight and slightly curvy lines. You can't stipple with it, you can't make free form designs, and it's unbearably, mindlessly SLOW!

Not only does it move slowly over your quilt, it also forces you to continually shift and rotate your quilt so the seam you're stitching is always straight down from the foot. That means to stitch 1 single sawtooth star block in the ditch, you will have to shift and reposition your quilt 16 times!

In free motion, you'd be able to stitch in the ditch, then fill the space with a design, and only rotate the quilt if you really need to. You'd also have the opportunity to wiggle over to the next star and fill it as well, all without breaking thread once.

This saves SO much time, and keeps the quilt flowing and moving, making it easier to finish!

The ability to quilt on a line in free motion is a major TIME SAVER. It's faster, and once you master it, it will also be easier.

So that's it for this week! I hope you'll take some time this week to play with stitching on a line and in the ditch. Just remember it doesn't have to be perfect and the more you practice this technique, the better you will get at it.

Now let's link up and share your progress from last week's Quilt Along #3 - Playing with Scale:

Instructions for Linking Up Your Blog:

1. Write your blog post. Publish it on your blog.

2. Copy the link of the specific blog post. This is not just the link to your blog itself (www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com), but the link to the specific post: http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/01/quilt-along-2-quilting-in-rows.html

3. Click the blue link up button above and paste your link into the box.

Keep in mind that you're posting your progress from LAST week on THIS week's post. This way you have time to watch the lesson, play with the ideas, then post your progress to the next quilt along. I hope that makes sense!

As always, any questions you have, please post them in the comments below or on your blog and I'll answer 5 tomorrow on Question Thursday.

Time for me to shut up and quilt,

Leah Day

Quilting with Your Whole Heart

2012-01-23T10:33:00.001-08:00

For some reason I seem to be turning into a quilting / motivation coach! Half my posts are about quilting and the other half are about overcoming obstacles that stop us from quilting and enjoying this wonderful hobby.

Still, I think it all works together nicely, particularly with the Quilt Along, and today I'd like to talk about putting your heart into it!

I attended a morning yoga class and the instructor led the class with the theme:

Practice with your whole heart.

Working through the poses, she continually brought our attention back to this mindfulness and I loved the way it kept my attention on my mat and in the pose and not wandering off to the millions of things I had to do today.

But we can apply this same less to more than just muscle stretches.

When you quilt, when you are creating something, where are you? Are you actively focused on the task in front of your, or is your mind stumbling through the past or daydreaming about the future?

The next time you're at your sewing machine, try bringing your awareness to your hands and the delicate movements they're making.

Focus on taking a stitch, finishing a seam, or completing that block, and instead of rushing off to the next step, take a minute to touch the stitches you just made. Look at them closely and see their perfection and imperfection. Don't use this as an opportunity to criticize yourself, but to appreciate what you can do. Relish your abilities!

When you get frustrated with a difficult task, take a deep breath and thank yourself for being a creative person. How many people refuse to even TRY a creative hobby out of fear, laziness, or apathy? You are awesome simply because you create.

As you work, bring your heart into your stitches. Think about the person you're making this quilt for, even if it's for you! Think about the gift that it is to receive a handmade quilt, and the gift that it is to be able to make one. Quilting is all about wrapping someone up in the loving warmth of a comforting blanket. Quilting is an act of love.

Back in that yoga class this morning, I kept returning to the idea of love and practicing with my whole heart flowing into each pose, each movement, each breath.

As I left that class, I began thinking about all the different ways this applies to my normal routine. I began to see that every task, even washing the dishes, is an opportunity to work through your heart - to put your whole being into the job and focus on absolutely nothing else.

It's actually a comforting thing, as I found working through this day, to play with James with my whole heart, to clean the kitchen with my whole heart, to drive to the grocery store with all my thoughts focused solely on one thing - going to the grocery store.

Very soon I began thinking about quilting and why this project feels so very different now.

When I dug into this feeling, I began to see that this year, more than any other, I have returned to quilting with my whole heart. I'm following my heart by teaching this way, by trying every idea that pops into my head, and by sharing it all openly here on the project.

Often the ideas for the next quilt along post come only after writing a Question Thursday post, which means this project is literally happening in real time.

For the last two years I've created videos far in advance which means by the time they were posted, I was already quilting something else. This was an extremely stressful way to create and it always left me feeling a bit unbalanced. I always want to talk about what's happening right NOW, not what happened 3 months ago!

After realizing all of this, I know exactly why the project feels so much lighter, so much more fun and more exciting than ever before: because there's so much love here!

I love to teach, I love to share, and I love that all of you are here to enjoy it.

So thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being here and for quilting along with me.

Now let's go quilt!

Leah

A New...Old...But New Machine

2012-01-22T12:04:00.000-08:00

Reading the title of this post, you might think I've finally taken one stitch too many and have gone utterly insane.

But in truth I really have just purchased a new, old, but new machine!

Yesterday I drove to a quilters house in Hollis, NC and bought a Bernina 1230, which is technically a "new" machine to me.

But it's also an old machine because it was built sometime between 1989 and 1998.

But it's ALSO a NEW machine because it has hardly been used!

When G. emailed me about this machine, she was really asking for advice as to whether she should sell it and get a bigger, quilting oriented machine. She already had the exact same model and came by this machine via a friend.

I instantly went on the alert because I've been waiting patiently for one of these awesome older Berninas to walk across my path again.

Allow me to digress for a moment into a bit of my sewing history:

Once upon a time, I was a newly married woman and starting a new job sewing garments for a living. The brother machine I was using at the time gave out after just one week of hard sewing.

I obviously needed a machine that could take the heat of high speed, high intensity sewing. So I went to my local Bernina dealer, at that time in Asheville, NC.

And what should I find waiting for me? A gorgeous, used, Bernina 1130.

This was my first introduction to this amazing line of machines. I played on the 1130 for more than an hour. No, I didn't need all the fancy stitches. No, I didn't need all the bells and whistles, but golly I fell in love with that machine!

But...I couldn't afford it. I had exactly $400 in my pocket thanks to a college refund check and the price on the 1130 was $675.

Looking back I realize what an unbelievable deal it was. That machine was complete with all the feet, knee lifter, the works. On ebay these regularly go for over $1000.

But I couldn't swing it. Josh and I refused to go into debt for ANY expense, even our wedding, so going into debt for a sewing machine seemed like a silly thing in comparison.

I walked out of that store and went to the local Viking dealership which advertised a machine for $300. Truthfully I was very satisfied with the Viking Prelude 340 I left the store with, but in the back of my mind I never, ever, forgot about that Bernina 1130.

As the years have gone by, I've kept an eye on these machines. Not just 1130s, but 1230s, 1630s and pretty much any other machines in that early computerized line. Pretty much ALL of these machines are golden. They've kept their looks and their awesome stitch quality which means their value is actually increasing as these machines get harder to find.

Every couple of months I'd check Ebay auctions looking for one, but I've never found the "right" machine.

Because it was such luck to run across that 1130 in that quilt shop, I always felt I'd get another lucky break and the machine that was meant to me mine would wander across my path.

And as luck would have it - one did just this week!

What's totally unbelievable is that this machine is ALMOST new. Every piece is here, even the original advertising books and print out guides:

It honestly feels like running across a mint condition tea set that was previously owned by Queen Elizabeth, with ALL the pieces, nothing scratched or chipped. It feels like this machine left the store and came home with me, despite the fact that it's probably more than 20 years old!

What I love the most about this machine is its stitch quality. Every stitch is - literally - perfect. As I said on facebook this morning - Truly nothing pieces like a Bernina.

Now you might be wondering about quilting. Yes, I most definitely can free motion quilt on this machine. Berninas have one of the best feet designed for free motion quilting - the open toe embroidery foot.

You might think the quilting ability of this machine is limited by the small space between the needle and the motor of the machine. This area is called the harp space and in the 1230, this space is around 6 - 7 inches (I haven't actually measured it yet).

But I don't think this is a limitation to quilting. For the last two weeks I've been quilting on a very small Janome HD 1000 with a 6.5 inch harp space and I haven't found this space to be terribly detrimental to quilting.

I believe the biggest reason it hasn't been a challenge to quilt on the Janome HD 1000 is because it's on a level surface with the table surface. It's much easier to move the quilt in general because I'm not pushing and pulling the quilt over the edges of the machine bed.

So I will definitely quilt on the Bernina 1230, but mostly plan to use this machine for piecing and applique. I always have two machines set up these days - one for piecing quilts and one for quilting. This way two projects can be going at a time and I'm not constantly having to switch out machines.

Now you might be wondering about my Janome Horizon 7700 - have we had a falling out?

Absolutely not, though it's hard to love a machine deeply when it's broken!

The catch spring on my Janome Horizon broke a few weeks ago and it turns out the whole tension unit in the machine has to be changed in order to fix this little bit of metal.

It's not all bad though. Since I have to drive all the way to Greensboro to get it fixed, we might as well have a workshop while we're at it!

I'll be teaching at Ye Olde Forest Quilt Shop on February 18th from 10 am - 3 pm. Give the store a call to sign up for the class and I'll see you next month!

I'm off to shut up and quilt on this new, old, new machine!

Leah

Torrent of Fear - Part 1

2012-01-20T15:16:00.000-08:00

Last week I wrote a long post about fear and how it can stop you from trying new things, including quilting your own quilts.

It's no secret that I've been thinking about fear a lot lately. Last year I was mired in a sea of fear and indecision that left me powerless to do anything but tread water. Looking back at those feelings and that stuck place, I'm able to see just how crippling this situation can be.

So it is that helpless, fear drenched state that is the theme for a new goddess quilt called Torrent of Fear:

When I sketched this quilt, I really wanted to include some positive aspect within it. An umbrella, a rainbow, a covered area that could protect the figure from that torrent of fear.

I liked the idea of shelter. Finding shelter, even if it's just a pink umbrella, to stop the fear from pounding down.

But after playing with the design for several days, I began to see that showing fear in all it's dark, soul-destroying glory was necessary. There is no shelter here, no positive light or redeeming quality.

This is exactly the way this type of fear feels. It doesn't feel like there is an end. When you're standing in that torrent of fear, you cannot move, you cannot create - you are stuck.

And if you let that torrent come down long enough, you will lose all your form: your beauty, your creativity, your intelligence. If you stand still long enough - you can lose everything.

For that reason, you may find this quilt unbearably dark and forbidding. You may find it too dark and painful to be beautiful.

But this is precisely why I need to make this quilt this way:

I want to SEE fear.

I want a visual representation of fear on my wall so I can look at it, and look within myself, and make sure I'm NOT that figure standing still, allowing fears to pound me into nothingness.

I want to look at that dark cloud and see the potential destruction it can bring into my life. I want to acknowledge it's power and it's presence because ignoring fear doesn't mean it goes away.

When I look at this quilt, it makes me ask questions.

Are you truly not in the mood to start that next quilt, or are you just afraid that something will go wrong with it?

Are you truly not able to cut that fabric up, or are you just afraid to cut it incorrectly?

Are you truly not able to pick a quilting design, or are you just full of fear for the outcome?

Fear stops us from making decisions, from being able to weed through all the many millions of options we have every single day and make a single, simple choice.

When we finally HAVE to make a decision, fear takes away our peace of mind (and our sanity) when it makes us question over and over "Is this right? Or is this better? Or maybe I should do this..."

But it doesn't have to be this way.

Fear is apart of our lives, but it doesn't have to rule us.

That's why I'm creating Torrent of Fear: to see it, to accept it, to acknowledge it's presence in my life, but to also set limits on what it is allowed to do under my roof.

No longer will fears to rule my parenting, my marriage, my business, or my quilts. No longer will I allow this emotion stick me in place and dissolve my ability to act, react, or create.

Which makes this quilt the perfect project to tackle a very big fear:

How to make a goddess quilt less complicated, time consuming, and difficult.

I've been afraid to tackle this challenge. I've been afraid of changing anything with the way I make this series of quilts, mostly for fear that the new, simpler quilts wouldn't stand up to the older ones.

I'm really afraid to hear someone say "I really like the way you USED to make these quilts."

This is the trick about fear - eventually you have to face it or risk getting stuck forever.

I can either continue to make crazy, densely quilted monstrosities that make me crazy, or I can face my fear and start making quilts the way I really want to make them.

So how do I want to make this quilt?

First off, I want to get it together quickly. I can't take 3 months to get this quilt top together! Looking at my schedule for the rest of this month, I really need the quilt top completed in less than a week.

I also want to quilt much faster and more efficiently too. No more dense, cardboard stiff quilts!

Speed is directly related to size. The bigger a quilt is, the longer it will take to make it. While I love big, over-the-top wall hangings, I've come to realize that a quilt can have just as much impact in a smaller size. The effect really has more to do with color and design than it does with overwhelming size.

So Torrent of Fear was sized at just 30 inches wide. After printing her out on just 18 pieces of paper (Emergence was printed on more than 100 pages!), I'm extremely satisfied with her size and shape. She actually fits on my large ironing surface!

So with those changes in mind, make sure to check back tomorrow to see Torrent of Fear in the flesh...er...fabric!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day

New Goal: 12 Goddess Quilts

2012-01-20T05:49:00.000-08:00

This year I've set a new goal for myself: 12 goddess quilts to be completed in 2012.

Now the first question you may ask is - Why?

In truth, I'm setting this goal for myself for several reasons. The biggest reason is simple: I want more quilts!

I've actually had ideas bouncing around in my head for more than 20 goddess quilts, but at the rate I'm going, they'll never get made!

I'm also wanting to force myself to quilt every single day. I'm already quilting much more than I did last year, but there are still days that I could be quilting that end up stuck on the computer instead.

And the most important reason: I want to release my goddesses series from the quagmire I've lock it into. Each quilt has been bigger and more ostentatious than the last. Most have been quilted so densely, they can practically stand up on their own.

While making the last two quilts, Hot Cast and Emergence, I caught myself several times asking "Why does this have to be so hard?"

Why does it have to be so time consuming?

Why does every piece have to be so perfect?

Why does the quilting have to be this dense?

So part of this goal is answering these questions truthfully: it doesn't have to be so hard.

A goddess quilt is just a quilt and there's no reason for it to be so time consuming, so perfect, or quilted so dense.

I was the one who was making it so difficult by placing too much importance on each quilt being capable of doing well at quilt shows, as though their only value to me was a ribbon or a cash reward.

But here's the really weird thing - I haven't been entering! I've had hundreds of opportunities to get Shadow Self, My Cup Runneth Over, Hot Cast, and now Emergence in major quilt shows, but I haven't even TRIED.

Eventually I've had to get honest with myself: these quilts mean far more to me than a ribbon or a big show win. They mean so much to me, I don't like the idea of putting them in a box and shipping them somewhere. I like them to be here, hanging on my wall, making my house pretty, making me smile.

So I'm not serious about showing these quilts. I don't want to show these quilts, I don't care if they have the capacity to win or not, it totally doesn't matter to me anymore.

Which means I definitely CAN make 12 goddess quilts in one year because it DOESN'T have to be this hard anymore.

No longer will I struggle for the unattainable: Perfection. This illusive mistress is no longer the object of my desire. Let someone else struggle and fret and drive themselves crazy for her seductive promises.

As I've said many times this week, and will likely continue to yell at the top of my lungs every chance I get:

Perfection is not the point!

Maybe if I say it enough, write it enough, repeat it enough, even I will learn this lesson!

The point is to create the quilt:
to capture the feeling and idea
and colors you're wanting to connect

- and then finish the damn thing so you can enjoy it.

The point is not to have a stash of fabric that could fill the Taj Mahal, but to have a stack of quilts to use and share and give away, and hang on the walls to enjoy.

The point is to leave your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with QUILTS to use and enjoy, not a hundred quilt tops that will remain folded in a closet, wandering from family member to family member in some strange grief charade.

In this spirit of finishing quilts that can be used, I'd also like to take a leaf out of the Modern Quilting movement and try creating a utilitarian goddess bed quilt.

I just have a hankering to curl up under one of my giant, flaming girls, but obviously need to loosen up my quilting stitches in order for the quilt to be soft and cuddly enough to sleep with.

I'd also like to lighten up on the psychoanalysis that seems to go on with each of these quilts. Yes, they're personal, but that doesn't mean they have to be such mind blowing drudgery to create.

As always, each quilt will have a theme, but not all will have a deeply personal connection. I'd like to make a goddess about fear, sadness, peace of mind, strength, anger, love and passion.

So that is my personal goal for 2012: 12 new goddess quilts.
That's one quilt per month, and as luck would have it, I've already started on the first: Torrent of Fear. Check back tomorrow for a play by play of how this quilt top came together in just 3 days.

Time to shut up and quilt, I've got a goddess to create!

Leah

Question Thursday #3

2012-01-19T06:16:00.000-08:00

We're moving right along with our free motion quilt along and it's super fun to go through all the linked up blogs to search for questions to answer here on Thursdays.

And I'm seeing loads of beautiful stitching! It's so wonderful to see your progress after just two weeks of working on stippling.

We have a wide variety of questions to answer today so let's get going! Pat at Color Me Quilty asked:

I was wondering what do you use in the bobbin when you use special threads on the top, such as metallic or some of the heavier weight threads?

This is a great question because very rarely will we put a specialty thread in both the top AND bobbin of our machine.

So here's my opinion when it comes to metallic and specialty thread:

Metallic - I mostly use Yenmet metallic thread which was designed to be used with Isacord thread. Because the two were designed to be similar, it's easy enough to use Isacord in the bobbin and the Yenmet metallic on top and find a balance between the two.

But here's another, slightly weirder, opinion: why not stitch with the same thread in the bobbin?

Seriously, what is the problem or issue with that idea? Mismatching thread causes enough problems on its own, maybe matching specialty thread will make using it easier? It's worth at least TRYING this idea.

Invisible thread - I'm not a huge fan of this stuff, but I have been known to use it. When I do, I use it in both the top AND bobbin of the machine.

Why in both places? Because if my tension is off slightly, who cares?! I can't see it and neither can you!

Heavier Weight Thread - I haven't had a ton of experience using heavy weight threads in the TOP of the machine. I did use quite a lot of Razzle Dazzle in the bobbin for Emergence and found the most important thing was to use a color in the top of the machine that matched well with the color in the bobbin.

It was also important to crank up the tension on the top to really pull that thick bobbin thread down onto the quilt. The top thread will end up showing up a bit no matter how high you set the tension, so just make sure the colors are somewhat balanced.

And this leads to one more important point:

Always match colors on the top and the bobbin.

You will do yourself the greatest favor in the world by just picking one color and going with it on both sides. Small tension issues, hiccups in the stitch quality, and other small details will be much less noticeable if the colors are the same.

I once got an email berating me over this opinion because I obviously didn't understand that the her quilt was red on one side and yellow on the back, and it wasn't a solution, in her opinion, to just tell her to use the same color thread on both sides.

I replied gently that it wasn't my fault she didn't make a good choice with the color of her backing fabric, and that this really is my solution to 90% of thread tension problems.

Which leads to another good point: PLAN AHEAD!

If your quilt is mostly red, plan to quilt it with red thread, and buy more of that red fabric to use as the backing. It will save you time, money, stress, blood, sweat, tears, and possibly your sanity!

Since we're on this subject of thread and stitch quality, let's go next to Tammy's plea for help:

I don't know if my hands are going to fast, my feet or if the tension is off. Please help Leah!!!

Tammy posted this picture of her stitching:

I see several things in this photo.

Right here in the blue circle, I see loops pulling much longer and tighter in a deep curve than in other places. This tells me maybe Tammy maybe needs to stitch a bit faster in these areas.

But I also see some stitches that are more balanced in the red circle.

Which means that something might have happened to the thread in her machine. It sounds crazy, but I can't count the number of times I've hit my spool of thread and knocked it sideways causing my stitches to go crazy.

I also can't count the number of times my bobbin has suddenly become possessed by demons. It stitched fine 5 minutes ago, but suddenly it's making a CLACKETY CLACKETY CLACKETY noise that's loud enough to wake the devil.

So here's a simple checklist if your stitches go suddenly, inexplicably ugly:

1. Rethread your whole machine. Take out the bobbin, take out the top thread. Start over from scratch and don't rush through it. It's really easy to miss guides when you're in a hurry and getting frustrated.

2. Change your needle. Chances are this wasn't the issue, but it never hurts. A bent or dull needle can wreck havoc with your stitches so it's always a good idea to change it when things get ugly.

Try stitching again after completing #1 and #2. Don't stitch anything super complicated - just try straight or slightly curvy lines.

Then try a deeper, stippling wiggle. Did the issue come back again? If you saw long loops pulling up in the deep curves, try speeding up your machine in these areas.

If the problems persist, try this:

3. Return to Piecing. Change all the settings of your machine back to how you have it set up for piecing and actually piece a few scraps together. Are you still having issues?

If you suddenly stop having issues chances are you are doing something - dropping your feed dogs, changing thread, changing feet, changing tension, changing SOMETHING that is screwing things up.

If your machine is still having issues with piecing and you CAN'T get the tension corrected by any means, chances are your machine is actually broken in some way and the best solution is to see a repairman.

However, most often your machine is NOT broken. Most often there's just a single issue stopping you from finding good looking stitches.

