Practice Isn’t Pretty

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. QuiltShopGal says:

    Great words of encouragement. I so want to master free-motion couching, but so true it will take practice.

    QuiltShopGal
    http://www.quiltshopgal.com

  2. Andrea R says:

    Thanks for the reminder it does not have to look perfect every single time!

  3. Jessim says:

    Feeling like I am wasting materials is the hardest thing for me!

    One big problem with free motion couching is that it is really hard to travel stitch- something so many of the good quilting designs rely on! I do like couched stippling though!

  4. I have been practicing and I must admit I am struggling with it. I am quilting a full size quilt on a regular machine and sometimes I want to tear my hair out. I feel like I don't have the range of movement and the quilt slips. I tried the grabber gloves but ended up grasping each side of the quilt to move it along. I am thinking I might have to invest in a long arm if I am going to get serious about this hobby.

  5. Suzy Webster says:

    It's been a long time since I tried couching thanks for the reminder and the inspiration

  6. Leah, I don't think these look bad at all. Oddly enough, I was just TODAY lamenting the fact that the Janome Horizon 8900qcp does not have one of these FMQ couching feet for purchase. They only have the feet that you use when couching with the feed dogs UP. If you know of any generic foot that would do the job for this machine, please let us know. Thanks!

  7. Connie says:

    I love the title of this post. It reminds me to plan on being "less than perfect" whenever I try something new.

  8. qwilltr says:

    I haven't tried couching, leah but Helen Godden from Australia has some great Handiquiter
    sweet 16 youTubes on it. She uses it more to make a solid couched area for something such as a landscape quilt rather than the designs you are trying to work with. Maybe that's a key to success with it? Just a thought. Good luck!

  9. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has a "problem" with practicing and throwing away my efforts. To counter that, I've come up with a solution that works very well for me and it might for other quilters: I make fat quarter practice sandwiches and quilt them to my heart's content. I put four at a time together using Quilt As You Go techniques, bind, wash, and dry them. The fat quarters don't match and they don't have to be "good" quilting. It's practice! Then I donate them to our local wildlife rehabilitation center or animal shelter. The critters couldn't be more appreciative and they NEVER analyze my stitches or technique. It's a win-win. I feel like I'm practicing with purpose and the critters get blankies.

  10. Tricia Savage says:

    Lovely patternespecially for beginners to FMQ, Thank You

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