Free-Motion Quilting Workbook: Angela Walters Shows You How!

84 Pages·2014·26.21 MB·English

by  Angela Walters

Angela
shows yWoua lhteors
w!
Includes graph paper
to plan & practice
FREE-MOTION
QUILTING
Angela Walters
shows you how!
WORKBOOK
Angela Walters
Text copyright © 2014 by Angela Walters
Photography and Artwork copyright © 2014 by C&T Publishing, Inc.
Publisher: Amy Marson
Creative Director: Gailen Runge
Art Director: Kristy Zacharias
Editor: Liz Aneloski
Technical Editors: Teresa Stroin and Ann Haley
Cover/Book Designer: April Mostek
Production Coordinator: Jenny Davis
Production Editor: Alice Mace Nakanishi
Illustrator: Kirstie L. Pettersen
Photo Assistant: Mary Peyton Peppo
Style photography by Nissa Brehmer and instructional photography by Diane Pedersen,
unless otherwise noted
Published by Stash Books, an imprint of C&T Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1456,
Lafayette, CA 94549
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be used
in any form or reproduced by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems—without
written permission from the publisher. The copyrights on individual artworks are retained
by the artists as noted in Free-Motion Quilting Workbook. These designs may be used to
make items only for personal use. Donations to nonprofit groups, items for sale, or items
for display only at events require the following credit on a conspicuous label: Designs
copyright © 2014 by Angela Walters from the book Free-Motion Quilting Workbook from
C&T Publishing, Inc. Permission for all other purposes must be requested in writing from
C&T Publishing, Inc.
Attention Copy Shops: Please note the following exception—publisher and author give
permission to photocopy pages 14, 15, 22, 23, 30, 31, 40, 41, and the graph paper in the
back for personal use only.
Attention Teachers: C&T Publishing, Inc., encourages you to use this book as a text for
teaching. Contact us at 800-284-1114 or www.ctpub.com for lesson plans and information
about the C&T Creative Troupe.
We take great care to ensure that the information included in our products is accurate
and presented in good faith, but no warranty is provided nor are results guaranteed.
Having no control over the choices of materials or procedures used, neither the author nor
C&T Publishing, Inc., shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss
or damage caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. For your
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If a correction is not already noted, please contact our customer service department at
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Trademark (™) and registered trademark (®) names are used throughout this book. Rather
than use the symbols with every occurrence of a trademark or registered trademark name,
we are using the names only in the editorial fashion and to the benefit of the owner, with
no intention of infringement.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walters, Angela, 1979-
Free-motion quilting workbook : Angela Walters shows you how!.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-60705-816-8 (soft cover)
1. Machine quilting. I. Title.
TT835.W35654 2014
746.46--dc23
2013040405
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Chapter 1: Introduction 4 Chapter 5: Negative Space 32
How Does Sketching a Design Help? 4 Pick Quilting Designs That Add
Movement 33
But … 6
Use the Quilting to Extend the Piecing
How to Use This Workbook 7
into the Negative Space 35
Final Word of Encouragement 7
Try Using Basic Quilting Designs in New
and Unexpected Ways 36
Chapter 2: What’s in a Plan? 8
Ready to Sketch? 38
Stuck? 10
Negative Space Worksheets 40
Ready?? 12
Planning Worksheets 14 Chapter 6: Conclusion 42
Chapter 3: Blocks 16 Quilting Designs 43
A Few Guidelines 17
About the Author 46
Ready to Sketch? 21
Block Worksheets 22
Graph Paper 48
Chapter 4: Borders 24
Border Management 25
Note to the Reader
Ready to Sketch? 29
I can’t tell you how excited I am about
Border Worksheets 30
this product. I feel that it will help you
become more confident in your machine
quilting. If you have any questions
about designs you see in this workbook
or if you would like to share pictures
of the designs you have sketched,
feel free to visit me at my website,
quiltingismytherapy.com, or contact me
at [email protected].
Contents 3
More times than I care to count, I have stood over a quilt
ready to start machine quilting, only to hesitate. I knew
what I wanted to quilt, I could see the design in my mind, but I couldn’t get
my hands to translate that vision into actual quilting. From talking to other
machine quilters, I know I am not the only one who has felt that way!
A huge portion of machine quilting is just knowing where to go next.
Because of that, I tell anyone who will listen to me (quilters, students, and
even random store clerks) that sketching the quilting designs is a great way
to teach your brain how the designs flow. Once you know where to go next,
you are more than halfway there!!
How Does Sketching a Design Help?
In every class I teach and every book I
write, I encourage sketching as a way
to practice machine quilting. I know it
works, because it was a huge help to me
wWdamgeheholeaiev,nn nem s rI m eytbhd yesa ogtftoin arf s rnmwot mmaqy suyh tis olhotixuiewn s mgnvee omqornyuvat eihcbltrhsei n tigonegielnn dj onw.y iueTnarahsgnr i,ses y. ipdIftIir e’losslaet gfisdlurl e anhwsn atsidtoveh e dd l od emooesroksi gi esgbntv naseos cnfI k a mh bnaaeydnv d esrrek afsemnoetdrciegnoh dohbmtoeot dweso nc koIr. sifhb, abevaleec sh.