You'll need to begin the process of diagnosing the problem step by step.

The most important thing is to keep quilting. Don't let the loops beat you down! Don't let eyelashes best your spirit! Just keep trying it, keep playing with it, keep working at it until the pretty stitches surface.

One more note about stitch quality: I received this question from Kitty May on facebook:

Why don't my bottom stitches look as good as the top ones? I'm using the same thread, Aurifil.

This is a great question because the fact is - even my stitches look better on top than they do on the bottom. Seriously, out of all 365 of my little design squares, even the ones stitched on black fabric on both sides, I could flip it over and look at it closely and see which side faced up while it was quilted.

So this leads to another point: Stitch quality is always a work in progress.

Everyone is always working to have better looking, more balanced stitches, but it's not going to happen overnight, and it shouldn't be something stopping you from quilting your own quilts.

Please keep in mind that it is SUPER easy to obsess about tension issues, a wobbly stitch in the sea of perfect stitches, a slightly longer string of stitches - but think about when and where you're doing this obsessing: you're sitting at your sewing machine, with your face about 5 inches from your quilt, with bright lights all around so you can see every issue in clear focus.

You're going to see every mistake, but you really shouldn't berate yourself for them! Just keep quilting.

This is the main reason why I beg you to match your thread colors. It's really difficult, if not impossible, to get absolutely 100% perfect tension all the time while free motion quilting.

If you have red thread on top and yellow thread in the bobbin, chances are some of that is going to show on either side and it will drive you crazy. Do yourself a favor and:

- Match your thread color - save your sanity!

- Give yourself a break about thread issues - it's not worth agonizing over!

- Ignore the issues and GO QUILT - thread issues WILL become less, but ONLY if you keep quilting.

I really hope you don't take this as a flippant response. This is my truthful solution to 100% of small thread issues, even the ones I see in my own quilts. Perfection does not exist in free motion quilting, and you can drive yourself crazy searching for it.

One last note and I really will shut up about this:

There is a way to hide 90% of your thread issues, 100% of small line wobbles and noticeable starts and stops, and 80% of massive tension problems. It's a really simple solution:

Wash your quilt!

Seriously, you're agonizing over your quilt when it's flat and perfect and fresh off the machine. Of course the thread issues are going to be noticeable! All that thread is still sitting slightly on the surface of the quilt. It's not yet gotten happy and soft with the other fibers of the quilt.

So throw your quilt in the washing machine, crank the temperature up to HOT, then dry that sucker on the hottest setting in your dryer, and I bet you'll have to SEARCH for those issues you were so upset about when it's finished.

And we have time for one more question from Sisbabestitches about quadrant quilting:

I do have a question- if you start in the middle in the quandrant, where are you supposed to end? Are you supposed to join up with the beginning again? I kind of improvised an extra row and swung back to the middle cos my start line was just hanging there by itself in the center looking really obvious. Though maybe it was just me!!

This might sound a little crazy, but I SO understand where Sisbabestitches is coming from!

For all those type A personalities out there, the idea of a random loose end hanging out in the middle of a quilt is just...well...uncomfortable.

What if someone sees that starting point? What if they see how the quilt was quilted in rows? What if they see other starts and stops and pick apart the whole quilting experience bit by bit?!

This might sound crazy, but I DO THIS ALL THE TIME to myself!

I once decided not to add a border to a quilt because I didn't know how to miter the corners and thought everyone would look at the squared off corner and think it looked weird. I've killed quilt ideas because I didn't know how to piece it or applique huge pieces without seamlines. I've not quilted in certain areas for fear of covering up piecing lines, even if that line was joining two pieces of the same colored fabric. It's enough to make a person crazy.

For the record: no one really cares. If anyone even SEES that starting point of your line of stippling, they're not even going to look twice.

But if you really, really absolutely MUST know what to do with that starting point, here's a few solutions:

#1 - Join up with the starting line when the quilt is 1/2 way quilted.

Basically you'll start in the center of the quilt (red dot), and stitch rows to fill one quadrant, wiggle with more rows to fill the second quadrant, then connect your line of stitching to the starting point.

Break your thread, then start again along the edge of your quilt (blue dot). This new starting point will be cut off when you square your quilt and attach binding so no one will ever see it.

#2 - Split the quadrants and then join up:

This is a slightly different way to quadrant quilt because you first stitch rows from the center to each side, then back into the center to break your quilt up into 4 equal pieces. Because you're able to quilt to each side of the quilt, the center section will be knocked out quickly and you can easily join back up with that starting point.

Again break thread here and start stitching again on the edge the quilt, stitching a row back into the center of the quilt to fill each quadrant. This way the loose end will be on the edge of the quilt and visible in the center.

#3 - Disguise the Starting Point:

Your starting line doesn't have to just start and wiggle straight into stippling. You could stitch a loop or a tear drop shape instead and this will hide the starting point a bit better in the rows of quilting.

#4 - Show off your starting point:

This is the exact opposite of #3. If you're going to quilt your own quilts, why not get credit for it?! Start with a giant spiral, a massive ripple heart, a cluster of pebbles, or big grinning smiley face to add an element to your quilt that no one else has.

Think of it like your signature - your own unique way to start your quilting process, and something your kids and grandkids will look for with fondness on your quilts.

Ultimately I hope you can see that there's really no wrong way to do this!

Quadrant quilting is meant to make quilting your quilts easier and less time consuming or confusing. It's not meant to cause more stress or frustration!

But if it seriously doesn't work for your brain - if you really like quilting in circles or quilting randomly - keep doing it!

There's really only one rule this year:

Find what works.

And I guess that means there's also a second rule this year:

Go DO it!

If something works for you, shut up and go quilt that way. If it doesn't work for you, keep asking questions until you find something that does work.

It's time for me to shut up and quilt!

Leah Day

Quilt Along #3 - Playing with Scale

2012-01-18T07:47:00.000-08:00

Let's move on to our next quilt along lesson! Today let's talk about Scale.

Scale describes the size of the design on your quilt and how far apart the lines of quilting are on the surface.

This has been something many quilters have asked about over the last few weeks so let's spend a week focusing exclusively on it. See how this works in this Quilt Along #3 video:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Now let's sum up what we've learned:

Quilting on a big scale (1 inch or bigger) means your quilting lines are quite far apart and the design is very open. A quilt quilted with a large scale design will be very soft and cuddly:

Big scale quilting is also much faster and requires less thread to cover your quilt.

Quilting on a small scale (1/4 inch or smaller) means your quilting lines are closer together and the design is much more dense. This means the design will stand out and show off more on the surface of your quilt, but it will also make the overall quilt stiffer:

Small scale quilting is also much more time consuming and uses loads of thread.

There is also a happy middle ground between large and small scale quilting. If you quilt on a 1/2 inch scale your quilt will still be soft and comfortable, but the quilting lines will also be close enough together that the quilting lines will stand out and add to the overall quilting design:

The trick with scale is consistency.

If you want your quilt quilted on a 1 inch scale so it's soft and comfortable to sleep under, obviously you're going to be pretty miffed if you suddenly start quilting it on a 1/4 inch scale and it becomes as stiff as cardboard.

Likewise if you're quilting the borders of a wallhanging on a smaller scale, chances are you really want to maintain that small scale throughout and not leave giant open gaps within your quilting design.

While it might not feel like it, scale is something you can learn to control and you can maintain evenly throughout a quilt. The key is having something to look at that will keep the size of the design in your mind.

I call these touchstones or guides. It's just a small item that is as big as the scale you're wanting to stitch. As you can see from the photos above, each scale was quilted using that object as a visual guide to keep the design consistent.

It can be as simple as looking at the width of your finger or thumb (1/2 inch scale), or an empty spool of thread (1 inch scale), or a marking pencil (1/4 inch scale).

Having an object to look at will keep that correct size and scale in mind. You can even hold your touchstone against the quilting you've done to make sure the lines are roughly staying the right distance apart.

The location of your hands on the surface of the quilt also have a lot to do with the scale of the design.

Your hands will generally be right around your needle no matter what scale you're stitching, but when stitching on a bigger scale you will likely find it easier to have your hands slightly further apart.

When stitching on a smaller scale, you don't need to move as much of the quilt so your hands will come closer together and closer to the needle.

If you suddenly start seeing your scale change, pay attention to where your hands are on the quilt:

- If you suddenly find yourself stitching on a much bigger scale, check your hands. If you've widened the space between your hands, it's likely feeling really easy to swing that quilt around in big sweeping movements.

Replace your hands on the quilt, take a look at your guide or touchstone and return to your chosen scale.

- If you find yourself suddenly stitching on a denser, tighter scale ask yourself what has just happened. Chances are you've brought your hands closer together and you're not able to move the quilt as quickly to create the larger scale design.

Widen your hands, take a look at your touchstone, and return to the scale you were working on.

Check out the two mistakes in this photo above. Which is more noticeable to you?

Personally I find the cluster of denser stitching in the left side much more noticeable than the area of more open quilting on the right.

Please understand that no quilt is perfect. If your stitching suddenly gets wider or smaller, don't rip it out. Return to your proper scale and keep quilting. It's not a deal breaker and it won't ruin your quilt!

Now you may wonder - what is the best scale to quilt on?

In truth, this is different for every quilter and really for every quilt. Personally I think you should learn how to quilt on a variety of scales so you will be able to quilt a variety of projects.

Being able to quilt on one scale and only one scale can get very boring and repetitive. It's very nice to be able to switch scales depending on what you're working on and how dense you feel like stitching.

This leads to another important quilting question:

How far apart should your quilting lines be?

It honestly doesn't depend on how the quilt is pieced or designed or the intended use of the quilt, but on the batting you use in the middle.

All battings have a rating. Somewhere on the package it will say "Quilted up to 4 inches" or some other number. This means you need to make sure you have lines of quilting at least 4 inches apart, otherwise the batting could shift inside the quilt, making it lumpy.

Back in the day when we didn't have needle punched batting, we had to hand quilt upwards of 20 stitches per inch simply to keep the batting in place. These days with modern technology and battings that are engineered not to shift, we definitely don't have to quilt that dense.

We now have battings that can be quilted as far apart as 12 inches! That means you could literally quilt your quilt with lines 12 inches apart and call it done.

Not all battings have such a huge rating however. It's important to always check the packaging and note what it says. If you were planning on quilting a quilt on a 2 inch scale (2 inches between all the lines of quilting), but the batting said "Quilting Up to 1 Inch," you'd better either switch batting or stitch that quilt on a 1 inch scale.

This is a pretty important issue because one of the main questions I'm asked about quilting is "How much quilting does my quilt need?"

The true technical answer is: as little as your batting needs.

You don't have to quilt the snot out of your quilts unless you really want to! There isn't a right or a wrong way to quilt a quilt and there isn't a magical scale that works perfectly for every project.

The key is looking at your quilt and deciding how much quilting it needs based on how much TIME you want to spend on it and how much MONEY you want to spend on thread!

So that's it for this week! Take a few days to play with stitching several rows of Stippling on a big 1 inch scale, on a small 1/4 inch scale, and a medium sized 1/2 inch scale.

Don't forget to link up your progress from last weeks Quilting in Rows below!

Instructions for Linking Up Your Blog:

1. Write your blog post. Publish it on your blog.

2. Copy the link of the specific blog post. This is not just the link to your blog itself (www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com), but the link to the specific post: http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/01/quilt-along-2-quilting-in-rows.html

3. Click the blue link up button above and paste your link into the box.

Keep in mind that you're posting your progress from LAST week on THIS week's post. This way you have time to watch the lesson, play with the ideas, then post your progress to the next quilt along. I hope that makes sense!

As always, any questions you have, please post them in the comments below or on your blog and I'll answer 5 tomorrow on Question Thursday.

Time for me to shut up and quilt,

Leah Day

Finding Time to Quilt

2012-01-17T07:33:00.000-08:00

Are you having trouble finding the time to get on your sewing machine this week?

After writing yesterday's post on fear I realized a big reason why I didn't quilt a lot last year was because it just didn't feel FUN to be on the machine. Every time I sat down all the different worries and indecision would stir up and I'd practically run out out of the room just to escape it all.

Working on this quilt along each week is certainly kicking my butt into gear and back into the studio on a daily basis, which is exactly what I'm wanting.

But how about you? Are you finding this easy and fun, or a dreaded torture session?

Part of the reason why it might feel like torture is because it either doesn't feel fun, or it feels like practicing free motion is taking time away from your other projects.

We all have busy schedules and lots of things to do, yet we're all quilters who need a certain amount of time working with fabric in order to be happy!

The trick is finding time to do it ALL: time to work on the projects you're really passionate about AND get a chance to practice some free motion work too.

So here's a list of 5 things you can do to have more time for quilting:

1. Stop cleaning so much - Will the world really end if there is dust on the TV stand? Will your house be reduced to cinders if the dishes don't get washed? Will your kids become delinquents if they have to wash their own laundry? No, no no!

I decided long ago that getting a quilt top together was far more important than if my house was clean and tidy. While it's no fun to live in a pigsty, a little dirt never hurt anyone. If it's a choice between 30 minutes to quilt or 30 minutes to vacuum the floor, pick quilting this time. Chances are the floor will just get dirty tomorrow anyway, so why bother cleaning it today?

2. Turn off the TV - Not everyone will agree with me on this one, but I find TV to be the biggest waste of brain power and time in our modern lives. Keep a journal this week and keep track of how many hours you watch TV. Think about how even half of those hours could have been spent if you'd been quilting instead of watching TV.

Turn it off for an entire week and take that time to quilt instead. Chances are you'll feel better and accomplish a lot with quilting at the same time.

3. Balance Responsibilities with your Spouse - I can't count the number of times I've met a quilter who's said something like "I don't have time to quilt in the evening because by the time I pull out my machine and get everything set up, it's time to make dinner."

I always want to ask - Why can't your husband cook? Why can't your kids take a night to learn how make a meal? Why do YOU always have to drop everything to feed your family?

Maybe it's because I'm from a different generation, but I would resent my husband if he expected me to put a meal on the table every night. We take turns and balance this responsibility and many others so we both have time for the hobbies we enjoy.

4. Create a Dedicated Quilting Space - If you have to pull out a machine from the closet, pull out your project from a bin, spread everything out on the table, plug in your machine, sit down, get comfortable - all in order to be able to take a single stitch - how likely are you to do this on a daily basis? Wouldn't it be easier to just be able to walk into a room and turn on a light and turn on your sewing machine?

A dedicated sewing space doesn't have to be huge. This is a photo of my sewing and quilting space in the apartment Josh and I lived in before buying our house:

I had literally 4 feet of space to sew in. There wasn't any other option in our 500 square foot apartment - this was it! So instead of bemoaning my lack of space, I optimized it. I installed drawers in the tables, built shelving on the wall, searched for and found furniture that fit perfectly into the space.

Even though it was small, I loved that space because it was the first time in my life that I could walk up to my sewing machine, turn it on, and start sewing. I didn't have to pull it out of the closet or plug it in - it was always ready to go.

5. Have a Dedicated Prep Day - Just like with cooking, having a day to get the dull, necessary tasks out of the way is a big help for the rest of the week or month. Use this day to clean up your space, hang up and organize your fabric, pull out fabrics for your next quilt and get them prewashed and ready to go.

Also use this day to baste whatever quilt or practice sandwich you're playing with this week. You can save even more time by making several practice sandwiches at once. This way it's as easy as pulling out a practice sandwich and starting to quilt.

The less work involved GETTING to the task
means you'll spend more time DOING the task.

Whew! I guess there really is one more tip for finding more time to quilt - GET OFF THE COMPUTER! LOL!

It's high time I shut up and cleaned up my quilting space. See you tomorrow for Quilt Along #3!

Let's go quilt,

Leah

Quilting Without Fear

2012-01-16T05:31:00.000-08:00

Fear.

This elemental emotion has been with us forever. It helped us survive when we were living in caves, always driving us to run fast or fight hard. We can't escape our capacity to feel fear because it's hardwired into our brains. Without our fight or flight drive, we wouldn't have lasted long on this earth.

But these days we don't have such simple fears that they can either be run away from quickly or bludgeoned with a club.

Sitting at my computer I've been thinking about fear a lot lately. It seems in exchange for the comforts of modern, civilized life, we now have to deal with a new sort of fear. It's the slow, insidious fear that creeps in under the door and slowly encircles your ankles.

These simple fears don't seem like a big deal in the beginning - worry over your kids/grandkids getting hurt, concern over the economy, or stress over which fabrics to pick for your next quilt.

They seem simple enough, but if allowed free reign to grow and manifest, these fears can drive you to do crazy things like not letting your child outside to play, hording canned foods just in case the world ends next week, or stalling out your next quilt project simply because you can't pick the colors.

The more I think about it, the more I see that our modern fears are all things we can't easily fight or fly from, so it makes sense that, for our brains at least, it's difficult to know how to react when a fear goes from just a small worry to a life-controlling obsession.

So how does all of this relate to quilting?

I've been watching and reading many blogs over the last two weeks and it seems the one thing stopping most quilters from even TRYING free motion is just simple fear.

What if I mess up this quilt?

- Use a practice sandwich so you're NOT quilting on a real quilt that took many hours to piece. It's just batting and fabric and thread after all. It's not going to sit up and yell at you.

What if I'm really bad at free motion quilting?

- Chances are you will see some ugly stitches, but this is totally normal. It will also feel weird because you're using your machine in a different way. Neither of these things mean you're particularly bad or good at free motion. You're just starting! Give yourself a break!

What if I never get the hang of it?

- If you put time and effort into practicing this skill, you will see an improvement every time you quilt. Fear of being bad at it, or never improving is just not logical. The more you work at it, the better you will get.

Are you starting to see a pattern here? No matter what little worry comes into your head, there is a logical argument to counter it.

Logic is the enemy of fear. You will not be afraid of illogical things if you only look at them in a logical way.

If you allow it, fear will stick you in place, stop you from trying and doing the things you want to do.

I know this all too well because last year I allowed fear to squash me flat. This time last year all 365 designs were stitched out and I had an ENTIRE YEAR to plan and create what was coming next on this blog.

But what did I do? I allowed fear to enter the equation and it stuck me in place.

For an entire year I stressed and worried and had many good ideas, but I couldn't actually START on any of them!

Every time I had an idea about what to do, fear would start asking questions. What if everyone hates this idea? What if I don't do it right and everyone is confused? What if I can't get all of x,y, z done in time?

Never before in my life have I used the word Procrastination to describe myself. I wasn't intentionally treading water, wasting time, but that is exactly what was happening because I couldn't make a decision.

I was stuck. Fear stuck me in place. No movement. No forward. Just STUCK.

It was only in the last week of the project that I finally forced myself to make a decision. I was still so consumed by my illogical fear that I was sure, absolutely positively sure, that you would all hate the way I was changing this blog.

I sat waiting for dire emails lambasting my need for change, criticizing this new quilt along idea, and demanding a return to the way the project was. It just proves how illogical my fear was - I never received even ONE nasty email this year.

As the first and second weeks have gone by, I've slowly unbent from the curled, squashed position my fears put me in last year. I conquered the fear in the end by coming to this realization:

Nothing could possibly be worse than being stuck in place by fear.

All the most terrible and nasty emails in the world were not as bad as the feeling of being pummeled by illogical fears. To make the feeling even more visual, I sketched this drawing of a goddess under a torrent of fear (that's a rain cloud above her by the way, not a bundle of balloons!):

Something about having a visual image made me realize I couldn't stand this stuck feeling for another second.

Finally I just said - Shut up and go quilt Leah and you'll figure it all out later.

Shut up because all these worries are illogical.

Shut up because you don't need to ask any more questions.

Shut up because the answers will come, but ONLY from behind a machine.

Shut up and MOVE beyond this stuck place!

So if you're feeling particularly stuck, held in place by all the many questions and worries and fears that come with free motion quilting, consider for a second what this state feels like.

Consider the chains holding you in place, the ropes tying you to one spot, all the pull and weight of that fear reigning down on your back.

And now consider the fact that you can MOVE out of this place of fear by taking a single step:

Go quilt.

;-)

Leah

Awesome Article in Quilters Newsletter Magazine

2012-01-15T05:15:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I received an email from Bill Gardner with interest in doing an article in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. Articles are always interesting because there's a good bit of back and forth with photos and content, then a LONG wait, then finally, the article comes out in print.

But this article in particular was definitely worth waiting for!

This article can be found in the February / March 2012 issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine.

This is a really wonderful article and I'm so pleased with the way Bill put it together. I took a chance with the interview questions and candidly discussed the issues and themes of a few of my goddess quilts.

I actually said the words abuse and alcoholism and mentioned my inner negative voice and this was included in the article. Words like that are kind of like jack-in-the-boxes. Once they're out, you can't put them back in again!

Since reading it, I've been asking myself if this is the right thing to do. Am I too open? Am I too honest? Should I maybe start editing my personal history so it's not so dark and gritty?

But upon further reflection, I'm always happy with my honesty. There's a freeing quality to saying something aloud that might have previously stayed tucked away inside.

So I have to say of all the articles I've contributed to, I'm proudest of this article.

