HOLLY MEANDER QUILTING PATTERN HOW TO
HOLLY MEANDER QUILTING PATTERN FULL
HOLLY MEANDER QUILTING PATTERN FREE

Making Points Pointy – The MazeĪs surprisingly hard as it is to avoid corners, it’s almost just as hard to intentionally make them where you do want them.Īfter learning the curvy stipple, you get so into the groove of a curve that the new task of making a corner can have an unnatural feel to it.Īll of a sudden where it was so easy to get a sharp corner where you didn’t want it, you end up with messy rounded corners when you are actually trying.Ĭonsider it a new challenge.

HOLLY MEANDER QUILTING PATTERN HOW TO

This meander is great for learning how to multitask physical stitching with deciding where to go next.Īs you practice you’ll find it easier to move in a smoother manner without accidentally adding corners where they don’t belong. You’ll quickly find that as you decide how to get in and out of the nooks and crannies that you’ll end up with distinct corners in your curves.

Start by getting used to the freedom of movement by just doodling a curve that moves back and forth filling in the space that doesn’t cross over itself.

HOLLY MEANDER QUILTING PATTERN FULL

It feels a bit reckless and loose, and you quickly realize what it means to have full control of a piece of fabric under the sewing machine.

HOLLY MEANDER QUILTING PATTERN FREE

One of the most common things you’ll run into in your first few attempts of free motion quilting is just how different free motion quilting feels compared to regular stitching with your feed dogs up. If you’ve never tried FMQ, the stipple is (in my opinion) the best place to start. You’d think a simple curvy line wouldn’t be so helpful, but it is! Once you know what skill to focus on in each of these meander practice exercises, you’ll start to recognize them in every FMQ design and be able to pick up new designs faster and flatten out the FMQ learning curve. In the grand scheme of an all over meandered quilt, you do not need to be perfect on every one of these points.Īs long as you are keeping them in mind, and keeping the mindset that “close enough is good enough” then with each quilt you’ll be improving left and right. So what concepts will these meander practice exercises help you with in order to successfully FMQ? It doesn’t matter what design you are working on, without having the foundational skills down (or at least being aware of them), you’ll run into the same struggles every time. The trick to FMQ, is getting the basics right. The beauty of meanders is that they can stand on their own so whether you have a pieced quilt top or just a plain piece of practice fabric, meanders are a perfect tool to practice FMQ skills.ĥ Meander Practice Exercises To Improve FMQ Pairing denser meanders with a more open design will help create a background and foreground look to your quilting allowing your featured designs to stand up and draw more attention. This will give your quilt an all-over texture and, at a larger scale, is a great way to finish a quilt quick.Īnother alternative is to use it in smaller quantities between larger features of a custom quilting design. You can use this meander quilting method as an all over quilting design that runs directly over the quilt top disregarding the piecing. They generally don’t have a direction they flow in, but can expand in any direction needed. The designs are made to be more improvisational and travel in any direction, so the idea is to repeat the design in every direction until you’ve filled in all the free space in that area. What is a meander?Ī meander is a simple design that repeats itself, or builds off itself, within a certain area of your quilt until it fills the entire space in. To practice the basic skills that are universal to many different FMQ designs, today we’re looking at a list of simple quilting meander practice exercises that break down each of these concepts and help improve your free motion quilting, one practice swatch at a time. Not having to be worried about whether you put a corner in a place where it doesn’t belong, or whether you DIDN’T put a corner where you actually intended is one of those things you can muscle memory out so you have less things to think about when you actually have a real quilt under the needle.

The best way to push past this stage of learning FMQ is to practice until you can put certain things on autopilot. If you’re like me when I first started, you may find yourself frustrated with having to keep track of so many things that you get overwhelmed with the process and ultimately scrap the FMQ idea. There’s a fine line between needing to pay more attention to what you’re doing, and paying so much attention to every stitch that you are overthinking it. I may receive commission for any purchases made through the links in this post.įree motion quilting can be a pain to learn.

Holly meander quilting pattern