my quilting time was limited. But that
didn’t mean I couldn’t practice. When I
couldn’t quilt, I would practice sketching
When I could finally carve out a little time
the quilting designs over and over. In
to actually use my quilting machine, the
fact, I would sketch designs while my
stitching went so much easier. Sketching the
kids colored next to me at the table. Talk
designs taught my mind where to go next.
about multitasking! No piece of paper
Once I had that down, all I had to do was
was safe. I had sketchbooks all over the
get used to the feel of the machine, which is
house and stacks of random scrap paper
much easier than you might think. I believe
stuffed in my purses.
you will find that the same is true for you.
4 Free-Motion Quilting Workbook
Chapter 1: Introduction 5
A great idea that someone
But …
suggested was to practice designs
on a sewing machine by using
paper and an unthreaded needle.
I can’t draw. Once you have the design down in
your head, taking a few moments to
Solution: I hear this comment all the time. do this may help your quilting go even
The most important thing to remember is smoother!
that you are not drawing the designs to
become an artist; you are training your brain
to learn how the design flows. It doesn’t
matter what the drawings look like. The only
thing that matters is that you know where to
go next. Remember, you aren’t drawing to
enter an art show!
Sketching hurts my hands.
Solution: Usually if people complain that
sketching hurts their hands, it means that they
have a death grip on the pencil or pen. Instead
of being tense, relax! Clenching the pencil as
hard as you can will not help you learn the design
faster. If you have problems gripping something
small like a pencil, try using a marker.
I use a home sewing machine;
I don’t think it will translate for me.
Solution: This is the number one concern I hear from quilters.
It’s true—moving a pencil is a different movement from moving a quilt
in a machine. But when you are sketching different quilting designs, you
aren’t training your hands; you are training your brain. You are learning
how to completely fill in areas with the quilting designs. You are learning
how to keep from getting stuck. And, most of all, you are learning where
to go next. When you sit down at your sewing machine, those are the
things that you will need to know.
6 Free-Motion Quilting Workbook
How to Use This Workbook
Think of this workbook as a guided sketchbook, not a how-to book.
Throughout the book, I give you tips and suggestions for how to
quilt different parts of a quilt and examples of quilting designs. This
is to get your creative juices flowing; use the sheets in this workbook
however you like.
The end of each chapter has two pages of graph paper that have a
variety of different shapes drawn on them to represent the different
sections of most quilts. Practice filling in these shapes as completely
as possible, without lifting your pen or pencil. Remember, every time
you lift your pencil, you have to stop quilting and start a new line of
quilting. We all know that stopping and starting takes time, so keep
that in mind!! Use the graph paper pages at the end of the workbook
to continue your planning and practicing.
Final Word of Encouragement
This is your workbook to use how you want, of course. But I would
like to give a few encouragements before you start.
Put Down the Eraser! Don’t Be Perfect!
Please, please, please, don’t worry about messing up. The only way
to erase actual quilting is to spend a long, boring time picking out
the quilting; so don’t erase when you sketch. When sketching, if you
make a mistake, just keep going. The more you fill around it, the less
noticeable it will be.
There’s no such thing as perfection in free-motion quilting, so there
won’t be perfection in your sketches either! You are not trying to
create a masterpiece; you are just trying to learn the design.
Enjoy the Process
Be proud of what you do. You are doing your current-best quilting for
right now! Enjoy that fact. But also know that each time you practice,
whether by quilting a quilt or sketching in this workbook, you will get
a little better. Enjoy the process!
Are you ready?? Happy sketching!
Chapter 1: Introduction 7
When I am getting ready to start quilting, I usually take a
moment to try to figure out my plan of attack. I am not neces-
sarily thinking about the designs I am going to use. Instead, I try to break down
the quilt top into smaller components before I pick out the quilting designs.
8 Free-Motion Quilting Workbook
Let’s use the following quilt diagram as Looking at this quilt, you could decide to
an example. break it down in a number of different ways.
This particular quilt design consists of You could quilt one design in the border,
square blocks, the background, and one in the background, and a third design
a border. in the blocks.
Or you could break it up in a different way. You could quilt the same design in the back-
ground and border. Inside the blocks you
might decide to quilt different designs in the
center and outside of the blocks.
Of course, that is only the starting point! You
could go a little crazy, like I might, and quilt
something different in each part of the quilt.
The main point is to know how you are going
to break it down. Doing this before you start
quilting will help you figure out how many
different quilting designs you will need for
the quilt. Just having it narrowed down will
help make the selection process a lot less
overwhelming.
Chapter 2: What’s in a Plan? 9