It also happens to be the prettiest, with My Cup Runneth Over, Shadow Self, Winter Wonderland, and Release Your Light all gracing the pages along with many designs from this project.

So if you don't have a subscription and would like to read the article, keep an eye out for copies of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine this month!

Let's go quilt,

Leah

Question Thursday #2

2012-01-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

Whew! I don't know about you, but I'm LOVING this Quilt Along! Seeing all of you link up throughout the day and seeing your progress first hand just makes me smile, smile, smile.

For the record, EVERYONE that has linked up so far (13 awesome bloggers) and shared progress is doing awesome on stippling. Seriously, you guys are ready to be quilting that design on real quilts!

And yes, I plan to read at least the first 10 blogs that link up (and more as time allows), and I'll comment if I can figure out how to (some blogs are a bit confusing!)

Keep in mind that we're running the linking up part always a week behind so you have plenty of time to work on the design, write a post on it, and then link up on the following Wednesday. So next week we'll link up about quilting in rows. I hope that makes sense!

One theme that ran through many blogs is the desire for perfection. I'm glad I'm not the only person that obsesses about perfect stitches, but here's the thing:

You're a lot harder on yourself than anyone else will be.

Several times while reading different blogs, I'd have to scroll back up to stare at a photo, trying to see all the issues the blogger mentioned in the post. I had to SEARCH for the issues, and I had trouble finding them!

When you make a mistake or have a problem area on a quilt, YOU know where it is and your eyes zero in on it. But is it that obvious to the whole world? No!

So you may have hooks or flat areas or sharp points in your stippling, but these are SLIGHT IMPERFECTIONS. They are not deal breakers. They will not ruin a quilt.

My yoga instructor, who happens to be pregnant right now, said something really interesting last week. We were in a particularly difficult stretch and she was reminding us to be gentle with our legs. She said "Please be nice to your hamstrings here. Imagine they are MY legs you're stretching. You wouldn't hurt a pregnant woman, would you?"

So rather than flay yourself alive when you see an imperfection, imagine it's your best friend's quilt. What would you say to her if she showed you that quilt? Say those kind words of encouragement to yourself and build yourself up rather than tear yourself down.

Kris R also shared a yoga quote on her blog from the Yoga Sutra - “cultivate patience and self-compassion by reminding yourself that insights and change will come in their own time with continued diligence.”

Time, patience, compassion, and a certain blindness - or at least a willingness to ignore - imperfections will all help with this learning process. Now everyone give yourself a big compassionate hug and let's get to the questions!

The first question for this week comes from Pat at Color Me Quilty:

How do you get up close to the edge of the quilt and still control the stitching?

This is a really good question because the edges of your quilts are potential minefields of issues. You might be quilting along just fine in the middle of a quilt, but get right on the edge and suddenly your design will go out the window along with stitch quality as the edges shift and wiggle under your hands.

But this is NORMAL!

You're on the edge of your quilt so you should have a few inches of batting and backing fabric under your hands, but the quilt will end and stabilization of all 3 layers stacked together ends with it.

So here's a few solutions. There are probably hundreds of ways to circumvent or fix this issue, but we'll start with just 2:

#1 - Don't quilt to the edges - Just don't to it. Add an extra 2 inch strip of fabric all around your quilt and mark a line right through the middle of it. Quilt to that line leaving 1 inch of fabric between you and the raw edge of the quilt at all times.

As you can see from my fabric samples of designs, this is how I quilted each 4 inch square - within a 6 inch quilt sandwich so I always had 1 inch of fabric all around the edges.

This extra inch of fabric gives you the added stabilization you will need. All three layers stay together beautifully and there's hardly any issues of the design going crazy because the quilt remains stable.

2. Cut wider borders - This is basically the same answer as #1, but an alternative method. Instead of adding an extra 2 inch strip to your quilt, which most quilters simply won't want to do, you can instead simply cut your borders 1 inch wider.

Again, mark 1 inch inside the edge of the quilt top and take your stitching to the LINE, not to the edges of your quilt.

This is my favorite solution because I can't count the number of times I've quilted my free motion foot over and under and INTO my quilt top. I can't count the number of times I've gotten so stuck on a quilt edge I had to break thread, usually ready to tear my hair out the whole time.

It's annoying and frustrating and just not necessary. Make your life easier and less complicated by NOT quilting to the edges of your quilts.

Note to Extra Stubborn Quilters: if you absolute, positively, MUST quilt to the edges of a particular quilt top, use your hands to really flatten out the space you're stitching, then quilt OVER the edge of your quilt top into the batting.

This area will be cut off when you apply your binding, but your design will remain more consistent and you should be able to maintain more control, but only if you really FLATTEN everything with your hands.

I work from right to left, always smoothing the quilt out, flattening out the edge so it's squished down and not flipping up for my foot to catch on. Then I carefully stitch over the edge and into the batting, then back over the quilt, keeping the design simple, but consistent.

Pat of Color Me Quilty also asked for advice on quilting a sampler quilt she's just made:

What a pretty pink quilt Pat!

When it comes to picking designs to go into your quilt, get the quilt top completely together, then take a photo of it and print out many copies.

Then sit down at your kitchen table and PLAY! Draw many designs and play with a variety of ideas. If you do decide to add that 2 inch sashing, maybe try filling it with a single row of stippling.

Now for the next question from Kris at Coloring Outside the Lines:

Any tips or tricks for quilting bigger quilts?

Oh yes! We're going to get into a lot more detail with this next week, but for now here's three tips that can help:

1. Don't roll your quilt - Personally I find rolling my quilts under the machine arm just makes them really hard to move around. Instead I squish them into the space and tuck most behind the machine. You can see a video of me demonstrating this method right here.

2. Knock out the center first - The center is the hardest part because it's...well...in the center. As soon as you knock out that section though, the rest of the quilt will get easier and easier to quilt.

3. Hang your quilt from the ceiling - This tip won't work for everyone, but if you have a setup that allows it, suspending the bulk of your quilt from bungee cords and clamps will really make things easier to move and quilt. You can read a detailed article on how to do this right here.

Next two questions from Marie at Marie's Creative Space:

Thread: Do you have a favorite thread? Are there any threads that you would NOT use for this?

I look for 2 things with thread: strength and thinness.

A thread must be strong so it can go through the machine and withstand the speed and movement of free motion quilting. While I'm not a "pedal to the metal", super high speed fan, free motion quilting is, in general, stitched at a faster speed than piecing or applique.

For free motion I'm also looking for a thin thread. This is more of a personal, aesthetic choice. I want my quilting lines to look like a fine pen line on the surface of the quilt, not a chunky crayon.

This is not as important with Stippling or the designs we will learn this month because there's no travel stitching involved with these designs. It's just a single line wiggled around your quilting space. At no time do you stitch back over your stitching (travel stitching) with stippling.

However, as soon as we start travel stitching later this year, the thickness of your thread is going to seriously matter. You simply cannot travel stitch a super thick thread multiple times - it will built up too heavily on the surface of the quilt and break.

A thinner thread can be travel stitched multiple times. If I need to pass through an area 5 or 6 times with a design, I can. I might not always USE this ability, but it's very nice to know that I can do this and not risk a thread break every time.

Now for all of my videos so far I've been using Isacord Polyester Embroidery Thread.

I love this thread because it's thin, it's strong, and it stitches beautifully. What more can you ask for?!

Yes, this opens us up to the giant debate about cotton vs polyester threads on quilts. So far I've been using Isacord on all of my quilts, bed quilts and show quilts for almost 3 years and had no sign of any issues. James's quilt in particular has been washed around 1 million times and is still in great shape.

I've written in depth about using polyester thread in my quilts right here.

Isacord is my favorite brand and type of thread, but occasionally I'll use YLI Variations because this variegated thread is so beautiful and gently variegated.

I've also just tried Aurifil's Polyester Embroidery thread because Alex Veronelli was kind enough to send me a few spools to play with. After playing with this today I'd say it's very similar, if not totally identical to Isacord - strong, beautiful, and super thin. I really, really like this thread!

If you're still absolutely stuck on cotton, look for a cotton thread that is SUPER strong, but also very thin. I've also been playing with Aurifil's long staple 50 weight Egyptian cotton today and I've gotta say, it's pretty nice! It's not quite as thin as the polyester, but it seems strong enough to do the job in the test I stitched through today.

Do you notice a theme with this? All of these threads are very high quality. That is the key.

Here's another key:

When you are starting out, use the same thread in the top of your machine and in the bobbin.

I wrote this huge because it's such a huge point! Don't mismatch your threads! Don't use cheap thread from the bargain bin in the bobbin and think you can get away with it! It won't work!

It creates so many tension issues, so many thread problems, and so much frustration. Just save yourself some sanity and MATCH YOUR THREADS!

Yes, many professional quilters mix different threads together and create beautiful quilts. That is something to move into AFTER you've mastered the basics.

Is there a thread I wouldn't use for free motion quilting? Hmm...yes and no, and keep in mind that all of this is VERY opinion driven. There are a lot of threads I've tried and I won't use again because they broke constantly and looked bulky on the quilt surface. I've kept these threads and still use them for piecing and applique where they work great.

I'm generally willing to give all threads a try at least once, but I do have a bit of a prejudice against rayon threads. I've seen them bleed colors too many times for me to trust them on the surface of a quilt that needs to be washed often. Again, that's just my opinion!

If you get a hold of a thread that breaks constantly no matter what you do with it, throw it out! Cotton threads especially can go bad, and who knows how long that spool was sitting on the shelf in the store?

That leads to my last rant about thread: bargain bin thread is best left in the bin.

Don't buy it. I know it's 2 for $1 and that's just such a good deal, but baby - that thread is crap. Leave it in the bin and invest in thread that will truly last the test of time and a thousand washes.

Now for Marie's second question:

Do you have a favorite needle?

This is another very opinion driven detail of quilting. Everyone has a favorite needle, but mine might work great for everyone. Just keep that in mind and try things as you want and need to.

Here's the deal: I got started sewing professionally as a seamstress in 2005 and began running through upwards of 5 needles a week. I had to buy in bulk so I picked the needle that generally worked for just about everything - a Schmetz Universal 80/12 needle.

So even after I quit sewing garments, I had a lot of these needles laying around and kept using them. I still use them today and love them.

The one exception is metallic thread which I quilt with a Schmetz Metallic needle.

Is this the best needle to use? Hard to say.

All quilters are different! The best thing to do when it comes to needles is try out a few and see what works best for YOU and YOUR MACHINE.

I'm just not into the idea of constantly changing my needle depending on what I'm doing. Maybe this is lazy, but I just don't see why I should change needles ever time I switch from piecing to applique to quilting. I didn't switch needles when I went from knit fabrics to rayons to cottons, so why should I change needles constantly now?

The key here is to find what works and use it. Once you find what works, stop searching!

So that's it for today! I really need to shut up and quilt so I have something cool to show you next week!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day

Quilt Along #2 - Quilting in Rows

2012-01-11T05:36:00.000-08:00

After a full week of playing with simple stippling shapes, how are you feeling? Confident? Energized? Frustrated? Ready to chuck your sewing machine at me?

I'll probably say this a million times this year, but I don't think I can say it enough:

Practice is essential for learning free motion quilting.

If you're frustrated and annoyed, of course take a break, pour yourself a glass of wine and relax by piecing or appliqueing. Just do something that really puts you into a good mood.

But don't give up completely. Come back to your free motion quilting when you're calm and have managed to bring your shoulders down from around your ears. Come back to it when another thread break won't send you into a screaming fit.

That might sound a bit hysterical, but I certainly remember the many times I had to step away from my machine in the beginning. When my thread repeatedly, and for no apparent reason, continued to break over and over and over again. Or if it didn't break it just made a god awful mess on the back of the quilt.

I would step away, but I would always come back because I refused to let free motion quilting beat me. You have to have this attitude too: tenacious, determined, teeth gritted against the scary sight of ugly stitches.

In the words of my marching band teacher in high school: "If you're not there now, GET THERE!" (That goes for both your location in relation to your sewing machine AND your attitude!)

Now that's enough of a pep talk, let's get down to business!

Last week in Quilt Along #1 we started out by going right back to the very beginning of free motion quilting with the first design most beginners stitch: stippling.

This week, we're still working on Stippling, but now let's focus on two things:

1. A more complex version of the design - lots more random wiggles.

2. Quilting this complex version two different ways into a quilt.

Let's see how this works in this Quilt Along Video #2:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

First let's talk about creating a more complex version of stippling. Essentially all you have to do is combine the simple shapes we learned last week into a comfortable pattern. If that means repeating the same Peace Sign shape over and over and occasionally throwing in a Lobster Claw, so be it!

Everyone's pattern is different, and just like writing your name, this is a personal thing. How many shapes you combine together and how complex your stippling looks is really up to you.

The point is to start PLAYING with it. Keep doodling at the kitchen table. Keep playing with these wiggly lines until you find something comfortable you can draw and stitch consistently.

Now let's talk about using this more complex version of stippling in a real quilt.

How do we use stippling in a real quilt? How do we take this wiggly design and get it on the surface of a quilt so it's consistent, it covers evenly, and we don't end up backed into a corner or stuck in a weird area?

Now a complex side of my brain points out that there are MILLIONS of ways to do this. As I said on Sunday in Quilting in a Real Quilt #1, there is no limit to the number of ways you can use these designs in quilts.

But a more rational part of my brain informs me that I can't teach you a million ways to stipple in a quilt in a 10 minute video. I'm going to have to simplify it!

So let's start with the two simplest ways to quilt stippling in a real quilt:

1. Randomly - Just wiggle around. No rules. No rhyme and definitely no reason. Just wiggle.

2. In Rows - Still wiggling, but in a comfortable row moving from the center to the edges of your quilt in a logical way.

First, let's talk about randomly stitching a design. For this method, you start in the middle of your quilt and you just stitch. Wiggle anywhere you want, in any direction you want, and with any combination of shapes that will look good on the surface of your quilt.

For many quilters, this method works wonderfully. The freedom to move without rules or restrictions is very freeing. It also allows you to fill random spaces, like around these large circles:

Now for the downsides: When you don't know where you're going, or how you're going to get there, how likely is it you will get lost along the way? Very likely.

Random stitching is just that - random. No rhyme and no reason, just wiggling around where the wind takes you. This means you can easily look down and find yourself stuck in an area you can't stitch out of without noticeably stitching over your lines. It's not the end of the world, but it's also not something most quilters will accept forever.

I'll honestly admit that I'm biased against this method. When I began free motion quilting, I only knew to stitch randomly over my quilts. I did this for years and I found it very tedious and very time consuming.

To prove this, I checked the recording time on both videos. I filled about 1/4 of a 24" block with both styles of quilting and the random stitching took 10 minutes while the rows stitching took 5.

Who wants to spend double the time AND risk getting lost or stuck along the way?!

But it's more than just speed, with random stitching I never knew where I was going. I never knew what was next, and I remember ripping out a lot of stitches when things didn't work right.

In essence, randomly quilting a design over my quilt didn't work for my brain.

I wasn't doing anything WRONG, it just wasn't working. It wasn't easy. It wasn't flowing. You may feel the same way when you try this, or you may not. The point is to try both methods and see what works best for YOU!

The wonderful thing is there is another method to this madness. A way to stitch designs over your quilt with a logical progression that always makes sense.

This is quilting your quilts in rows.

When you quilt in rows, you're taking your design, in this case a more complex version of stippling, and you quilt a row starting in the middle of your quilt and running to one side.

How big is this row exactly? It is as wide as you are comfortable with.

This really depends on the scale of the design. On a 1 inch scale (1 inch of space between the lines of stitching), I'm comfortable with a 3-4 inch row.

On a smaller 1/2 inch scale, I can only handle a 2 inch row as you saw in the video.

In an even smaller 1/4 inch or less scale, I usually stick to a 1 inch row.

The first step to practicing this method of quilting is to stitch some rows across a quilt. See what you're comfortable with.

Because you're quilting in a row, this means you now have a consistent direction to stitch in. If you're starting in the middle of the quilt, you can stitch to the right, moving the bulk of the quilt out of the machine arm, creating a solid row of stitching all the way to the edge of your quilt.

On the edge, you can wiggle your row down a bit, then stitch back, this time working to the left, or if that's uncomfortable you can rotate your quilt and stitch straight down, interlocking this 2nd row with the row before it.

Once back in the center, you know exactly where to go next. This is an A, B, C method where you always know where you're going and how to get there and what to do when you get there. There's no guess work with this method, and almost no risk of getting lost or stuck.

Here's a diagram of the way I stitched stippling in 1/4 of the practice quilt I was working on:

This particular method is called Quadrant Quilting, where you break the quilt down into 4 quadrants and quilt each one with rows of the design.

I've only filled a bit of this diagram so you can print it out and finish drawing over the lines. The arrows are intended to show you which direction you're moving in across the quilt. See how this feels as a drawing, then try it on a real quilt.

But this is not the only way to quilt with rows!

What is the sashing on your quilts? That is a space that can easily be filled with a single row of stippling.

What is the border on your quilts? Another space that can be easily filled with rows of a design.

I've been brainstorming quite a bit on this and so far found many ways you can apply the rows to you quilts. We will most definitely play and experiment with this more, but for this week focus on Quadrant Quilting and see what it feels like to quilt a quilt or a block from the center in rows.

This lesson also goes beyond just Stippling or Independent Designs.

More than 80% of the designs I've posted to the project can be stitched in rows.

This not only makes the designs easier to quilt, it also makes your quilting faster and more logical.

Again, not everyone needs this form of control or step-by-step breakdown for free motion quilting. For those that love it, randomly quilting in any ole' direction is great fun.

But for those who need firmer directions and paths to follow, quilting in rows is the most logical method to use.

So I hope you'll enjoy playing and experimenting with this this week! Now let's link up everyone's blog and get this quilt along officially started!

Directions for Linking Up:

1. Write your blog post. Publish it on your blog.

2. Copy the link of the specific blog post. This is not just the link to your blog itself (www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com), but the link to the specific post: http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/01/quilt-along-2-quilting-in-rows.html

3. Click the blue link up button above and paste your link into the box.

Keep in mind that you're posting your progress from LAST week on THIS week's post. This is why we didn't have a link on Quilt Along #1. This way you have time to watch the lesson, quilt in your studio, then post your progress to the next quilt along. I hope that makes sense!

As always, any questions you have, please post them in the comments below or on your blog and I'll answer 5 tomorrow on Question Thursday.

Let's go quilt!

Leah Day

WANTED: Ugly Stitches

2012-01-09T05:28:00.001-08:00

Houston, we have a problem.

You see, many books are published every year on free motion quilting and they have wonderful pictures of gorgeous quilting that makes all quilters droll with excitement.

But rarely, if ever, is a book published with what a beginning quilter can REALISTICALLY EXPECT at the beginning of this process.

Essentially - Where are the ugly stitches?

They happen to everyone. Just like mismatched seams in piecing, it's a normal learning process to get through. Many books will show a picture of an imperfect seam or wobbly applique, but so far I've never, ever seen a free motion quilting book with samples of real beginner issues.

So I'd like to fix this problem. I'd like YOUR ugly stitches!

I plan to use your samples in two way:

1. I will photograph your sample and share it here on the blog with advice for improving your stitches. This will not just help you, but also everyone in the world learn more about free motion quilting.

2. I might also publish a photo of your sample in a book with the same purpose: helping quilters understand ugly stitches are normal and to keep working at it.

In both cases, your name will be listed as a contributor to the project or the book, and your blog or website can be included too if you desire it.

And because these requests can get sticky, let me just make it clear that I'm not offering any monetary reward or bounty or stipend or cash or prize for contributing.

If you send me your ugly stitches, you are also agreeing to the terms that this is a piece of fabric that would have ended up in the trash and you're not going to sue me for a million dollars for photographing it and sharing it!

I know that sounds a bit crazy, but weirder things have happened.

So if you'd like to contribute and give me your ugly stitches, please mail them to:

Leah Day
P.O Box 386
Earl , NC 28038

UPDATE: Super Thank You to Cathy who commented and shared a link to a release form that will allow you to contribute easier and also protect me at the same time.

When you contribute a sample or a photograph of a sample, please fill out this release form.

If you contribute a sample, simply include the release form in the package you send. If you send me a photograph of your sample, please shoot a photo of your release form and include it with your email.

Email any photograph submissions to: support(at)daystyledesigns.com

(replace (at) with the correct symbol so your email will send.)

Thank you!

Leah Day

Playing with Speed

2012-01-08T16:01:00.000-08:00

Speed really seems to be the key with free motion quilting. The speed of your needle moving up and down has a large effect on how comfortable free motion quilting will feel and how good it will look.

If your machine is moving too slowly, your stitches will become very wide across your quilt. The wider your stitches, the less smooth and soft your curves will be.

Running too slow can also cause "tension" issues where your machine lags behind your hands so badly the bobbin thread pulls the top thread to the back of the quilt, creating loops that appear to be a really funky tension issue.

Likewise if the machine is running too fast, your stitches will become very small and dense. Anyone that has ever had to rip out stitches like this will know just what a pain in the butt they can be. They're so small they practically embed themselves into the fabric and have to be ripped out one by one.

