Start Quilting on the Right Foot

Published: Wed, 01/11/17

Marking
Hi ,

I have a lot of videos for you this week, so let's jump right in!

First, let's learn how to mark our quilt block so it's easy to machine quilt. This will help you machine quilt each design easier so you can focus on balancing the speed of your machine with the movement of your hands.

Click here to watch how to mark a quilt top three different ways.

When it comes to marking the most important first step is to find some marking pens or pencils that mark thin lines you can see and follow while machine quilting.

How to Baste Your Quilt
Block Party 2017
With quilt basting, the most important thing is making sure the layers of the quilt are layered flat together without any extra fabric puddling up in the middle. The second challenge is securing the layers together temporarily so they don't shift as you machine quilt.

In this video I share my favorite method for basting a small quilt block.


If you would like to learn how to baste a much larger quilt, the method is a bit different. You can learn my method for basting larger quilts in the workshop Quilting a King on Your Home Machine.

My personal favorite tools for basting are Pinmoors and Clover Flowerhead pins. Click Here to learn more about these two important basting tools.
Stitching in the Ditch
Stitch in the Ditch
We can't run through the basics of quilting without a tutorial on stitching in the ditch. 

This is an important step in the quilting process that secures the layers of the quilt together and adds a nice outline between designs.

There are many ways to stitch in the ditch, but by far the easiest is with your walking foot.

The walking foot uses the feed dogs on your machine to feed the quilt smoothly into the machine so you can take one stitch at a time and stay right in the ditch.

Click Here to watch a video on the basics of stitching in ditch.
How to Quilt a Blooming Nine Patch
Are you ready to free motion quilt your Blooming Nine Patch quilt block? This block features many fun free motion quilting designs that will really stitch your skills up a notch.

Click Here to find the quilt pattern for Block 1 including the printable diagrams and templates used to mark this quilting design.


My favorite part of the Machine Quilting Block Party is seeing your version of the Blooming Nine Patch Block. Many quilters have already finished piecing and shared a pretty picture in our Block Party Facebook Group.

Here are block pictures shared from Patti S, Gabriele T, and Michele B:
Finished Blocks
How to Start Quilting
James Day
On our first podcast of 2017 I share how to get started quilting, which is a perfect topic given all of the videos we've done on the basics of quilting.

Click Here to listen to the episode as well as find all the podcast episodes so you can binge listen while you quilt.

As I was uploading this new series I realized we reached the 1000th video. So much has changed since my first videos went online and I know I've become a better teacher and quilter thanks to YouTube.

So that's it for today's newsletter! I really hope you enjoy all the videos this week.

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day