Machine quilting can be fun -- once you understand the basics and practice the techniques. Looking at it from a broad point of view, there are two basic types of machine quilting, straight (or gently curved) quilting lines performed with a walking foot (also called an even-feed foot) and free motion machine quilting, accomplished by lowering the feed dogs and using a presser foot that looks very much like a darning foot (more about the two categories of machine quilting).
Get the facts about cotton batting and decide which threads and needles are best for machine quilting. Learn how to baste your quilt with safety pins, or save time (and reduce the quilt's weight) by using adhesive basting products.
You'll find quite a few machine quilting tutorials on the Quilting site -- some by me and others by Rosaland Hannibal, a machine quilter who's working to contribute a growing number of articles to help get new machine quilters off to a good start. You'll find advice to help you choose a sewing machine. Learn which marking tools are good choices for machine quilting, or forget about marking altogether and create an easy pull-off grid or make templates from paper shapes.
When it's time to quilt, give in-the-ditch quilting techniques a try, or practice your free motion skills by quilting a heart shape on a practice quilt sandwich.
That's just a sample of the machine quilting articles on About.com Quilting. You'll find more in the Machine Quilting Index.
Comments