Running too fast can also cause you to feel very out of control and overwhelmed by free motion quilting. If it feels like the machine is about to take off and run out of the room with you clinging to the back, hanging on for dear life, it might be a good idea to slow down.

So where is the happy medium?

Honestly this is different for everyone. Some people stitch with the machine running very fast, others stitch at a medium speed, and still others stitch at a slow speed.

The key with all of this is FINDING the speed you feel comfortable with, then matching your hands to that rhythm.

So here's a little exercise you can play with along with those lines of stippling:

Start stitching slowly and speed up slowly while stitching a row of designs.

Use your foot pedal like the gas pedal in your car. You don't just slam your foot on the gas do you?

SLOWLY put your foot down and SLOWLY increase your speed until you feel you've reached your comfortable limit.

While stitching your row also play with slowing down the machine, slowing down your hands and stopping with the needle in the down position. Reposition your hands, and slowly start stitching again.

Starts and stops are NECESSARY! You can't just stitch a whole quilt without stopping! You have to be able to slow down and stop, slowly speed up, maintain a steady speed, then slow down again.

Just like you drive a car, these are skills you find after playing with it a bit.

The first time you got behind the wheel of a car, chances are you mashed down the gas with a 16 year old's exuberance, but because you didn't have a lot of experience controlling the car and the speed at the same time, you quickly had to stomp on the brakes.

Sewing machines don't have brakes like a car, but here's a really cool secret:

When you take your foot off the pedal,
you will STOP stitching!

Shhh! Don't tell anyone I told you!

My silliness aside, this is a pretty important point. If you ever feel overwhelmed, like your machine is getting away with you, just take your foot off the pedal.

Now the second part of the equation is what your hands are doing: Moving your quilt under your needle.

Again, just like how fast you run your machine speed, how fast you move that quilt over your table top is a personal thing. Some people move it pretty fast, other people move it slow.

The key here is to get to the point where your hands and foot are in sync and creating a balanced stitch that isn't too big, isn't too small, and isn't getting wild during any particular part of the design.

The great thing about this practice exercise is this is the perfect week to play with this!

Take the simplest form of U shape stippling and run that across a practice sandwich in rows.

This form of stippling is very simple, but it still might take 5 rows or so before you become really familiar with it.

For the 6th row, stop focusing so much on your hands and instead focus on what your foot is doing.

At the beginning of the row, start slowly, pressing the foot pedal down slowly and steadily until you come to a comfortable speed.

Halfway through the row, slow down your machine speed and ask your hands to accommodate this speed change by also slowing down.

Stop with the needle in the down position and move your quilt around so you can see better. Begin stitching again, slowly increasing the speed of your machine and the speed of your hands until both are back up to normal flow speed.

Your aim here is to get comfortable with starts and stops and eventually get to the point where they are not obvious on the surface of your quilt. You might notice right now that when you stop and reposition your quilt, you have a bit of a wiggle or a jerky line as you get started again.

These are all normal signs of needing to stop and reposition your quilt. Don't let it bother you or frustrate you. It's normal to struggle with this until you get more practice.

Can you tell where I stopped and started? Yep, on the top of that big wiggle!

When you get to the end of your row, slow down again as you near the final stitch. How much better are you stitching this time?

Do this for several more rows! Getting more comfortable? Keep stitching the same line over and over again.

Get so comfortable with it, you're bored with it.

Then stitch it some more, always practicing your speed control over the design.

Eventually you will become so comfortable with certain aspects of the design that your hands will start moving faster through certain sections. I see this a lot, even with beginning quilters who claim to never have touched free motion before.

Certain shapes, certain angles, certain curves are going to feel very natural for your brain to create and your hands will automatically speed up in these areas because they're happy.

It's like your hands are saying "YES! I know this part! See, I can do it fast!"

You will notice these sections if you look at your rows and see wider stitches in the same areas through each design element. The wider stitched areas mean your hands were getting happy.

So try to make your foot happy too! Speed up your machine slightly to accommodate the speed of your hands in these areas, then slow back down as you stitch out of them.

As always, practice these ideas, but don't drive yourself nuts with them.

If you're feeling very confused and overwhelmed, just shut up and quilt and figure it out on your machine. It's really just thread and fabric and batting after all - it's nothing to get too worked up about understanding every minute detail before you try it.

Now I'm going to shut up and quilt too!

Leah

Quilting a Real Quilt #1

2012-01-08T06:02:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I received this question on the blog from Maresan:

I wondered when doing this on a real quilt where do you start and stop and does this depend on the size of the quilt?

I decided to not include this with Question Thursday #1 simply because I'd like the chance to go into more detail and ask for input from you as well. We all quilt differently, and so long as it works, these are all viable methods for getting the quilting stitches on a quilt.

I'd say my most general rule for quilting a real quilt is this:

I always start quilting in the middle of the quilt.

I do this largely out of habit. I was taught to baste my quilts from the middle, then quilt from the middle because the fabrics would evenly smooth out. Any extra fabric or batting would be pushed to the edges and not create puddles or pleats on the back.

I also like quilting from the middle because it knocks out the hardest part of the quilt first. Once the middle is complete, you'll have less bulk to squish under the arm of your machine and it's much easier to quilt.

Keep in mind that Wednesday's Quilt Along wasn't a real quilt. I was quilting on a practice sandwich, in which case you can start wherever you like. I worked from edge to edge along the narrow side so I could show each version of stippling in a row.

But now I'm going to get annoyingly vague: I don't plan to follow my "quilt from the middle" rule when it comes to modern quilts.

Why? Because I figure if I'm not following any set rule with piecing a modern quilt, why should I quilt it following any set rule either?

Modern Quilting, for me at least, is an act of total freedom of creation. Nothing is wrong. Anything goes. The piecing and the quilting should both reflect this idea, so for these quilts at least, I'm going to quilt them however I feel like it.

Which leads to a simple, rather overwhelming fact:

There are a million ways to quilt a quilt.

Way back when I created the How Do I Quilt This? Series, I began to realize just how many options you have with quilting a quilt. Part of the reason why I didn't finish that series is because it's scope was so embarrassingly limited from the beginning. I couldn't possibly show or teach even a quarter of what I wanted to with those 4 little quilts.

But now that we're a bit unfettered from the bonds of posting tons of new designs and I can start focusing more on this issue with detail.

These posts will be called "Quilting a Real Quilt" and we probably won't have them on any set day of the week, just whenever the mood strikes. Mostly this will give me a chance to look at quilt tops and share the options I see when it comes to designs and quilting order (where to start, where to go next, etc).

Keep in mind that with any particular quilt top, there's probably a million options when it comes to quilting it! I can't possibly show you ALL the ways you can quilt a quilt, but I can at least start to demystify this part of the quilting process.

If you remember WAY back to the very beginning of the project, you might remember a series of posts with the same goal. Again, my scope was a bit limited at the time, but they're still good posts for understanding how to quilt a real quilt.

Here's the links to all of these older posts all in one place so you can easily read each article:

How to Quilt a Sampler Quilt | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Sampler quilt created by Randi L and designed and taught by Annie Smith

How to Quilt a Log Cabin Quilt | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Log Cabin Quilt created by Meredith K.

How to Quilt Patchwork Quilts
Quilt created by Guilitta, designed by Bonnie Hunter

Enjoy these old articles dug up from the past, and remember with Wednesday's Quilt Along - whether it's in a real quilt or a practice sandwich, quilt your rows of simple stippling designs however it feels right for YOU!

I'm going to shut up and quilt now!

Leah Day

A Few Silly Stories

2012-01-07T08:10:00.000-08:00

Life around here is never boring! After writing Thursday's post I headed downstairs to work on more designs and I broke my machine. Here's a video I created right after:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

I figured that would be enough excitement for the week, but no...I decided Thursday night on the spur of the moment to stitch myself a new skirt. After finding this awesome set of skirt drafting tutorials from CrafttoVision, I designed and stitched a new skirt right before dinner.

I came upstairs brimming with excitement and yelled "Check out my new cool skirt!"

And Josh resplies "Who wallpapered your butt?"

Note: I seriously hope this doesn't offend Amy Butler who designed this fabric, but I literally laughed my butt off when he asked that. I absolutely love my skirt and plan to make more, wallpaper or not!

Let's go quilt!

Leah

2012 is THE Year for Free Motion Quilting!

2012-01-05T19:07:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or are we jiving with an awesome energy this week?! I'm just loving how our first Quilt Along Wednesday went and can't wait to see your progress next week.

But this is not the only place for free motion quilting tutorials this year! Sew Cal Gal is hosting a Free Motion Quilting Challenge right here on her website.

She's contacted 12 free motion quilting teachers (yes, I'm one of them!) to share a tutorial each month, and designed an awesome practice quilt for you to experiment with the designs you learn.

Here's the challenge part: If you sign up and take the Free Motion Quilting Challenge Pledge, and share your progress each month, you will be entered into awesome drawings for prizes!

So not only are you being encouraged to practice, you'll win cool stuff too!

Of course if you're not into that idea, you can still follow along with each tutorial at your own pace. The really nice thing about this program is it involves so many wonderful quilters like Patsy Thompson! Patsy and I met last year and really hit it off so I can't wait to see what she does for the December tutorial.

So far Frances Moore has shared a beautiful tutorial on a leaf quilting design. I really want to find out what kind of camera she uses. Her photos are GORGEOUS!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day

Question Thursday #1

2012-01-05T05:23:00.000-08:00

Thank you all so much for your wonderful response to our first quilt along post! While I knew this was the direction I wanted to move in, and I knew many quilters would enjoy it too, there's always a bit of fear about changing things too much and making people angry. But so far we haven't received even 1 negative comment - whoo hoo!

So today, and all Thursdays from here on out, are going to be devoted to answering questions.

Mostly I'll be focusing on answering questions that come from linked up blogs, but I'll also keep an eye on Facebook, YouTube, and the comments here.

So the questions for today are:

Do you use a stitch regulator?

No. I don't use a stitch regulator on any of my machines. I'm able to quilt fairly even stitches across my quilts because my ratio (the speed of my hands and the speed of my machine) is balanced, though now that I'm quilting bigger, I'm finding I need to focus on slowing down my hands, but keep my machine the same speed.

And since you asked, here's my lecture on the subject:

I think a stitch regulator COULD be a good tool for a beginning quilter, but ONLY if you use it understanding its limitations.

A stitch regulator is a tiny computer that looks at the speed of the quilt moving and it automatically increases or decrease the speed of the machine to accommodate the speed of the quilt.

When using a regulator, you don't use your foot pedal. Instead the stitch regulator sends signals to the machine and makes the needle go up and down faster or slower.

For a beginner just starting out, a stitch regulator could be extremely helpful because you won't have to work so hard to see pretty, balanced stitches. The regulator will create fairly good stitches from the beginning and as you get used to moving the quilt and forming a design, your stitches will get even better

The thing is - you are much smarter than this little computer.

You might not feel like it right now, but you are infinitely smarter and more talented than a stitch regulator. It just takes practice to find perfect stitches on your own, but once you have it, you really can't lose it.

You know and can prepare for a bend in you design by slowing down your machine. You know you get faster when you stitch a certain curve. A stitch regulator doesn't know this and sometimes they can lag behind. This creates a noticeable change in your stitches as the computer tries to speed up quickly to keep up with you.

This happens especially when you're stitching a design you've gotten very comfortable with. As you memorize the flow and pattern of a design, the faster you will be comfortable stitching it. Your hands will naturally move the quilt faster and faster, and if you were controlling your foot pedal too, your speed would naturally increase as well to maintain a balanced stitch.

But with a stitch regulator, you will eventually get to a point where your hands are moving faster and more fluidly than the stitch regulator can keep up with.

This is the reason I don't like stitch regulators: they are like training wheels that don't allow you to grow.

Training wheels on a kid's bike are designed to help them maintain balance and not fall over sideways because balancing a 2 wheel bike can be tricky the first time you do it. You put them on your kid's bike and after a few months he'll get the hang of balancing the bike and then you can take them off again.

A stitch regulator is similar because getting a balanced stitch with free motion can be tricky too. So it CAN be helpful, but only if you accept that one day you will grow out of this device and will need to take it off and quilt without it.

The problem is, I don't see this happening. I see quilters that shell out the money for one of these things so, By God, I'm going to USE it! What happens then is you have a quilter who's actually very good at free motion, but her stitches look bad because she's faster and smarter than the computer controlling her machine.

Keep in mind that this is my OPINION. There is no jury out of this verdict, no massive survey or voting campaign to log thousands of quilters feelings on this device. This is just little ole' me sharing my 2 cents, so if you have a sincere desire to try a stitch regulator, don't let me stop you.

My main issue is that they were so very, very expensive. I checked around this morning and found several for the eye popping price of $500 each. Had I needed to buy something like that when I was getting started, I would never have been able to afford it!

Out of all the machine manufacturer's, Bernina is the one that's really jumped on the stitch regulator bandwagon. The BSR foot is essentially a tiny stitch regulator with a handy foot to go with it.

I find it a bit irritating when I read or hear information about this device along the lines of "You can't free motion quilt without it!" or "It quilts your quilts for you!" That is SO not true. You will still have to spend time learning how to move the quilt smoothly with your hands, and you will still have a period of ugly stitches to get through.

A few months ago I got an email from a reader who sparked my interest in the BSR. She was struggling with it and was wondering if I had heard of this happening with anyone else. So I posted a question on facebook and got a sizeable response. (I'm still looking for this post, so I'll link it up when I find it!)

So I think that pretty sums up my lecture on stitch regulators! Let's move on...

Barbara J asked in the Understanding Free Motion Quilting Post:

I have a Brother machine that has a speed slider. I can disengage my foot pedal and only press a button to start sewing. It will go at the speed that you have set on the slider. So my question is if I can figure out a good balance of speed on the slider then I could only focus on my hand movements, won't that be half the battle won?

This is a really interesting question and right along the same lines as the stitch regulator so thank you for asking Barbara!

Here's the deal: Many new machines, especially those with computerization, now have a red or green button on the front. You might notice in some of my videos the little button on the front of the Janome Horizon that changes colors when I stop and start.

Basically on these machines you can unplug your foot pedal, hit this button and quilt at one set speed. You set this speed by moving the slider (slow, medium, or fast) on the top of your machine.

Is this a good way to practice? I have absolutely no idea!

After getting Barbara's question, I jumped on the machine and played with it a bit and here's my feelings:

First, the positive aspects of this idea: I think this could be a neat thing to play with because it basically takes your speed issues out of the equation. You won't have to worry so much about the speed fluctuating and messing up your stitches because the machine will be stitching at a steady, constant pace.

Now for the downsides: The biggest one is this could be dangerous. If you hit "START", your machine is stitching until you take your hand off your quilt and hit "STOP". Personally that scares the stuffing out of me because I know as soon as I take my eyes off the quilt to hit the button, I'll stitch through my other hand!

But my silliness aside, I think this could be a bit stressful. If you set your machine speed too high, you'll feel pressure to Go! Go! Go! and might not be able to move the quilt fast enough, or keep up with the design.

The reverse is also true - if you set the machine speed to slow, you....will....be....quilting....for...ever. That could get really tedious and boring really fast.

I do seem to remember one of the few times I played with a longarm at a needlecraft convention, the speed of the machine was controlled this way. You hit start and the machine just WENT. It didn't have a stitch regulator, just two speeds: slow and fast. I was actually able to produce some nice, even stitches that way and liked the experience.

So I'd say if you have the feature, it's worth playing with. Just be careful hitting start and stop! If you don't have the feature, don't go buy a new machine to get it.

Now for the next question:

M.E asked in the Memorizing Quilting Designs Post:

When practicing with pen & paper, should my hand be resting on the paper, and I'm mainly using my fingers? I'm thinking it might be better to use my whole hand to form the lines. Any thoughts?

Hmm...When I draw on a large scale, I make big sweeping movements with my whole hand across the page. When I'm sketching tiny fillers, I usually just use my fingers.

I'd say if you want practice at making the movements on a quilt, try using your whole hand and a big piece of paper or whiteboard. The movements will probably be more similar to how you will move the real quilt. Does that make sense?

On to the next question from YouTube:

In general, Leah, is your top tension set higher than the bobbin tension or does it depend on the thread, batting and frame of mind on any particular day?

Here's my feelings about tension: if your machine is piecing with nice tension, meaning if the thread is balanced and not producing loops on either side while you piece two 4 inch squares together with your piecing foot and your machine on all the normal settings, then it should be balanced the same way for quilting.

When I have students in class and their tension has gone out the window, I ask them to put their machine back completely to piecing and piece two squares together. If the tension returns to normal, I asked what they changed about their machine.

Here's the normal list: Dropped the feed dogs, put on this foot, started quilting.

So then we start eliminating culprits one by one. Instead of dropping you feed dogs, leave them up.

Next put on your free motion foot and take a look at it. Is it standing up too high on your quilt? If your foot is adjust too high, your thread can break or garble up on the back and get nasty. If it's set up too low it can squish you quilt, but chances are it won't effect the tension.

Now quilt a bit. Quilt some straight lines, then quilt some curves.

I honestly see more "tension" issues here than anywhere else. I say "tension" in quotes here because it's not really tension that's the problem - it's your speed and movement ratio.

If you're quilting a curve and your hands feel comfortable with the movement, they will naturally speed up. The problem is your foot might not react as quickly and your machine will be running too slow for the movement.

This will cause your thread to do some pretty weird things. Usually your bobbin thread will pull against the top, bringing it to the back of your quilt creating awful loops that look like a serious tension issue.

But it's not tension! Take a look at your quilt - do the tension problems consistently happen when you make a certain curve? If so, concentrate and focus on INCREASING your speed every time you stitch that shape. Chances are, your "tension" issues will be repaired!

More than anything else: DON'T LET TENSION ISSUES OR UGLY STITCHES STOP YOU FROM QUILTING!

We will all make ugly stitches this year. Don't let them defeat you! It is only by fighting through the dark forest of ugly stitches that you will make it to the castle of pretty stitches and save the princess of perfection....

Or maybe I'm playing Super Mario Brothers too much....

Note: I'd really love some photos of this to help illustrate what I mean. If you're having tension issues and don't mind sharing them, please shoot a photo of the front and back of your quilt sandwich and send it to me. I'll not only diagnose your problems, I'll post it here on the project so everyone will benefit.

Finally, one last question for today:

How do I link-up my blog???

This is a great question because I've talked about linking up so much and how that will be a fun way to share your progress with everyone else.

Now here's the steps to link up:

1. Write your blog post - Share your progress with the Quilt Along. Pictures and videos are most welcome! If you have an issue or question, make sure it's apart of your blog post too.

2. Get the URL of your post - This is important because it's very common to just link up your blog address, not the extended address of the actual post. The difference between the two is pretty big: one will send you to your blog, one will send you to the POST on your blog.

So here's how you do it: after posting your progress, go to your blog and click on the title of your post. You'll see the link extend to include the directions to get to the post itself. Now hold down the CTRL button on your keyboard and hit C to copy that whole url.

3. Link Up - Come here and find the In Linkz tool at the bottom of Wednesday's post. It will say something like "Share Your Link". Click on it, and you'll find a box for your URL to go into. Click into that box and hold down CTRL and V to paste that url into the box.

Viola! You've successfully linked up to the project!

Okay, I'm here at the end of this Question Thursday post and wondering - is this seriously overwhelming? Should I answer these questions in multiple posts rather than all in one? Did you actually manage to read through it all to get to the end?

Please share your opinion in the comments below!

Whew! I'm going to shut up and quilt now,

Leah

Quilt Along #1 - Let's Wiggle!

2012-01-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first week of our Free Motion Quilt Along!

I've been gearing up for this week with several posts such as Understanding Free Motion Quilting and Memorizing Quilting Designs. Make sure to check out both of those articles if you find yourself needing tips on relaxing at your machine or figuring out what or where to stitch next while working on your next quilt.

After reading those articles you'll find a theme that runs through both: the importance of practice.

I can't stress it enough, I can't say it enough, I can't do it enough -

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!

Watching videos will only get you so far, drawing on a notebook will only get you so far, you're going to have to actually get on your machine and shut up and quilt sometime during this week and play with this design if you truly want to master it.

Now with my lecture out of the way, let's watch this week's video:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Please keep in mind that I'm still learning how to shoot larger scale fillers. I couldn't really tell if I was getting a good angle or not, but I'm pretty pleased with this so far. I just keep having to remind myself to slow down!

Now let's go into a bit more depth about what you saw in the video:

First off, Stippling is governed by two very simple rules:

1. Stitch a wiggly line. 2. Don't allow this line to cross itself.

This is a pretty simple set of rules, yet Stippling can be challenging when you try to immediately stitch something like this:

This is the more complex form of Stippling which forms a dense, wiggly mass over your quilt. But it took a few weeks of practice to get here. I certainly didn't start stippling this complex version right off the bat, and I don't advise you to try it that way.

To learn Stippling, I broke the design down into a simpler version and got the hang of that first, then slowly added more bends and curves until it became the complex design it is today.

So if we break down those rules into the simplest format, you will get a Super Simplified Version of Stippling that looks something like this:

Let's call this U Shape Stippling.

Spend some time drawing and quilting this wiggly line. Wiggle and Wiggle and Wiggle until you start to go a bit wiggly, and then wiggle some more!

