Quilt Along #28 – Auditioning Designs

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

10 Responses

  1. Jessim says:

    Those drawings are beautiful!

    I definitely sketch before I try a design on the machine, but I haven't thought about auditioning in this way. Thanks for the tip.

  2. Jacquelin says:

    Gracias Leah, tengo una colcha a punto para acolchar y tengo una idea en la cabeza. Pondré en práctica lo que acabas de explicar.

  3. This is perfect timing for this challenge for me. I have been doing my friendship blog hop quilt, and I can't decide on the quilting! I have it narrowed down to 3 designs, but I am terrified I will pick the wrong one!!I have been at a stand-still for 3 days now. I thought I had my mind made up, but now, today, I'm still not sure! there are only 2 problems. One, my printer is out of ink(trip to kinkos?) and 2 I can't show my quilt until the blog hop:/, which means I can't link up with my project just yet! I need a program like yours. Got any CHEEP suggestions for a MAC?

  4. Oh Leah ~ so sorry about your computer troubles! And look at you dear, you still pull together some great quilt-along lessons off the cuff! Loved last weeks lesson, 3 Christmas gifts ready to go, and this weeks challenge is also a great one to put to work! Looking forward to it!
    Thank you Leah
    Godspeed,
    mary

  5. June D says:

    Great idea Leah!

    I'm behind where I want to be with my FMQing – but way ahead of where I thought I would be before I found your site! Thank you, thank you.

    ; )
    June

  6. I'm so glad to have read this post. It is very timely as I have just finished peicing my very first quilt top and soon it will be time to decide how to quilt it! I love the process you've outlined, sounds great. I have one question: when the pieces are patterned (i.e. you've used a fabric with a pattern on it), do you take that pattern into consideration at all when "auditioning"? Do you have any basic rules for this (e.g. never use sharp edge designs on a curvy fabric pattern)?

  7. Anonymous says:

    Great new project…I have a quilt all pieced and pin basted ready for quilting. It is a bolt of lightning design. I tried free-motion quilting along the bolts, but managed to wiggle too much – so I ripped it out…I tried walking foot along the zigs…waaaay too much time and frustration. So here it sits…tell me when to post a picture and I'd love your advice….

  8. SewCalGal says:

    Computer troubles are never fun.

    It is difficult to see a child transition into kindergarten, but a major milestone! Congratulations.

    All of these designs are beautiful. Pick a favorite ? Not me, I love them all.

    SewCalGal
    http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

  9. Bambi says:

    Leah, very interested in the comment about being afraid to quilt, and I know my first 20 quilts were minimal straight line walking foot quilts, not so much because I was afraid to free motion but more didn't know where to start in terms of designing free motion patterns and also because I got tired of trying to figure out how to transfer designs.
    I had 4 quilts in my UFO bucket that had been sandwiched and were waiting to be quilted for ages, and when I found your free motion project it was TaDa! The first two quilts were block round robins and I decided to trial one of your designs in each block. I wasn't going to be put off by doing things wrong and sure anyway if one block wasn’t perfect, the next would be better. I was just going to go for it. I quilted the two large nap quilts in a week each and each step was a joy, no fear, no angst. I then whizzed through a landscape wall hanging using contours for quilting and then used my now more nimble quilting fingers for a hug quilt I was making for my sister. Sewed the top and quilted it in a month.
    So for those who are "afraid" to start quilting and have UFOs piled up waiting to go to their new home I would really recommend taking those babies out and practising on each one until done. You can keep yourself motivated by changing a design for each block/part of your quilt, see which ones seem easy for you and learn by trial and error how to audition designs and what works best. And at the end you'll have a finished quilt, a lighter UFO bundle and some easy/entertaining hours of quilting under your belt. Some blocks will look better than others but the whole quilt will look amazing.
    First UFO Busting Free Motion Practise Quilt (Opps wondering if Leah will notice that I got her Machine Sewing Binding a bit wrong here)
    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151105667621215.489342.572606214&type=3&l=95744c3178
    Second UFO Busting Free Motion Practise Quilt
    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151105659646215.489341.572606214&type=3&l=1e3f6bcea8
    Third UFO Busting Free Motion Practise Quilt
    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151105677431215.489344.572606214&type=3
    The Real Thing – Making the Practise Real
    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151137045766215.492813.572606214&type=3&l=006fc983f3
    On a personal note I find that UFO's (and I only realised when I got to the last) cramp the creative juices. You can start another quilt but always in the back of my mind was the pressure of knowing I hadn't finished the one or ones before. I know we can have an emergency quilt to make, but really I would say try not to have more than 2 on the go. So if you find that creativity is stalled, every stitch seems a bother/effort and it’s all a bit blah – take out those UFOs and F them and have wonderful fun going mad with your free motion practise. You might find that it blows away all cobwebs and that creatively you go bump – during the practise quilting I found my mind happily teaming with new ideas. I have two quilts in my head waiting to go and the stash to do them, but will not start until the last beast has been completed.
    Now to get out my last UFO which was sandwiched over a year ago – is it a UFO when it is the only thing I have going? A huge Mariner's Compass Quilt which has large amounts of white space just daunting me with the choices. So am joining the challenge and let’s see what comes of it!
    Get better soon Harry

  10. … am really thrilled now to use this method. Never did it before but I guess it's worth doing so, reduces disappointments before they appear 😉
    now sitting in front of my nice ornament I designed for a first trapunto attempt, thinking of free motion thread dances…
    Thanks Leah for your wonderful project and the great ideas…
    btw: had such a fun with the storage system of last week. We just bought a couple of sun-blinds for our house and they were sold, stored in long plastic castors which are georgeous for this and will become my new quilt storage. What a nice right moment for your post and the fact that I do not throw them away now 🙂

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