Freemotion Practice

Look!  Look!  Many mistakes and a few puckers later, I've successfully freemotion quilted my pillow tops.  I practiced several different patterns on the first one, which was the roughest.  I've never tried anything but stippling before.  The shadowed lines weren't too bad.  Pebbles were a lot harder than the video I watched.  I'm not thrilled with them, but they actually don't look bad.  Stitching on patterned fabric with a similar colored thread was hard to see.  I learned so much!  The back looked really cool (but I forgot to take a photo of it).

It was much easier to stitch the white on white on the second piece - I could see what I was sewing.  I'm really happy with the whole effect on this side of the pillow.  I was much more comfortable with the quilting; the stitching was even and I didn't pull the bobbin thread too tight.  I felt like a little kid that successfully colored inside the lines.

Quilting went so much faster and easier than the first attempt.  What a difference a clean sewing machine makes!  No more wubba-wubba noises.  The thread pulled evenly and I didn't have to fight with the material (although I still wrestled with thicker seams).  I wouldn't have thought a dirty sewing machine could cause so much trouble.  That heavy velvet gummed up the works worse than I realized.

I'm still fond of my straight-line quilting with the walking foot.  But it's nice to know I could try freemotion again and not make a total mess of it.


Sharing this on Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.  You can see the finished pillow here.