When you're so bored out of your mind with wiggles you'd like to kill me, move on to a slightly more complex wiggle:

Let's call this Peace Sign Stippling, and make sure to try the reverse version as well:

Again, draw and quilt this new wiggly line. Feel free to print this page and trace it if you have to. Whatever you have to do in order to get the practice you need!

Only when you're bored to tears again, play with bending the curve to create a bit more complexity:

Let's call this one Lobster Claw Stippling and again, make sure to stitch the reverse version as well:

Do you see where I'm going with this? Each row of shapes is slightly more complex, but at the same time they're very simple because it's just the same wiggles repeated over and over again.

When you're ready, you can start mixing and matching these simple shapes to create a more complex version.

Practice Ideas

Really you can practice this however you like, but here's what I did this week:

I made a 1/2 yard quilt sandwich with black fabric and stitched across the narrow side several times with each version of Stippling.

You might have noticed marked lines on my quilt sandwich. I marked lines about 3 inches apart so I could work my rows of simple stippling straight across the quilt:

You don't have to mark the lines unless you want to. I like it because it gives me a visual line on a blank piece of fabric to shoot for. Without it, I tend to wiggle off into oblivion!

If you finish your practice piece and still feel excited and enthusiastic about your progress, make another sandwich and keep quilting!

If you finish your practice piece and feel so frustrated and angry you're ready to throw your machine out the window, please stop quilting and go have fun doing something else! This is not a torture session here!

See Stippling in a Real Quilt

Now you might be thinking that only the most complex version of Stippling is acceptable to stitch over a real quilt.

And you'd be wrong.

You can stitch even the most simplistic version of stippling - yes! even those basic rows of U shapes can go on a REAL QUILT!

This Pink quilt was my very first free motion quilted quilt:

I only had a vague idea of what stippling looked like. All I knew for sure was that you didn't cross your lines so I just stitched rows and rows of U shapes:

I think this looks really nice! I spaced this stippling so there was around 1/2 inch between each line of quilting. While you might think the quilt would end up stiff, it's actually one of the softest quilts I've ever made.

Here's another tip if you want to practice on a real quilt - if you use a cotton batting that has a slight shrink to it, and if you've not prewashed your fabric (this is the ONLY time I'll EVER say this is okay), then when you wash the quilt the first time, it will shrink slightly and you will get that nice soft ripply texture you see on my quilt above.

Now let's see some larger, more complex stippling:

This is a much larger and more complex version stitched over a cheater cloth quilt. The 1 inch scale here requires a lot of hand moving and repositioning the quilt so you can see what you're doing.

Whenever you stop and start, try taking a few stitches with your machine at a slow speed, then slowly bring the machine up to full speed again as you return to stitching the design smoothly.

Now if stitching on a small scale is your goal, you can follow all the same steps as above, only instead of stitching big, shrink it down and stitch each row really small. All the same rules apply for big quilting or small quilting and the lessons work either way.

Okay, I think we've pretty much nailed down the basics of Stippling! If I've missed anything or am confusing in any way, please share your question in the comments below. Don't be surprised if I answer your question tomorrow on the project!

Spend a week working on this design, then be ready to share your progress and any questions next Wednesday.

Let's go quilt!

Leah

Memorizing Quilting Designs

2012-01-03T05:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I posted some tips on free motion quilting and broke down the basics of forming a stitch.

Today let's talk about memorizing designs.

This is super important because the truth is there's no All Inclusive Master Way to fill a quilt with any filler design. There isn't some magic bullet or golden rule. You just stitch the design on the quilt and make it fit into the space you want it to go. There are certainly methods to make it easier which we'll be exploring a lot this year, but there's no ONE way.

And often the hardest thing about beginning is knowing where to begin, how to move, and how to keep the design flowing across your quilt in a steady way.

So how do you know what to stitch next in a design? How are quilters able to "see" and plan for what to quilt next?

To explain this we need to talk about something slightly unrelated to quilting: Letters!

The fact is, all free motion designs are quilted exactly the same way you write your name.

I'm not saying you're going to literally write "Debra" "Barbara" or "Sally", though if you wanted to that would be a really interesting way to quilt a quilt.

What I mean instead is each design can be memorized the same way you've memorized how to write letters.

Take a look at this image:
This is "quilting" written in cursive. Way back in 3rd grade I learned how to write each letter and connect them together. Each letter is created by forming that specific shape, but it's also governed by a simple set of RULES as well.

For example, the letter Q has a rule that you start with an O shape, then swirl around and down with a little loopy tail, then branch out for the next letter.

If you started with a L shape, that wouldn't work. The letter wouldn't look right and no one would be able to recognize that it was the letter Q.

So there's a basic set of RULES behind each letter of the alphabet.

No matter which alphabet you're using, you always have to make your letters fit roughly a similar size and shape, otherwise no one will be able to recognize and read what you're writing.

Those that deviate too far have sloppy handwriting. They don't follow the rules closely enough for their letters easily recognizable, much to the frustration of everyone else!

But there's a further lesson with letters - how they connect is also governed by more rules!

How the Q connects with the letter U has a specific rule. You can't just wiggle off randomly, you have to connect the letters in a specific way, again because if you deviate too far, no one will be able to understand what you're writing.

So what do all these rules have to do with free motion quilting?

The point I'm trying to make here is simple:

1. Letters are governed by lots of simple rules.

2. You learned these rules a long time ago and memorized them.

3. Once memorized, you can write those letters anywhere without THINKING too hard about it.

Take a minute to write the word "quilting" down on a piece of paper. Did you need to stop and think for a minute about how the letters L, T, and I are formed or connect together?

Nope. You just wrote the word, right?

You just WROTE IT. You didn't stop to think about it. You didn't have to pause and make sure the Q was facing in the right direction, you didn't have to question how much space to put between each letter. You just wrote it.

Now write "quilting" BIG.

Now write "quilting" small.

What changes? How do you know how to write it big? How do you know how to write it small?

All the rules stay the same, but somehow you're able to expand each line, draw out and extend each letter so the word becomes big. Similarly you're able to shrink each letter down and fit it into a tiny space too.

Did you have to think about the word any more writing it big or small?

No. You just wrote it!

If you can do this with letters and writing, you can do this the EXACT SAME WAY with free motion quilting!

Right now if you're just starting out, you don't have any designs memorized. You're basically back in 3rd grade just learning how to form the letters A, B, and C in cursive.

Do you remember what you did to learn those letters the first time?

You practiced drawing the same letter over and over and over again. You practiced in rows, within big lines on paper.

You practiced until your little hand hurt. You practiced each letter for 1 week until you had all the letters of your alphabet down, and while learning how to form them, you were also learning how to put them together.

And you can learn ANY free motion design the same way!

Each week we're going to focus on a design and I'm going to break the RULES of the design down with simple steps for you to practice, exactly like you practiced writing the letter "A" first in 3rd grade.

Get a notebook with wide lines and keep it at your kitchen table to practice drawing designs. The more you draw and make those movements with a pencil, the more your brain will remember those shapes and angles when you're quilting a real quilt.

And please don't tell me you can't draw and therefore can't practice this way. This isn't drawing, it's WRITING!

If you can sign your name, you can write a free motion design and practice it on paper.

Remember - letters and free motion designs really are just wiggly lines. They just happen to be special wiggles governed by rules that make them readable or make them fit into xyz design.

The trick is getting to the point where you don't think about forming the design anymore. You don't have to stop and consider "should I wiggle twice here or should I go down and back up?" You just stitch it.

When you get to this point you'll no longer have to worry so much about forming the design, and will be able to focus more on moving your quilt with your hands and controlling the speed of your machine with your foot.

So I hope this makes sense and you'll spend some time writing "quilting" today to see what I mean. See you tomorrow when we learn the basics of Stippling!

Okay, I'm going to shut up and quilt now!

Leah Day

Understanding Free Motion Quilting

2012-01-02T06:12:00.000-08:00

Ah! The start of a new year always puts me in a great mood! The idea of starting over, beginning again is very appealing, especially since it coincides with starting this new Quilt Along project.

Today I'd planned to share a new design, but upon further reflection, I realized I really want to return to the absolute fundamentals of free motion quilting.

So here's the basics:

Free motion quilting is literally FREE, which means you have total freedom of movement of your quilt on your sewing machine.

This is different from all other ways you normally use your sewing machine. Normally you allow the machine to feed fabric forward using the little teeth called feed dogs that grip and move the fabric evenly.

Now different quilters disengage these feed dogs in different ways. Personally I leave my feed dogs UP and just turn the stitch length to 0. The teeth will still move a bit, but they won't really feed your quilt forward so long as your free motion foot isn't squishing your quilt.

I top the whole thing off with a Supreme Slider, which makes the quilt easier to move over the surface of my machine. Is it absolutely necessary? Nope! It's a tool that makes life easier, but you can certain free motion quilt with your feed dogs up without it.

Other quilters believe in dropping the feed dogs. Some machines have a little button, or knob, or switch for this and some do not. It really just depends on your machine.

So understand that you have some choices when it comes to how you get rid of the feed dog aspect of your machine. I've written in more depth about this choice right here.

So with free motion quilting, you're not using those feed dogs because you don't necessarily want to feed the fabric only forward and backward, you'll want to be able to move your quilt in every direction you can think of.

Because of this, all the normal rules that apply to your machine, stitch length, speed, and tension are pretty much thrown out the window.

It is no longer your machine that dictates the stitch, but you.

So let's break the stitch down:

A stitch is made by the needle dropping into the machine and coming back up again, then dropping back down. The size of your stitch is determined by how much your quilt moves while the needle is up.

If your quilt moves a long distance, and it takes a long time for your needle to move up and down, then your stitches will be very big.

Giant stitches aren't terrible, though my usual test is if you can catch a toe in them, you might want to rip them out and try it again. Catching your toes in your quilt in the middle of the night isn't fun!

If your quilt doesn't move and it takes a very short time for your needle to rise and fall (if you're stitching super fast) you will stitch in the same place repeatedly. If you do this too many times, you will create a knot on the back of your quilt.

Again, knots aren't anything to be afraid of, though if you stitch in the same place you'll usually end up breaking thread eventually which can be annoying.

But somewhere between taking giant stitches and taking tiny stitches, there is a happy medium stitch that looks great and secures your quilt. The trick is just finding it!

So there are really two parts to this process:

The movement of your quilt - operated by your hands

The speed of the sewing machine - operated by your foot

So no wonder free motion quilting is challenging! How many people can play the piano the first time they sit down at it - playing the keys with both hands while pumping the pedals with their feet? How many people can sit down at a drum set and instantly synchronize the movement of all their limbs on each drum? They can't!

These things require skill, and to gain these skills requires practice. It's really as simple as that.

I certainly wasn't able to free motion quilt very well when I started. I can remember clenching up as soon as my hands hit the quilt. How do I move this thing around again? How fast should I go?

The most difficult thing I found was remembering where to go and how to move the quilt to keep the design flowing. The problem there is simply not having the design memorized and you can easily work on that by doodling designs at the table when you're eating breakfast. The more you draw something, the better you will understand and remember those movements on your quilt.

The other thing I struggled with was getting my speed right. I would always start very slowly, but my stitches would be HUGE, then I'd speed up and they'd get smaller, but eventually my hands would speed up too and the stitches would get big again.

Eventually I found it was the noise of the machine that was throwing me off. You hear that loud noise and think "I must move faster" and move your hands even faster, then the machine needs to go faster, and then it ends up getting so fast you lose control.

There is a happy medium between the speed and movement of your hands. It's definitely there. You just might have to stumble through a few quilts to find it!

So when you get started free motion quilting for the first time, chances are it will feel pretty weird. Remember, you're using the machine in a totally different way than you've ever used it before!

And usually when you try something new, it's very easy to get judgmental about what you see happening.

Try not to do that.

Because I'll be honest - you will see ugly things come out of your machine. You will see bad looking stitches. You will see huge toe catchers and gob-knots and all manner of thread nests.

This sounds terrifying, but this is NORMAL.

This is why for the first few weeks of our quilt along, I'd advise you to try free motion on a plain fabric sandwich, or at least not on your prized applique quilt you've taken the last 4 winters to hand stitch together.

The more time you took to get the quilt together, the more you will agonize about every messed up stitch, and the less fun you will have.

And that is really the point, right? FUN! This can actually be FUN!

Yes, when you let go of your death grip on the quilt and release your shoulders from up around your ears and relax your chest enough to breathe, it can actually be fun to free motion quilt!

So here's a collection of tips I've put together to make your first week of the quilt along a bit less terrifying and hopefully a lot more fun:

1. Drink and Quilt - a little booze in your system always makes free motion quilting easier, or the bad stitches harder to see, not sure which!

2. No Seam Rippers - If you're going to rip out every missed stitch, you're not going to get very far baby! Make it a seam ripper free zone and work to get experience, not perfection.

3. Groovy Music - Everyone has a set of songs that just make you want to dance. Listen to these tunes while you're free motion quilting and you'll find it much harder to get tense and stressed out.

The most important thing: don't be hard on yourself. There's really no point to it. Are you really going to get better stitches after beating yourself up? Nope. Just make it a fun time and as soon as things get too stressful, take a break.

I'm going to shut up and go quilt now!

Leah

Let's Start a New Project!

2012-01-01T08:48:00.001-08:00

Happy New Years! It's a brand new year and a completed project, so it's high time we start something new.

So here's a quick video detailing what you can expect on the Free Motion Quilting Project in 2012:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Just in case you can't watch the video, here's a run down of everything I talk about:

We're startingFree Motion Quilt Along!

Yes, I got my inspiration for this new project from Fluffy Sheep Quilting who held a quilt along last fall. Following along with that quilt along allowed me to see first hand what beginners are struggling with, and just how overwhelming this project can be.

I've also had a sincere desire to slow down on posting new designs and to focus instead on quilting real quilts on a large scale.

So that's what we're going to do! Every Wednesday I'll post a video showing the design(s) we're working on, and how I've used them, and tips on how to quilt them.

So what exactly will we be quilting during this quilt along?

Um...new designs right???

Yes, of course, but in a new way! This is an important question because so far I've posted designs only as I've designed them which means this project hasn't made a whole lot of sense.

On any given week we'd have a beginner flower design, then an advanced pivoting design, then an intermediate echoing design. Yes, the new designs were nice, but learning them in this way was really disjointed and unorganized.

To fix this problem and make this project MUCH easier to follow along with, we're now going to focus on a particular design type for two months at a time.

So for the next two months we're going to focus on the Independent Design family.

I'm really excited about being able to focus on a particular design family because it will be so much easier to show you how they work in many areas of a quilt!

What will I be quilting all these designs ON exactly?

Well...I don't really want to limit myself to just one thing. Some weeks I may just quilt designs over a simple practice quilt sandwich, some weeks I may quilt over a real live quilt, some weeks I may quilt on a small garment,, some weeks I may use some of the cheater cloth prints I've created with Spoonflower, and some weeks I may return to my good ole' 4 inch square.

Essentially - I'm going to quilt on whatever is on hand. Whatever is ready. Whatever will stand still long enough to be quilted!

And I hope you will quilt along with me!

Exactly as I'm quilting on whatever comes to hand, please don't spend an excessive amount of time creating new quilts or buying new fabric for this quilt along. Whatever you have on hand will be just fine.

And when you quilt along and post your progress on your blog, you can link yourself up to the Wednesday Quilt Along posts. This will work a lot like Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesdays with an added bonus:

If you have a question about the design or are struggling with a particular issue with free motion quilting, please post your question on your blog. On Thursdays, I'll try to collect 5 questions to answer here on the project so you can get the help you need in real time.

Now for a few more things....

Because I'm sharing videos and lots of photos for the quilt along on Wednesdays, we will no longer have individual videos posted for each new design. It just seems redundant to post a short video on Monday or Tueday, then post another video on Wednesday.

So for simplicities sake, videos will be posted on Wednesdays from now on.

As always, if you'd like to get weekly updates for the Quilt Along as well as the newest designs published to this project, make sure you're subscribed to our free weekly newsletter.

And finally here at the end, I'd like to share my mantra for this new year with you:

Shut Up and QUILT!

I seriously hope I don't offend anyone with this statement, but it perfectly fits what I need to hear right now, and what I want to teach this year.

Because sometimes what you need to hear, and what you need to do is just shut up and go quilt. Stop worrying over the issues and just go get on your machine and TRY IT!

So I don't know about you, but I'm really excited about this new project and what we will learn and share in 2012.

Now let's go quilt!

Leah Day

2011 in Retrospect

2011-12-30T08:33:00.000-08:00

Every year I take a day right at the end to look back and reflect on what the year has been, what trials I have overcome or am still struggling with, and how my quilting has evolved.

Since I've now been posting for 3 years, I have two other posts at which I can look back at and reflect. Looking back and Letting Go was posted in 2009, only 3 exhilarating months after this project was launched. I was brimming with excitement, filled with positive energy about what was to come in 2010.

Last years post was mixed together in the mire that was Sinkhole Journey, and re-reading that post today I've cringed at the language in that post. I can only excuse my profanity with the explanation that I was angry and hurt, and often those angry, hurt words leaked over to this project.

And now it's time to do the same - look back and reflect - on this past year. A lot has happened that I would like to share aloud, but as always, this is a ride you might not want to take with me, so read on only if you're feeling up to it.

To begin, I think this year started out on a pretty difficult note.

Difficulty is a fact of life. Being an adult isn't the easy cakewalk I thought it would be, but looking back at this year, I believe I've made my life more difficult than it has to be at times. This is a pattern reaching back for many years, and only after this trying year have I been able to open my eyes and see it.

One of my mantras for the new year is "This does not have to be so hard." Because sometimes when things are VERY hard, they're only that way because I'm making them that way.

A major goal for me in 2012 is to not only make things easier for myself, but to also show myself true compassion.

But last year at this time I was mired in a very hard quilt that I refused to let go of easily. Sinkhole pulled me literally inside and out. I can remember several times while making it feeling so very sad and so very helpless to control the waves of pain that quilt dragged out of my past.

All this pain and sadness also got wound up in the real fundamental problems with that quilt - the ripples and pleats over the surface that no amount of quilting would have fixed. Visual reminders to my lack of ability.

At the beginning of January, I finally folded that quilt up and stuck it under my sewing table, hoping to forget about it for a few years, or forever, whichever one came first.

In a way, I think this set the stage for the entire year. While I don't regret putting Sinkhole away, I do regret allowing that fear into my quilting room. But more on this later...

So after turning away from Sinkhole, I decided to pour my heart, literally, into Hot Cast. This was a quilt that was extremely fun to design. I pulled out books and drew and drew and drew for hours at the kitchen table, trying to find that combination of symbolism and beauty that would capture the moment I was in.

The design process was awesome, but during at this time, I can remember feeling the first twinges of frustration with my quilting style. I was starting to feel very frustrated by the hours and hours of time it requires to quilt so densely, and I was also starting to feel limited in my use of the filler designs I'd created.

Rather than experiment and branch out with new techniques, I stuck with what I'd been doing for the past 2 years, what I knew how to do well, and what I was honestly starting to feel bored with.

This is where fear really started to worm its way into my quilting room. Because I was unwilling to try new things, because I was so blinded by my need for another beautiful, show winning quilt, because I couldn't fathom creating a quilt that was different, I ended up with the first goddess quilt that disappointed me upon completion.

Don't get me wrong; I still think she's gorgeous! She's perfect in almost every regard, except when I look at her I do not feel the purpose of this quilt - love pouring into every vein and cell of my body.

Instead I see and feel only the cage I'd locked myself into.

At what point did this happen? I have asked myself this question many times, and I can't really find an answer.

At what point did quilting THIS way with THIS thread and THIS style become the only thing I knew how to do, the only thing I could do, the only thing I would ALLOW myself to do?

Several quilters commented in the "#1 Quilting Question" post that the thing stopping you from quilting is fear. You're afraid to start free motion quilting because you don't want to risk ruining your quilt tops. You're so afraid, it's locked you into a terrible place where you sincerely WANT to quilt and want to learn, but you can't because it's too scary to contemplate.

Trust me, I know this feeling very well.

Over the last year I've finally fiddled and worried over the feeling until I've finally found the root of this fear, which is:

What will people think if...

What will people think if my quilting isn't perfect? What will people think if my stitches don't look just right? What will people think if my quilts aren't as pretty as they usually are? What will people think if I stop entering shows, if I stop even being allowed INTO shows, if my quilts suddenly become the laughing stock of the entire industry?

Is this horribly silly? Yes.

But that doesn't stop the fear from being real.

For me I have watched hundreds of quilters look at my quilts. The dense, incomprehensible stitching and excessive thread combine to make quilts that are more stunning the closer you get to them.

Being 28 years old in this industry (and often being told I look 17) requires me to overcompensate with my quilting a bit too much. I deliberately overdo it simply because I feel a deep need to validate myself, to prove that I really am a good quilter.

So the idea of changing my style, of quilting bigger and with less focus on uber excessive thread texture, well...it's really scary.

But looking at Hot Cast, I can't help feeling that I'm just a silly girl who's trying way too hard to prove herself.

It all boils down to: who am I without this?

Am I still good enough even if I never win another ribbon in my life? Am I still worthy of my life and this blog and my business if I never even get INTO another show?

What will happen and who will I be if I learn how to define myself in a different way?

Again, these may seem like silly questions, but last spring they really stuck me into a rut.

So after finishing Hot Cast, I didn't start another major quilt for several months. I created several smaller quilts, even quilted a quilt for a future DVD, but I didn't start another goddess, despite the fact that I had a quilt fully designed and ready to go.

I just couldn't start another big quilt and risk being disappointed with it. I didn't even really know what was bothering me so much at the time, other than feeling excessively bored and frustrated every time I walked into the sewing room.

I stayed in this state until the middle of the summer when Winter Wonderland won Best Machine Quilting at the AQS Knoxville show.

When I received the news it was really interesting - here was an event I'd built up in my mind as a giant source of validation of my abilities, but when it actually happened, it really didn't bring the huge rush of wonderful feelings I'd been expecting. It was terrific, of course, but it didn't make me any different from who I already was.

And that knowledge finally started a slow process to undo the web of fear that had tightened around my desire for change.

I might as well start quilting the way that makes me happy and fulfills my creative spirit!

And when it comes down to it, why am I working so hard to quilt so densely when the people I want to teach and help with free motion are only going to be intimidated and overwhelmed by it?

It's time to change. Simple as that.

Turning this mental corner has been a slow process, but a necessary step along the way was pulling Sinkhole out from under my table, taking a hard look at that monster quilt, then promptly taking it outside and lighting it on fire.

Yes, I burned that quilt in my back yard and I have no regrets about seeing the end of it.

After watching it turn into ash, I walked back inside and began a new design using the same rings combined with a goddess that I'd designed years before. This combination became Emergence, a quilt I've worked on throughout this past fall and winter.

Even starting this newest goddess, I had a lot of trouble letting go of my pattern of dense stitching so a good portion of this quilt had the snot stitched out of it. At least I did branch out of my comfort zone in some small way by creating a new area of heavy, messily pleated fabric which I call Textured Applique.

I also experimented with Trapplique, creating an entirely separate blazing sun that was attached to the top of the quilt only after all the quilting was complete.

Playing with these new techniques has been a thrilling adventure that I can't wait to continue with more quilts in the new year. While not every aspect of Emergence has been easy or fun, it's taught me loads about being true to myself and the direction I need to go in.

Looking back at this year, I see so much fear and sadness being played out in my thoughts and actions. I've been mired in a rut that's pretty embarrassing, truth be told, to share with you here because it seems so very silly in so many ways.

Silly because when it comes down to it - this is all just thread and fabric and batting.

What in the world is there to be afraid of?

It's all the extra "stuff" - the expectation, the seeking of approval, the need to belong and be accepted - it's all these things that have made the simple process of stitching a quilt terrifying.

So here I stand at the end of another year and all I can say is - Thank God this year is over!

I'm happy to be moving on. I'm happy to finally feel unstuck and free. I'm happy to have found a direction to move into and to feel excited about that direction.

Do I have it all figured out? Absolutely not!

I will likely stumble, get stuck in ruts, get mired in my issues or technical quilting problems and bogged down with fear, but this is the human experience. To not feel these things occasionally is to not be real.

It seems to me that I've actually managed to forget one of my earlier lessons. This is from 2009:

Sometimes you have to make the harder choice and give up peace of mind and sanity for awhile and just see where it will take you.

Let's hope this year I don't forget this lesson again and have to relearn it!

And finally here at the end of this long year, I have to say thank you. Thank you for reading this story and sharing this experience with me. Thank you for following this blog and enjoying and using the designs shared here.

Thank you for commenting and emailing and participating, even when I act like a jerk and my issues and anger come out in full force. Thank you for forgiving me for my occasional rants and long, emotional posts as I try to figure my stuff out.

You are most graciously appreciated.

And one last note before I close - I have struggled for an entire year over the idea of change, but finally come to find that it is a necessary, essential part of my life. Change happens, as I have found, and it is better to embrace it than run from it.

So hopefully you will understand the changes and various improvements I plan to make to this project this coming year. I'll be sharing more on this on Sunday, but rest assured, this will always be a place to learn and be inspired to make beautiful quilts.

Now let's go quilt!

Leah

Day 366 - Flaming Cocoons

2011-12-29T06:13:00.000-08:00

Just so you know I'm not pulling your leg on the whole "the project will continue" thing, here's yet another design to finish out 2011 in style:

This design was designed to finish out the chapter on Stacking Designs in From Feathers to Flames. I took a hard look at Fiery Comet and decided there must be possible variations of that design that stack together in a similar way.

One of the major things I want to focus on next year is the design families each design fits into. So far I've created 12 design families that are based on the way the designs are stitched. Some designs Interlock together, while others run from Edge to Edge or Edge to Center.

The point with all of this is simple - the way a design is stitched dictates where it will work best in your quilt.

It also has a secondary function - if you can stitch one design in a family, chances are you can stitch most of the designs in that family because they're all stitched in roughly the same way.

So if you can stitch Fiery Comet, it's highly likely that you can also stitch Flaming Cocoons.

Instructions for quilting Flaming Cocoons: First quilt a long oval shape on your quilt, then stitch inside this shape and fill the space with gently curving arches.

Return to the outside of the cocoon and stitch a long flame shape. Stitch inside this shape and fill it with internal echoes. Stack a new cocoon and flame shape nearby the first, filling in the space between with more echoes of the flame shapes.

Difficulty Level - Advanced. There's an excessive amount of travel stitching and echoing with this design so it's going to require some practice to master.

Filler Family - Stacking. Each shape stacks together to fill the quilting space completely.

Directional Texture - All Directions.

Suggestions for Use - While Flaming Cocoons can certainly work on a small scale, personally I'd be interested to see what happens when it's quilted on a much bigger scale over a simple, modern lap quilt.

Let's go quilt!

Leah Day

Free Motion Weaving

2011-12-28T07:37:00.000-08:00

So I left you all on the edge of your seat yesterday with a post about my weirdest stash - all my stray and spent threads.

And now you can see how I've turned trash into treasure by stitching all those threads together to create this awesome cuff bracelet:

I've had it in mind to make something like this for a long time, but I couldn't get past the fear of messing something up or wasting my time on a project that didn't work out, so I kept putting it off. It was only after seeing all the beautiful colors of that blazing sun all piled together that I decided enough was enough. I HAVE to make something pretty today!

So here's exactly what I did:

I layered all the threads in between two sheets of Solvy Water Soluble Stabilizer and stitched the snot out of it. The quilting was really interesting because I could barely see what I was doing over all those threads!

I quilted it twice with two different colors of thread, then bound the edges by attaching a piece of red fabric to the top and stitching along the edge, leaving a hole to turn the piece right side out.

Then I edge stitched to keep the piece from distorting and quilted over the piece one more time with Snake Paisley in yellow thread. At this point, the bracelet was complete and I washed away all the water soluble stabilizer and curled it around a bottle of lotion for a few days to dry out.

All told it only took a few hours to turn all that trash thread into a beautiful bracelet that I can't wait to wear on my upper arm in the summer with a cute halter top!

I definitely want to experiment with this technique more. I'm going to call it free motion weaving because that's what it really feels like to me - weaving threads together, but with multiple free motion fillers which can add many interesting textures to the surface.

Now if that hasn't convinced you to start saving stray, spent threads then I don't know what will!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day

The Weirdest Stash

2011-12-27T09:43:00.001-08:00

No, it's not a collection of toenail clippings.

Or a stash of bellybutton lint.

But this has to be equally weird - I save thread.

Let me clarify - this is not thread on a spool. Yes, I certainly collect this, but we all kind of collect spools of thread in order to be able to feed something through our machines in order to make them work.

No, this is a collection of stray threads.

All the cut little pieces ranging from 1 to 10 inches long typically, sometimes longer if I desperately need a bobbin and decide to sacrifice a color by unwinding the entire thing. I guess I should call it a collection of spent thread since it's usually thread who's usual purpose is shot.

So why in the world am I keeping all this stuff?

It's not even easy to keep! You try collecting threads for a day and let me know the best way to organize them so they don't make a furry mess over everything. It's impossible!

I've taken to clearing off a spot on the floor and then every time I break a thread and hide the tails, the left over bits get thrown on the floor in that spot. Over time if I'm working on a big quilt the same color will get massed up in a pile, which can actually be quite pretty:

Still...this is strange. I can just see my future daughter-in-law cleaning out my sewing room after I'm dead, shaking her head at the boxes and boxes of spent thread I've stashed in between bolts of fabric. Quilter is a word that is almost - almost - synonymous with hoarder after all. I don't really save or use scrap fabric, but stray thread? Gimme Gimme Gimme!

But the worst thing about my shot thread addiction is I'm going to try to addict you!

Check back by tomorrow to see how to make something really pretty with the pile of trash above. It's all the leftover bits of orange, red, and yellow thread from the blazing sun on Emergence.

Just so you don't have to go searching - click here to find the post on what I did with all my threads.

Let's go quilt (mindfully keeping all stray threads in a neat pile as we go),

Leah

Emergence - To Rainbow or Not to Rainbow

2011-12-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

Yes, this really is the question - should I spend another week working on this quilt to create a giant rainbow to create a totally awesome back to this quilt or should I just slap on a hanging sleeve and call it done?

As you can see for yourself, the front is already awesome:

I've been mulling over just this question for more than a day and don't really have a good answer.

On the one hand, what does the back of a quilt matter? It's the back for god's sake, not the front, and for most purposes it will ALWAYS face towards a wall. Why in the world spend more time working on it when it might not ever see the light of day?

But on the other hand, why NOT take the extra step, go the extra mile, stitch the extra length to make this quilt as awesome as possible?

Hmmm...there really isn't an easy solution here....

Basically the decision is split between taking this design and creating another textured applique piece, this time a huge rainbow to cover a large space on the back of the quilt.

This diagram might be a bit hard to understand. The rainbow won't actually overlap the torn section, but instead stop right before it.

This piece will serve two purposes:

#1 - Over-the-top-aweseomness - It's not really required and it's absolutely the sugar and spice and whipped cream on top. Totally not required to show or to compete or to hang on my own wall. It's just fun! It will give the quilt the option of being hung either way - from the front with the sun or from the back with the rainbow depending on how I'm feeling that day.

#2 - Incorporating the Hanging Sleeve - Yes, I've actually started planning ahead with my hanging sleeves, and this is my solution - a separate, stitched-on-after-binding piece that covers a good deal of the top of the quilt, but also allows it to be hung without an ugly hanging sleeve marring the back.

...and really, it also serves a third purpose - I love rainbows. I see them as a freeing, childish sign from my youth that I'd like to reclaim.

When I was a little girl, all I drew was rainbows. Little stick figures of girls in triangle shaped dresses in square houses with chimneys and rainbows shining over the whole thing.

I drew these obsessively until I was around 10 when my sisters pronounced "That's gay." I don't mean to offend anyone, but that is really what my sisters said, and even though I didn't know what it meant at the time, I stopped drawing rainbows.

But I remember the joy and happiness I felt drawing those pretty girls playing under the rainbows and I'd really like to have that feeling back.

One major downside is it will cover a large section of quilting that took a lot of time to do, but the flip side is it will also hide the stitching from the front where the sun attaches. The quilt itself shrank more than 5 inches in both directions thanks to all the dense filler quilting, but the sun did not, which means it will stretch into these areas and must be quilted through all 3 layers to get it firmly attached.

Putting the rainbow on the back means these lines of stitches will be hidden completely, but still....do I really want to bust my tail for another week on this quilt???

Another consideration is the fact that one of my major goals this year in 2012 is to make life easier for myself. I usually make things as hard as they possibly can be, and then pile on the guilt when I can't do everything I expect of myself.

Is adding this rainbow making life easier or making it harder? Is it worth going the extra mile so that when I look at the quilt, I know with all my heart it is absolutely 100% the best I can do?

I keep going back and forth, back and forth on this. Indecision seems to be my word for this December. I can't make up my mind about anything! Argh!

Let's go quilt,

Leah

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T11:52:00.001-08:00

I hope you have all had a safe, happy holiday! Smiles and hugs from Leah, Josh, and James.

Day 365 - Infinity Tree

2011-12-24T08:41:00.000-08:00

It’s official! Here we are at 365 designs!

This was the original goal I set out to hit way back on August 14th, 2009. The project ended up taking a full year and a half longer than I expected, but now that we’re here 365 designs just doesn’t seem like enough!

So just to clear up any confusion - THE PROJECT WILL NOT BE ENDING TODAY!

I plan to continue posting designs until they stop popping into my head. Whether that will be at 500, 750, or 1000, I have no idea, but I’m having too much fun to stop creating and sharing these designs!

Of course, now that this original goal is complete, I want to improve the project, making everything more accessible and less overwhelming. More details will be shared on the upcoming developments very soon, and we'll kick off several new free motion projects starting January 1st.

Now enough waiting - here is design #365 - Infinity Tree:

Infinity Tree is a combination of several of my favorite designs and captures one of my favorite types of quilts - landscapes. This design takes it up another notch by allowing you to quilt free form trees right into your quilts, filling the space with their branches on one side and tree roots on the other.

It’s hard to describe exactly how this design is quilted so let’s see it being quilted into a small quilt square:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Difficulty Level - Intermediate / Advanced. This design appears very complex, which can be misleading because it’s actually a combination of very simple textures put together in a logical way.

First start with a single wiggly line running through the middle of your quilting space. Expand this wiggly line with a row of Calm Sea to create hills in the background. Now stitch a tree growing up from the hills. Don’t worry about getting every branch perfect. Just allow them to flow organically up and out from the central trunk.

Stitch back down the other side of the tree and down into the ground. Fill in a row of Pebbles all along the bottom of the wiggly line to a rocky ground. Stitch below the tree and branch out with a network of Tree Roots. Twist and wiggle and interconnect these roots until they fill the bottom space completely.

Filler Design Type - Edge to Edge. Technically this design is stitched from one edge of your quilting space to another, making it a great choice for the borders of your next quilt.

Directional Texture - 2 Directions. Infinity Tree has such a complex texture, it’s really hard to put a single label on it. Technically it does have an obvious horizontal texture created by the initial curving line that will always catch your eye.

Suggestions for Use - If you have always wanted to create a landscape quilt, now is your chance! Stitch a large scale Infinity Tree onto plain fabric and allow your imagination to run wild with all the things you can do with thread!

If you’re looking for a really unique border design, this is a great choice. Imagine the effect of 50 trees sprouting from the edges of your next quilt!

Now we officially have 365 designs!
Thank you all so much for making this project such a fun, exciting challenge!

Let's go quilt!

Leah Day

Day 364 - Flowing Leaves

2011-12-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

I guess I’m on a leaf kick this week! This particular Flowing Leaves design is definitely going to be one of my favorites!

It has been such a weirdly warm year this December, so there's quite a few leaves still on the trees. Wouldn't it be cool to see how many different leaf shapes work with this particular design? Oak and maple leaves would certainly look cool, though they might be tricky to keep consistent on a quilt.

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Difficulty Level - Intermediate / Advanced. Flowing Leaves is on the complex side, but if you take it slow, and concentrate first on stitching the initial leaf shape, then filling it with the simple vein design, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

Filler Design Type - Pivoting. This design sure looks a far sight away from Paisley, the design that inspired it! The basic composition of these two designs is still the same so Flowing Leaves should be able to go in most areas of your quilts with no problem.

Directional Texture - All Directions. Leaves flow in all different directions and stand out boldly on your quilt thanks to the large amount of travel stitching this design requires.

Suggestions for Use - This design really reminds me of the batik shirts my husband and son wear in the summer. Maybe bring back a little of that heat with a summer inspired quilt! Stitch Tropical Flower in the blocks, Swirling Petals in the sashing, and Flowing Leaves in the borders. Just make sure your fabrics are hot, bright, and beautiful and you’ll have a winning combination with this one.

Feel free to use this free motion quilting design in your quilts

and send in a picture to show it off!

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies you need for

beautiful free motion quilting

Day 363 - Feather Leaves

2011-12-22T07:20:00.000-08:00

Remember Tangled Snakes and Rattlesnake? What will happen if we take that basic design and fill it with feathers instead?

This is a great way to practice stitching one half of the feather shape. If you struggle with getting one side to flow and bend just right, this design will help you practice the shapes without having to reverse the opposite side.

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Difficulty Level - Advanced. This design does require a lot of careful travel stitching and space estimation to fill your quilt. Make sure to check back to the article on 5 tips for Travel Stitching and maybe try stitching a few simple feather designs before tackling this design.

Filler Design Type - Branching. This design is formed by first branching out with a long flowing leave shape. You then stitch inside with a single row of feathers, bending them slightly so they fill the space with a soft texture. Once you finish filling the space, stitch outside and echo the feather leaf one time. This puts a bit of space between this shape and those around it so they don’t get all jumbled together.

Directional Texture - All Directions. I think a raccoon has gotten into the chicken coop - feathers are everywhere! Definitely place this design in a space that needs lots of movement and flowing texture.

Suggestions for Use - Do you want to learn how to quilt feathers? Why not create a quilt devoted entirely to this goal?

Pick a quilt top and start stitching the feather designs you like best. By the time you finish, you’ll have mastered these fun designs and finished a beautiful quilt at the same time!

Back of Feather LeavesFeel free to use this free motion quilting design in your quilts
and send in a picture to show it off!

Day 362 - Brittle Starfish

2011-12-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

Since the beginning of the project, one constant source of inspiration has been Josh's reef tanks. This particular design is inspired by a brittle starfish. He once had a colony of tiny brittle stars that came with a piece of live rock and literally took over a tank! Now that we can quilt them we can make them take over the whole quilt!

Sometimes I wonder if I would have been able to create half the designs on this project if I didn’t have so many beautiful fish tanks to look into and gain inspiration from.

Since Josh and I got together, we've had no less than 5 fish tanks, even when we lived in a 500 square foot apartment. There was a fish tank even in the bathroom!

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Difficulty Level - Intermediate / Advanced. The hardest part of this design is stitching the wiggly tentacles, then filling them with circles. For practice, try stitching Chain of Pearls first, then put it together with echo quilting and Brittle Starfish should be no trouble at all.

Filler Design Type - Center Fill. Starting in the center of your quilting space is an interesting way to fill a block or appliqué. Try using this in some unexpected areas as well, like the corner of your border. Expand the design as far as you like, then use another design to fill in the rest of the border.

Directional Texture - Center Focused. You can’t miss this bulls-eye like texture! A fun variation that might change the effect would be to use one color thread for the starfish and a variegated thread for the echo quilting.

Suggestions for Use - There are many uses for center filled flower designs. You could use them in the place of flower shaped appliqués, or stitch them into the center of circles or blocks. The possibilities really are endless so don’t hesitate to experiment with one of these designs in your next quilt.

Back of Brittle Starfish
Feel free to use this free motion quilting design in your quilts

and send in a picture to show it off!

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies you need for

beautiful free motion quilting

Day 361 - Daisy Flow

2011-12-19T06:04:00.000-08:00

Remember Poseidon’s Eye and Globes of Matrix? I started wondering about these designs the other day and if I could use any other designs in the center of those large circles.

Here’s what happens when you use Super Daisy in those areas instead:

4 more designs to go and I've saved some of the best textures for last! Make sure to check out this post and share you #1 most important quilting question. You'll find out why in a few days :-)

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Difficulty Level - Intermediate / Advanced. Yes, this design does look kind of tricky, but it’s actually just a simple variation of Poseidon’s Eye! First try that design and once you get the hang of it, Daisy Flow should be no problem at all.

Filler Design Type - Branching. This design is created by branching out with a long flowing line, then swirling into a large circle. Fill this circle with Super Daisy, then swirl out and around and echo this shape many times. The more times you echo around each circle, the more they will stand out on the surface of your quilts.

Directional Texture - All Directions. You really can’t beat this swirling, whirlwind of a texture! Try quilting this on a really big scale for a dramatic effect over your whole quilt.

Suggestions for Use - We’ve learned many daisy designs throughout this project. Why not make a quilt combining them all? Use Super Daisy to fill the blocks, Dresden Daisies to fill the sashing, and Daisy Flow to finish off the borders to make one gorgeous quilt.

Back of Daisy Flow
Feel free to use this free motion quilting design in your quilts

and send in a picture to show it off!

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies you need for

beautiful free motion quilting

#1 Quilting Question

2011-12-18T14:26:00.001-08:00

Here's a crazy simple question:

What is your #1, most important, most pressing, most extreme free motion quilting question???

In essence, this question should be the core reason why you're NOT free motion quilting right NOW, and if it was answered properly, it would absolutely kick you into quilting all your quilt tops immediately.

So please share your question in the comments below!

You'll learn why later ;-)

Leah

Day 360 - Blackhole Matrix

2011-12-18T09:11:00.000-08:00

Since we’re so close to the end of the first 365 designs, I’ve been spending a lot of time looking back to the early designs. Matrix was one of the first 20 designs created and is still one of my favorites.

Let’s try a new variation of Matrix, this time combining this classic design with a wiggly spiral shape to create Blackhole Matrix:

Truthfully I’m not a huge fan of the wiggly spiral, but instead prefer a regular spiral to go over the wiggly matrix web.

No matter which way you stitch it, this is a simple design that can produce amazing results. Have fun playing with many different shapes and see all the Matrix variations you can come up with.

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Difficulty Level - Beginner. While this may look complex, it’s actually very easy! Start with a base of Wobbly Cosmos, or a series of wiggly lines branching out from the center of your quilt square.

Then stitch back into the middle and stitch over the whole thing with a spiral. Feel free to play with making your spiral wiggly or circular, it’s really up to you!

Filler Design Type - Center Fill. This design starts from the center and radiates out into your quilting space. This particular design could easily fill your whole quilt with a simple flowing texture.
Directional Texture - Center Focused. This design is a bit less attention grabbing than most center focused designs. The biggest reason is grids and grid-like texture has a flattening effect on the surface of your quilts.

Suggestions for Use - Do you have a baby quilt that needs a super quick finish? Still sitting on some Holiday projects that just need to be quilted in a day? Try Matrix or Blackhole Matrix for a speedy way to finish off these projects in a beautiful way.

Back of Blackhole Matrix
Feel free to use this free motion quilting design in your quilts

and send in a picture to show it off!

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies you need for

beautiful free motion quilting

Emergence: Part 6 - Blazing Sun

2011-12-17T06:36:00.000-08:00

Last week I announced that Emergence was quilted, but not quite finished. I set a goal for myself to finish her by the new year, which probably won't quite happen (not by January 1st exactly), but she will be done in January at least.

So what is left on this quilt to finish? Once a quilt is quilted, isn't that the last step before binding? What in the world is left to do???

And the answer is - the sun!

The sun on this quilt has always been a design problem. I tried to design rays to the sun in the original drawing and it never quite worked right. I was also impatient to get started and, as usual, my impatience caused me to race ahead without getting that area fixed to my satisfaction.

So when it came time to quilt it, this area is noticeably lack luster. Just a big red oval at the top of this quilt. BORING!

It also absolutely doesn't jive with the big torn section which is big, bold, bright, and cheerful. I realized while looking at this quilt on the wall that the torn section really needs a balancing element at the top of the quilt and the easiest thing to add would be a big, bold, bright, cheerful sun.

So how do you attach a sun that you didn't originally design into the quilt, and since the area is already quilted, how do you actually get it into the quilt without messing something up?

Well, the easy answer is that there isn't an easy answer!

It certainly helps to plan this stuff in advance, but if that isn't an option, it's a good idea to give the troublesome area a LOT of thought.

I've been brainstorming constantly as I finished quilting the last gray ring around the sinkhole section. I brain stormed even more as I tamed the torn section with a full spool of water soluble thread (more on why later). All this time to sit and stitch gave me loads of time to think about how I want this area to look and feel on the quilt.

In the end I decided to use Trapplique, a technique created by my animating friend Nina Paley, which basically involves quilting separate elements, then cutting them out, layering them, then satin stitching the snot out of the edges so they all stick together.

I'm also playing with decorative bobbin thread work, using Razzle Dazzle thread in the bobbin and stitching from the back of certain pieces to create rows of bright, metallic glitz on the surface.

It all sounds complicated, but it's really not. It's as simple as creating a puzzle, then cutting it apart, then putting it back together again.

So here's the step by step:

First I designed the sun. At the same time I've also designed a rainbow for the back - more on that later. I've started designing quilts first on paper, then loading them into my graphic design program Serif Draw Plus and tracing all the drawn lines to create a vector image.

This is SO helpful because I was able to go back to that drawing and fiddle with the design in order to make a sun that fit into the space around the goddess and torn section, without covering up too much of the area I quilted to death (I want to get credit for all that work!)

The biggest issue with adding a design element this big so late in the game is that it might not fit into the design, I could make it too small, which would look weird, or I could make it too big, which could be fixed by trimming, but it might cover up something I like or look unwieldy on the surface of the quilt.

But as you can see above, this sun looks just right! I scaled the image to exactly the same size as the quilt, then printed it out on 60 sheets of paper, taped them all together, then taped that monster to my light box.

The first step was to create the rays. I knew I wanted these to be stiff, 3 dimensional rays that would only be attached to the sun. The tips of the rays will not be secured to the quilt top, but will instead be loose to flap around.

Why? Because it sounds cool! It might get me marks off by a quilt judge who decides it's an unsecured applique, but I don't really care. The side benefit of the flappy sun rays is you can then flip them up and see the pretty stitching underneath. Again, I worked hard stitching all that space! I don't want to cover it all up never to be seen again!

Now Step 2 - creating the flame within the ray. For each ray, which is triangular shaped, I drew a wiggly fame shape within. I just drew this free form on the printed paper. I have trouble drawing certain elements on my quilts in the design program simply because sometimes I need to see how big something will be, control the curve, etc. I doubled this line to create around a 1 inch wiggly flame shape.

It was this shape I transferred to black fabric and layered it with just one layer of batting. I drew these stacked next to one another because they were going to be cut out right on the line, so I didn't need a lot of space between them. I then proceeded to stitch the snot out of it with silver yenmet metallic thread using a metallic needle.

Once all 6 flames were stitched, I cut the shapes out. Here's a really cool thing I learned while doing this - if you cut out the outer section closely, but leave the inner section whole, you can use this as the base for the fabric in the inner section.

I knew I wanted a textured applique orange flame surrounded by the black fabric silver thread wiggly flame, then the whole thing placed on a yellow triangle. So instead of creating the orange section separately, I trimmed the black fabric away from inside each triangle, leaving the batting in place, then squished a lot of orange fabric on top and stitched it down with a ton more water soluble thread.

Why all the water soluble? Because it's a terrific placeholder! I want this orange fabric to be all pleated and crazy in this section, but in order to get it that way in a controlled manner, I need to first secure it down to the area, then go back over with a real thread to hold it in place for good.

The water soluble holds everything securely, much better than a million pins, and it allows me to also plan the wrinkly nature of the fabric. There's simply no better thread to use!

Once the orange fabric was in place securely, I went back over the section first with a wide 5 pt satin stitch all along the edge to seal the raw edges of the orange and black fabrics, then went over the orange fabric with Mango Tango Razzle Dazzle thread. This thread has to go in your bobbin, so the whole thing was flipped over and stitched from the back to create this awesome double flame:

It might not show in this photo, but this flame has got some bling!

Now this section was done and I could set them all aside while I worked on the outer, triangle shaped ray. This section was a bit trickier because I wanted it to be very stiff.

So I went through my studio and found some stiff Pellon double sided fusible stuff. This thick, it sticks, it's probably indestructible. It certain destroyed a ton of my needles this week!

Using my light boxes, I drew the triangles on the pellon, then cut them out with my rotary cutter to make sure the sides were perfectly straight. Then I fused yellow fabric to the rough, easy fuse side of the material, leaving more than 3 inches of extra fabric on the two sides.

The fused, flat section then became the back of the rays, and I flipped the triangles over and, using more water soluble thread, finished the tip of the triangle, then the edges so the yellow fabric was brought to the top of the triangle and secured.

Now again, I wanted to create textured applique by squishing all this excess yellow fabric into the space between the edge of the triangle and where the flame should overlap. I traced the flame shape over the pellon, then added 1/2 for wiggle room (better to stitch over an area and have an overlap than have a section left bare).

Again I secured all the extra fabric with water soluble thread, but in the process broke around 9 needles. This pellon is super thick and extremely hard to stitch through. I usually do the securing stitches in free motion, but with this stuff I had to switch to the even feed foot and go very slow and make huge stitches.

It also gummed up my needle so had I had to change needles several times simply because the eye was so full of gunk the thread kept breaking.

I'm not so sure that I will use this particular material for this purpose again, but it was on hand, and I had enough to make this sun, and it certainly gave the area the added stiffness I wanted. It was just a real pain to work with!

Once the fabric securing was complete, again I went back over the area with Razzle Dazzle thread, this time in yellow. I it very difficult to turn the corner and stitch right to the tip of the ray without the threads gagging up on me. The next time around I used a little piece of Solvy Water Soluble Stabilizer to hold the tip in place and it went straight through with no problem.

Now with all the yellow sections done, they could be connected with the orange and black flame sections to finish the rays completely.

First I layered the two sections together and held them in place with pins, then made them much more secure with more water soluble thread. Big pieces like this tend to shift while satin stitching, so the water soluble ensured everything stayed in place.

Next I satin stitched with red thread to connect the two sections together, and viola! finished sun rays!

Now reading back through all of this, you might run away with the idea that this process was fast. It wasn't.

It took 3 days to get the orange/black flames together, then another 3 days to get the yellow sections done, then it's taken another two days to get them together properly.

It's not a fast technique, but I wouldn't say it's horribly difficult. You just need to be patient and willing to spend a lot of time stitching water soluble thread to stabilize everything before moving on to the next step.

Overall I know I'll try this again, but without the stiff material and on a bigger scale. This technique really needs more experimenting, which I'm sure to get when I start this final sun section:

Now I'm off to start this sun section and squish more fabric in a place it doesn't fit, and regulate it all with another spool of water soluble thread. Yay! I couldn't be happier with this!

Let's go quilt,

Leah

Day 359 - Flame Turns

2011-12-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

Moving on...would anyone like a new design today??? Here's a cool variation of Left Turn, Right Turn, Curvy Turns, and Angle Turns that incorporates a thicker turn and line down the center to create Flame Turns:

I'm still amazed by the awesome texture that comes from just turning left and turning right, then connecting the rows together across your quilt. It fills a space beautifully and as you can see in Shadow Self, it creates a texture that is both predictable, but also free form. It can't get much better than that!

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Difficulty Level - Beginner / Intermediate. This is a surprisingly easy design to stitch. First curve left, then curve right and work from one edge of your quilt to the other with this combination of stitches. As you stitch the next row, make sure to interconnect the two together so it forms a grid-like texture.

Filler Design Type - Edge to Edge. This design is stitched in rows, but it could easily stretch across an entire quilt. I'd love to see a modern quilt filled with Flame Turns interconnecting, then the inside spaces filled with another design. Cool!

Directional Texture - 2 Directions. This is a bit weird because it is forming a horizontal and vertical grid, but it's also wiggly...so...that's probably going to create a free form grid like design that will work just about anywhere.

Suggestions for Use - I'm looking forward to experimenting with this Turn family of designs to see what happens when they work across a quilt on a large scale. Better yet, what happens when the turns are used as a foundation for more designs? So many questions to answer! I'd better go quilt!

Leah Day

You Are NOT My Mother

2011-12-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

I was planning to share another cool design today, but I received a certain email this morning that requires me to vent a bit.

So if you don't want to endure my anger, frustration, or emotional "stuff" please go check out all the cool designs and emotion-free stuff available here.

The following vent is directed at certain people who email me to scold me over something they feel I've done wrong, or chastise me over a decision I've made about my own life.

Now for the vent - You Are NOT My Mother.

It seems silly to have to say this out loud, since I'm sure you, sitting there reading this are most assuredly NOT my mother because #1 my mother doesn't have internet access because she's an idiot and left my dad after 30 years of marriage and is now living in relative poverty which really is most appropraite considering her terrible behavior and #2 she doesn't read my blog even when she does have access.

I ask because every so often, or sometimes as often as every day, I receive a random email in which the sender seems quite confused. She seems to think that I am her daughter and I need "straightening out."

Or at least a solid talking to, which usually comes across as condescending, passive aggressive, and patronizing.

The theme is always "stupid little girl, you can't think this way because you're a stupid little girl and you don't know better and your mother loves you and you need to stop feeling and thinking this way because IT'S BAD. You need to keep a door open, keep the option around, ask for forgiveness, hug and make up, forgive and forget, allow bygones to be gone, and all other manner of get-over-it-right-now-and-be-fixed."

To which, my response is always the same - DELETE!

I call the women (and yes, it's always women that send such messages. I don't think men know how to be so condescending) who send these emails Crazy Mothers. I never respond to such emails simply because there is no response that will ever properly express what I'm feeling without being offensive:

"Thank you for your opinion, but please back off."

"Thank you for your opinion, but you're dead wrong and have serious boundary issues."

"No thank you for your opinion."

No matter what, I'm sure to get an email back that will be even more condescending and patronizing, even more of what I absolutely don't want.

But some emails just can't be ignored. Some are so hurtful, so condescending, so passive aggressive, that they make me want to punch the sender in the face. So to those specific Crazy Mothers, past, present, and future, here is my responding letter:

Dear Crazy Mother,

You are NOT my mother. You never gave birth to me and you did not raise me. You have read my words and applied yourself to my emotional venting and decided you actually have a say and are involved in my life.

Guess what? YOU'RE NOT!

You, my dear reader, are just a reader, not an active participant.

I'm sorry to have to remind you of this, but I DON'T KNOW YOU.

You know me, which makes for an extremely one sided relationship in which you assume we're best friends and have a great relationship, but we don't. I've never met you, I don't know you, and I definitely don't need your stuff applied to me.

Please don't email me again. ~ Leah Day

Yes, this is harsh, but it will be reserved only for the craziest of the Crazy Mothers. It will also allow me to place a boundary line between me and the people who seek to change and manipulate me.

As I said, this is a vent, nothing more. Read it and laugh that you're not this screwed up, that you have children you love, who love you back.

Trust me, you don't want to be my mother because my mother wasn't a good person. She's an alcoholic, a prescription drug addict, a junkie who views the world in an extremely narcissistic way. You don't want to be her, and you seriously don't want to try to step into her shoes.

Because I'm a girl who no longer needs her mother. I'm a girl who has stepped out of that conventional role and who doesn't want or need to hear that what I'm doing is wrong or bad or something I'll regret.

I may well regret this decision when I'm 60 years old an have the time and capability of foresight and hindsight, but here's one last fact - It is my choice to make, not yours.

I'm comfortable with the idea of regret. I have many regrets in my life already, but the biggest one so far is allowing terrible people to hurt me for 27 years. Allowing them to control and manipulate me. Allowing others ideas, wishes, or actions to change the course of my life for so very long.

And that now includes the Crazy Mothers, who have had the power, up until today, to make me feel like a bad little girl making stupid decisions. You cannot hurt me anymore because I will not allow you to.

That is my stand, this is my road, and I will walk it to where ever it leads.

Now I don't know about you, but I need to go quilt!

Leah Day

Day 358 - Lollipop Echo

2011-12-14T06:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a design that fits right into this season along with sugar plums and candy canes. This is Lollipop Echo:

You'll likely recognize this design from last week's Cyber Echo. The major difference here is the lollipop shape you start with which actually makes this version of the design easier to quilt in some ways.

The trade off is that there's a ton of travel stitching involved, which can be challenging. Just take it slow and don't worry if your lollipops aren't perfect. They'll taste just fine either way!

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Difficulty Level - Intermediate. The challenge with this design is forming the lollipop and stitching right along your stitching to get out of the shape and start the echoes. A great way to practice this design is to stitch Lollipop Chain.

Filler Design Type - Echoing. Rows and rows of quilting echo out from the starting lollipop shape. The more rows of echoing you do, the more interesting the texture will become.

Directional Texture - All Directions. This design creates a really interesting texture because the center lollipops will always stand out a bit more than the rings of echo quilting. For that reason, make sure to place this design somewhere it can get lots of attention.

Suggestions for Use - I'd love to see this design stitched over the surface of a large bed quilt. Lollipop Echo is sure to not only look terrific, but also bring super sweet dreams!

Back of Lollipop Echo
Feel free to use this free motion quilting design in your quilts

and send in a picture to show it off!

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies you need for

beautiful free motion quilting

Losing Weight During the Holidays

2011-12-13T16:14:00.000-08:00

Reading the title of this post, you're probably thinking "Is this spam? Get REAL! Who wants to lose weight during the holidays??? Isn't eating delicious, carbolicious, fatty food what this season is all about?"

To which I have to respond with an adamant YES! This time of year is all about eating delicious food and entertaining family and friends, but that doesn't mean that you can't maintain some control over your weight during this month as well.

Now I know this is a contentious, sensitive subject for many people. I certainly don't want to fill you with feelings of remorse at the turkey feast you just ate or feelings of guild at the meals soon to come.

What instead I want to share with you is the story of how Josh and I have not only gained control over our weight, we've actively worked to regain our ideal body weight together.

Back in October we traveled to Pensacola, FL to see Josh's grandmother. During that 8 hour car trip, Josh and I talked a lot about things we'd like to work on in the remainder of 2011 and in 2012. One of the biggest issues we both mentioned was our weight.

Keep in mind that Josh and I are not overweight, but we are both short people with metabolisms that will slow drastically over the next few years as we get into our 30s, and we live a very sedentary lifestyle.

Our typical day revolves around the computer for Josh or the sewing machine for me. Unless we make a point of it, I doubt we walk more than 1000 steps on the days we don't leave the house, which can be more than 4 days out of the week.

If you log your daily exercise for a month, it can be surprising just how little we move around physically every day. It's easy to ignore this fact until you actually write it down, journal it, and then take notice. It's very easy to forget or simply ignore how important movement is to our daily life.

Now let's talk about diet. I'm a naturally skinny person, and I always have been, but this summer I felt overwhelmingly dissatisfied with my body. I was about 15 pounds over my "sexy" weight where I feel like I look pretty good, so I wasn't very comfortable in my swim suit this year. But I was also totally incapable of doing anything about my figure.

For one thing, I hate dieting. Every time I diet, I find one set of foods for each meal like this: I'm going to eat THIS cereal for breakfast, THIS set of foods for lunch, and THIS set of foods for dinner. Period.

And by the third day of the same food, I'm so sick of eating those same flavors that I'd rather go munch on a rock. Simply put: I need more variety. I end up dropping the diet simply because I collapse to the craving of a bag of chips and a Jack and coke by the pool.

I also stop eating well when I'm working hard, and this past summer I was busy writing From Feathers to Flames, so I didn't have much time to care what was going into my mouth. I just wanted it to be FOOD that would stop me from feeling HUNGRY for at least the next few hours.

Healthy? No. Sustainable? Absolutely not.

Josh admits his great vice is beer, so 5 excess pounds shows up a lot more on his belly than on mine. Since Josh is over 30, he's already noticed a dramatic drop in his metabolism since college, and like me, he was extremely unsatisfied with is body this summer.

Also like me, Josh hates to diet. Spending some of his childhood and teenage years as a vegan, any idea of food limitation now is anathema to him. Exercise is also a contentious subject we might as well just not go into.

But the fact is we both want to lose weight. How best to go about this?

Based on our previous history with dieting and exercise, I had to finally come to terms with a few facts:

1. We simply don't exercise - it's wonderful when we can fit a two or three mile walk into our day, but most of the time we can't. We work in our own home which means we walk up and down stairs a few times a day and that's about it. And we live in an area with no leash laws and some very mean dogs, so walking in our neighborhood is out of the question.

2. We eat what we want - If you put me on a limited diet, you'll find yourself missing a few fingers by the end of the week. If you put Josh on a limited diet, well, I'd feel sorry for whoever tries it.

3. We drink what we want - Yes, we drink alcohol. Moderately, and it's something neither of us is ready to give up for the sake of losing a few pounds.

So how do two people with this impossible seeming list of requirements figure out a way to lose over 20 pounds together in 1 1/2 months?

The simple answer is we've finally learned HOW MUCH food we should be eating.

Using a program called Diet Power, Josh and I learned how to eat the correct amount of food depending on how fast we wanted to lose weight and how much we exercised.

Put it this way - if we sit on our butt all day, working on the computer or on the sewing machine, it's unlikely that we're burning even 2000 calories a day.

Before I started this program, I was typically eating well over 2500 calories a day, blasting my sodium and sugar amounts off the scale, and usually feeling run down and exhausted by the end of the day.

When we started the program the first week I limited myself to around 1600 calories a day. I could eat anything I wanted, so long as it all added up to less than 1600 calories.

That first week was really tough. I was in a transition period and just for lunch I was used to eating a full sandwich (2 slices of bread, 4 slices of bacon, tomato, mayo, lettuce, etc) plus chips and a cola. That meal right there was well over 600 calories all on its own!

But by the second week, this new portion size not only felt right, I felt right eating it! No longer would I have that heavy, overly full feeling after eating a meal. I was finally comfortable eating the right portion for my size and my exercise amount.

Keep in mind - I'm not going hungry. I never stop myself from eating a snack if I'm hungry between meals. Instead I've looked for healthier snacks that don't pack on the pounds.

One of my favorite snacks is 16 wheat thin crackers with 1 oz of smoked salmon and 1 tablespoon of cream cheese. It's enough to make me feel full and satisfied for several hours, but at only around 200 calories, it also not nearly as calorie costly as other snack foods I was used to eating.

This insight has spread into eating at restaurants as well. What I've found after eating at many places is that the entree size portions are actually 4 to 5 times bigger than they should be.

Recently I went to Olive Garden and had to request a Nutrition Menu in order to know what I was ordering. I almost choked on my 150 calorie breadstick! Turns out, not only are the entrees over the top with calories, they also contain on average more than 3 times your daily allowance of salt!

This meas after eating at one of these chain style restaurants, you're definitely going to see the numbers on the scale rise simply because all that salt forces your body to retain more water, and thus more weight.

All told, had I finished my entire bowl of soup, 3 bread sticks served to me, and entire entree, I would have been topping 2000 calories in that single meal. That's ridiculous. What's even more excessive is I would have also consumed over 5000 mg of salt. Would you like kidney failure as a side dish or dessert?

Many people would respond to this statement that you're not meant to eat the entire meal at a restaurant like this. You're not intended to clean your plate, otherwise the portions wouldn't be so big or so expensive.

My response is simply this: why would a resturant serve food to you if they didn't intend for you to eat it? Are chain resturants so rich they can actually afford to waste food in such massive quantities that it doesn't matter if more than half of every portion gets thrown away?

I don't have an easy answer for this other than to say there really needs to be a total overhaul in the chain food industry, specifically regulations on the amount of salt allowed in food. My kidneys hurt for two days after that dinner and I don't want to think how I would have felt if I'd cleaned my plate.

And this brings up another lesson I've learned while on this diet: leaving food on your plate is not a sin.

Oh, but it hurts to leave a plate more than half full!

Growing up, I was never really taught to clean my plate, but I was taught to not be wasteful. We rarely ate out, so I actually got more experience eating out with my friend's parents than my own. Over time I began to see a general pattern in the women that pressured me to eat more or to finish what was set in front of me: they were all, universally, overweight.

In my teenage years, my various boyfriend's mothers were the worse. I began getting used to veiled insults like "Oh, she eats like a bird." or "No idea why we bring her, she never finishes anything." and "Are you going to finish that? I don't want to get a box."

I knew I had a winner when I met Josh's mom, a teensy tiny woman who encouraged me to order the most expensive thing on the menu the first time we went to dinner (it really was the best thing at that restaurant), then told me it was perfectly fine if I didn't finish half of it - she never did!

But leaving a plate half full literally hurts. It hits all those guilt buttons about wasting and excess that make us feel really bad.

Even asking for a box can feel awkward if it's too early in the meal. Servers can misinterpret that as a meal gone wrong, which is extremely unfortunate. Personally I'd rather divide my portion early and get the remainder in a box so that way I'm not tempted to keep eating, just because the food is in front of me.

I'm also occasionally tempted by the disgusting depravity that is fast food. It's fast, it's easy, it's cheap. All reasons why it ends up in our house a lot more than it should.

But after we started using Diet Power, Josh and I suddenly realized just WHAT we were eating when we chowed down on a Big Mac, large fry, and medium coke. More than 1000 calories for one thing, which is more than half of what we're now eating ALL DAY. We quickly realized there are a lot better ways to eat cheaply and easily without that kind of calorie (or sodium or sugar) cost.

But even if wanted to eat fast food, we still can using this program! Diet Power has thousands of foods logged into its library which you can easily search through and add to your log of foods eaten for the day. It's no longer a question of what you can or can't eat or restrictions on a million foods, but simply what your daily log looks like and what you have budgeted for.

Case in point was Thanksgiving dinner. You'd expect to blow your whole day in this mega blast meal of turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, etc. The truth is, it's very easy to blast your whole day, but by controlling the portions of each item (1/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup) you could easily eat that meal without destroying your diet, or missing dessert.

This program also forces you out of any healthy eating delusions you might have. You get literally graded on your vitamin intake for the day based on the foods you log which means if you're drastically low on any particular vitamin you need, you could easily score a D or F, and no one likes to make a bad grade!

It's actually hard to describe what I've learned in a logical way that makes sense because I'm still trying to fully understand just HOW MUCH learning caloric information has helped us.

I've learned to eat less overall, but more often throughout the day.
I've learned to take vitamins regularly.
I've learned to drink more water daily.
I've learned that I really don't have to exercise to lose weight, but that walking 2 miles a day is not only possible, it also makes me feel great.
I've learned to cut my portions in resturants in half or in quarters, and I've learned how to say "no" to eating the rest without feeling guilty.

And the most important thing is I've lost 10 pounds. Most of my back pudge has naturally melted away and my thighs and stomach have noticeably shrunk.

I still have 10 pounds to go, then I plan to maintain my body weight for the rest of my life between 115 - 120 pounds.

Many people that have seen me in person might say I don't have 10 pounds to lose. I respond with "You haven't seen me in a swim suit." and regardless, it's my body and it's my emotional health. If I'm not happy, who is the one that should do something about it? Me.

Just as if you're not happy with your body, the only person who has any potential of changing the situation is...YOU.

So here's the deal: you can try Diet Power yourself for 15 day for free. It's an unlimited download which means the program is fully functional when you download it, it's just limited to only 15 days.

If you're anything like me, the first 7 days will be getting used to using the program, and getting used to your calorie budget. By the second week, you should be getting comfortable with the program and already losing weight.

If you decide that you like the program and want to use it forever, you can get $5 off by mentioning you heard it from me. Yep, I do make money from this, and I'm not sorry to admit it. Here's why:

I've found something that works, that I can use daily to feel empowered and in control over my weight, something that previously only felt mysterious and out of my control. I know this program works and that I've seen real results from using it, plus I've learned loads about food, my diet, and my health from using it.

Why not share this with everyone I know?

So click here to check out Diet Power and download your free trial.

Now enough about food, let's go quilt!

Leah Day

Day 357 - Deco Leaves

2011-12-13T09:14:00.000-08:00

Moving right along with these last designs to the project, here's another Art Deco inspired design called Deco Leaves:

Of course, looking at the photo above it's quite difficult to imagine what this design will look like in a real quilt or how it will work. So I sketched out a drawing of Deco Leaves around a block so you can see how it would look in the sashing or borders:

Notice in this drawing, I was experimenting with different ways of turning the corner. There's no one single way to turn a corner with this design, and while I've played with 4 ways here, I'm sure there are many more.

The start of the design is to stitch the triangle pattern through you quilting space, so however you turn the corner, you can set this in stone with the first line line of stitching. If you decide you like another way better, it's really as simple as ripping out some stitches and starting again.

Now let's see how a single triangle is quilted:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Difficulty Level - Intermediate. This design is a bit tricky, but you can always mark the initial triangle shapes to start and, with that visual guide, filling in the wiggly line and straight lines within should be much easier.

Filler Design Type - Edge to Edge. Technically this could also be a Foundational Design since the design is based so fundamentally on the triangle shapes, but since it really depends on the edges of your quilting space to travel along to get into and form the rest of the design, I think it's best to stick it in the Edge to Edge category.

Directional Texture - 2 Directions. You can't miss the horizontal or vertical texture of this design, but as you can see from my sketch above, it's how you change directions in the corners that can really make a bit difference.

Suggestions for Use - For some reason I'm think of a bright, floral, overwhelmingly appliqued quilt for this design. Deco Leaves would make the perfect sashing or border design to calm down a complex space.

Back of Deco Leaves
Feel free to use this free motion quilting design in your quilts

and send in a picture to show it off!

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies you need for

beautiful free motion quilting

Day 356 - Feather Band

2011-12-12T05:56:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since we learned a new feather design so let's try something simple with this Feather Band:

With this design I was experimenting to with overlapping the feathers in the middle of the space, but honestly after stitching it, I think Feather Band will look better of the feathers interlock rather than overlap in the middle.

Of course, that's just my opinion so try playing with this design and see what you think!

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Difficulty Level - Beginner / Intermediate. This design is stitched along the edges of your quilting space into the middle, so it's a great way to practice travel stitching.

Filler Design Type - Edge to Center. This design type is really interesting because it's basically built to go in the sashing or borders of your quilts. An easier variation would be to only stitch 1/2 of the design, leaving the opposite side open or quilting a totally different design into that space.

Directional Texture - 2 Directions. With feathers, the longer and more bendy you start, the more fluid and curvy all the feathers will be. It's harder to keep control of longer feathers so just take your time and try drawing it a few times to really get the hang of it.

Suggestions for Use - Feathers add a formal, ritzy touch no matter where you put them! I'd personally love to see this Feather Band used in the sashing to accent quilt blocks filled with other feathered motifs. It's a simple enough texture to add to those areas without distracting from the main focus of the quilt.

Back of Feather Band
Feel free to use this free motion quilting design in your quilts

and send in a picture to show it off!

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies you need for

beautiful free motion quilting

Day 355 - Meditation Medallion

2011-12-11T07:01:00.000-08:00

Let's keep rolling with new designs! I have a Dover book of mandalas I picked up at Cracker Barrel a few years ago and flipping through the pages I realized I could easily create a medallion of my own simply by combining different designs together in a circular pattern. So here's Meditation Medallion:

Looking at this design, I realize it would make for a fun workshop! Each student creates a 15" medallion using as many different designs as you like. It would be a fun way to learn new designs and experiment with quilting in a circle, and just think of all the beautiful medallions that could be created!

One thing is for sure - the next time I stitch one of these I'm going to mark each circle to make sure the whole medallion ends up circular. It drives me nuts to see a quilt finish oval that should finish circular!

Click here if the video does not appear

Difficulty Level - Intermediate / Advanced. This design can really be a combination of any designs you like. It's really fun to experiment with, and no matter which designs you choose, it will always finish beautifully.

Filler Design Type - Center Fill. Starting in the center of your quilting space allows you to easily create rows of circular shapes. Each row builds upon the previous row, creating an intricate, beautiful pattern.

Directional Texture - Center Focused. With all the rows of designs surrounding a center design, your focus will likely be right into the center of the design where everything starts. Make sure to start with your favorite design so it gets the most attention right in the center.

Suggestions for Use - If you're in need of a very fast Christmas gift, try sketching a few different Meditation Medallions on paper first, then select one and stitch it on some high quality red or silver silk fabric. The end result will be a gorgeous wall hanging that anyone would love to receive.

Back of Meditation Medallion
Feel free to use this free motion quilting design in your quilts

and send in a picture to show it off!

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies you need for

beautiful free motion quilting

Emergence: Part 5 - Unshackled

2011-12-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

If you're a follower on facebook, then you've already gotten a heads up that I've been spending the last week blasting through Emergence like a freight train. Basically I took a hard look at that quilt and decided it MUST be finished THIS year.

I'm a bit weird with this, and yes, this will be a weird post, and with the holidays coming up and family stuff on the rise and emotions probably running high, you might not want to read it, particularly if you have a wonderful family, and lovely sisters who treat you great, and you have absolutely no understanding of sibling abuse. This is definitely not the post for you.

So instead feel free to click over to design posts and have fun watching videos instead.

For those of you that are sticking around, I'll treat you with a pic of how Emergence is looking after 3 days straight of 6 hours or more of quilting:

(sorry the photo is pieced together this way! She's very difficult to photograph)

I'm honestly surprised I was able to blast through this so quickly. Had I known I was only 3 days away from getting through these sections I would have done it months ago.

But then again, maybe not. This has been a very weird year and I have to say I'll be very glad when it's over. 2011 has been hard and I would like to stitch out most of my feelings, now that I'm finally starting to understand them, before the year switches over. Silly? Maybe, but at least I have a deadline now which means this quilt won't sit on the wall unfinished for the next 6 months!

As of right now the top is entirely quilted. Is it done? No. Definitely not.

For one thing the sun is all wrong. I realized this after designing it, but it was too late to sketch something in on the quilt itself. The sun needs to be a big impact area, but I only designed a simple oval shape at the top.

So for the last two months I've agonized over what to do in this area. What should go here? How should I change it? How can I make it work and balance with the bright tear in the center? Doesn't this goddess need hair? How do I attach the hair? What if it messes up the back of the quilt?

All these unanswered questions just created a lot of stress and tension, which just makes me hate working on it. Quite simply - I was afraid of this quilt. I was afraid of messing it up, of ruining it, and ultimately it not living up to what I wanted it to look like.

Emergence has always been an important quilt. From the time I first sketched the goddess, I knew this would be a really pivotal quilt, but it was only after burning sinkhole and connecting the second half of the image that it really came together.

What it represents, quite simply, is the process of emerging from a dark past, of coming out of the darkness and gray area and into the light.

This is even more symbolic because my maiden name happens to be Gray and my married name is Day. You can't really get more straight forward than that! I'm emerging from the memories of my childhood when my name was Leah Gray.

But emerging from memories is not an easy thing as I've found this year. The main reason 2011 has been difficult is because the first half of the year I lived in terror of having to deal with the three women of my family: my mother, my older sister, and my middle sister.

Well, terror isn't exactly the right word for it...more like I was constantly anxious about a confrontation. I had indicated clearly that I wanted no contact, but when have they ever listened or done what I wanted? Never. Why should I expect my wishes to be granted or respected now?

Mostly I've felt paralyzed about writing or talking openly about these feelings because, logically, that could instigate a confrontation.

Finally October rolled around with my birthday and...dum dum dum....the dreaded phone call came and....I ignored it. Simple as that. All year, practically 10 months spent worrying about something, and when it finally happened, it was really not a big deal at all.

Quite simply: I realized suddenly that I am an adult and I don't have to pick up that phone, I don't have to listen, I don't have to respond at all. All my life I've been reacting and reacting and reacting. For once, I simply didn't react.

That experience taught me that continually worrying about something is a huge waste of time. I feel like I've largely stalled out this year, both with my personal development and my quilting, and I largely blame this nagging worry and anxiety. It's simply hard to create or move or change when you're stuck in the mud with worry.

So this is me getting unstuck, unshackled, unbound, unfettered, free and emerging.

And the very first thing I need to do is break this pattern of silence. I'm learning more and more that silence is a hallmark of dysfunctional families. We could rage at one another at home, but if we dared bring a fight into public, the fire storm would reign.

In many situations the only time we were punished was because a fight was witnessed by others, not because of the fight itself. We were allowed to hit, kick, pull hair, and verbally abuse with pretty much no limitation (at least we never drew blood). The only resistance my mother ever put up was to say "Girls, get along."

For this reason, I'm going tell you about my sisters and why I never want to see or speak to them again.

Quite simply, I'm afraid to. The last time I saw my middle sister we ended up in a hair pulling fist fight. We were 24 and 26 years old. Had we both had weapons or even a sharp object to hand, I don't know what could have happened.

I know this sounds crazy. Why would two adult girls still feel the need to fight with one another? Why couldn't we talk it out and explain our feelings like adults?

I've thought about this a lot while quilting Emergence and finally decided that there really isn't a single answer.

Part of the fault lies in me. Growing up, my role in the household was that of a typical youngest child - I was the peacemaker and the resident doormat. I hated fighting and raised voices. I really hated getting in trouble and being spanked so I made an effort to stay out of sight by playing behind a large chair.

But that changed when I reached college, and especially changed when I married Josh. Suddenly I was no longer so easy-going. I was no longer the peacemaker and if you tried to walk all over me, you'd be much more likely to get a twisted ankle. Essentially, I changed a long running and deeply ingrained family dynamic, and almost immediately things started to get tense.

In my early twenties, I really didn't understand how dangerous (or dysfunctional, or weird) our physical confrontations were. I didn't see then that small spats, passive aggressive behavior, and a total lack of respect were characteristic of abusive families.

In movies you always see big burly men as the bad guys that beat their wives. In my house it was my mother that would start the abuse and my sisters that passed it around. I reached a point in my early twenties when I realized that I didn't have to take it anymore.

But the other reason we fought like cats as adults is because of the long standing competition that has raged between me and my sisters probably since the day I was born. At any point in time, based on how mom talked about each of us, you could tell where you stood in the scheme of things.

I'm not exactly sure why this was. Overwhelmingly I look back to my childhood and feel a totally lack of love. It was like a void, like someone had stuck a vacuum to the house and sucked the love right out of it. There just wasn't enough to go around. This was exacerbated by the fact that mom began telling us around the time I turned 12 that she "had nothing left to give."

For a long time I felt that I would never be capable of loving myself simply because my mother didn't love me and didn't want me. After having James, I know that my mother did love me, but I also know she had serious issues with expressing it in a healthy way. Over the last year especially I've had to reprogram my mind to view love as a continual energy stream (like the sun), not as a glass of liquid, that once depleted can never be full again.

I know I was never taught to love, respect, or even like my sisters. On no occasion was I encouraged to "hug and make up." I can remember being around 7 or 8 and watching an episode of Ramona on TV where the parents have a fight and the sisters get in bed together to comfort one another because they're scared their parents are going to get divorced.

I remember watching that episode and thinking "Why have I never wanted to do that?" Probably because they'd kick me right back out of their bed, then make fun of me for a week for showing weakness.

Weakness, sadness, anger - these are normal emotions felt by everyone, but in my house growing up, I wasn't really allowed to show this. From the age of 4, my oldest sister, who was 8 at the time, took care of my middle sister and I while mom was at work and my dad slept (he worked 3rd shift). The general idea was if we caught the house on fire or hurt one another seriously, Dad was still in the house and could take care of it.

But my parents never knew what my sisters did while they were at work or asleep. My oldest sister got the most attention from our mom by cleaning and pretending to be a good mom, so she would stage cleaning "games" were we were each assigned a room to clean.

In order to go play like a normal kid, she would inspect the room you cleaned and it was never right. Hours would go by until I grew so frustrated I quit working, and then she'd punch and pull hair until I got back to the task. To this day, I refuse to clean the bathroom.

When asked about this behavior when I was much older, my mother would laugh and say "Oh, Leah, you had 3 mothers!" No, I didn't. I had 1 mother who didn't really care what was going on, and I had 2 tyrant sisters who drove me crazy.

And behind the scenes of everything was our constant competition. We competed in school - who has the best grades? We competed with friends - who is the most popular?

Eventually I think we stopped competing for mom's attention and just challenged one another because that was just the established thing we did.

And by middle school we were competing with boyfriends, which needless to say is a very stupid (and dangerous) thing to compete with. I can remember my middle sister once boasting that she had 27 boyfriends in 6th grade, and by the time I reached 5th grade, I was already being continually teased by both of them for being "square."

The truly ironic thing is that my oldest sister who was 4 years older than me didn't get her first kiss until high school! The hypocrite made me feel so ugly and unwanted that the pressure to find and guy and make myself not "square" was overwhelming.

It's only recently that I've linked up a whole host of experiences through middle school and high school when I made decisions just to fair better in our competition.

As adults, I "won" for several years just for giving birth to James. The first grandbaby is quite a winning commodity apparently, and it was around that time I started to notice it shifting to our new families. If our relationships had continued, it would have become a competition over how our husbands looked and how our kids behaved. Who has the biggest house in the coolest city?

It's all so pathetic and stupid that I often find myself laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. Why compete if there is absolutely no defined goal? No one will ever "win" for good because it's a constantly changing battlefield.

Finally, the last reason I don't think a relationship with my oldest sister will ever be healthy is because she doesn't respect me or treat me like a separate person. This might sound crazy, but it's typical of extremely narcissistic people.

My oldest sister would enjoy giving me her old clothes, but then every time I wore them she would ask "Is that my shirt? Take it off, I want to wear it." or "Is that my shirt? Make sure not to goodwill it when you're sick of it, I want it back." Essentially she could, at any time, literally demand the shirt off my back.

She would often come to holiday gatherings and play with my son and talk to my in laws as though it was her house, not mine. It's like she felt she could borrow my family whenever it suited her, and all the while she would passive aggressively criticize my clothes, my hair, my house, or whatever else didn't fit her idea of perfection.

I still largely hear her voice sound off in my head whenever I consider leaving the house in something weird. "What will people think if you wear that? You need to change!"

No, I never needed to change because no one ever thought anything. It was always what she felt and thought and always assumed it reflected on her. The sad fact is that my oldest sister has never learned that the only person she can control is herself. She had, for the better part of 15 years, two smaller versions of herself always ready to do her bidding, and she had our mother's support for her abuse. I seriously feel sorry for whoever is unlucky enough to marry her.

Reading through all this, you might run away with the idea that I was an angel. I wasn't. I gave as good as I got on many occasions, and pulled large amounts of hair, and I would often take what I'd learned from my sisters at home and hurt other kids at school with it. For a very long time the shame and regret of my actions stopped me from moving forward, stopped me from loving myself in any way.

But understanding is the key. I understand now where certain feelings and actions came from. I still have regrets, but I no longer hate myself with the self loathing I felt a year ago. I have too much understanding and compassion for myself now.

And it is precisely that understanding and compassion that allow me to make the decision to never see my sisters again. Why see someone that just makes you crazy? Why talk to someone that only cuts you down in passive aggressive ways that dig deep under your skin? Why bother?

I once went to a lecture with Sherman Alexie, a wonderful Native American writer, and he said something to this effect:

"You white people, you're always afraid! You're afraid of the black man and the red man and any stranger on the street, but guess what? There are about 700 people in here, 3 to 8 of you will be killed by one of your family members."

I don't think I need to test Sherman's theory. I'd rather just walk away and mind my own business and live my life and be done with the riffraff of my past.

So that is what Emergence is about. The rings of gray in my past, the tear, which I might explain more next year, and the goddess emerging to bright, colorful freedom.

There's still a lot to do on this quilt. A sun to create, threads to couch, hair to attach. But overwhelmingly this has been a freeing experience. I have broken a silence that has lasted for 28 years and shared with you the truth of who my sisters are. No matter what happens next with this quilt, I've learned the most important lesson of all: the truth always sets you free.

Let's go quilt,

Leah