Today’s Topic-FMQ Habits-Don’t Move Those Hands!
Happy Valentine’s Day, Quilters!
How are you progressing on your $7 (the price of a ream of paper) doodle challenge?
By now, you should have a mound of paper filled with doodles! I LOVE how doodling gets the ideas flowing–but the key is to keep doodling, even if you can’t complete 5 sheets per day.
It’s more important to doodle every day than it is to complete 5 sheets per day!
If you can’t doodle 5 pages a day, try three. If you can’t complete three, try one per day. And if you can’t finish one per day–maybe you need to think about what is really happening.
Is the problem that you don’t have time to doodle or is it that you aren’t prepared to doodle? Or, maybe you still have a mental block against doodling?
Doodling is THE fastest way to improve your free motion quilting skill.
Good Habits Make Good Quilters
We are starting 2023 on a good foot (or hand) by developing good habits for free motion quilting. Good habits are small stepping stones on the pathway to skill at free motion quilting. So far, we’ve looked at the following habits:
Good Habits:
Today, let’s focus on another small habit-when and when not to move your hands while free motion quilting. This lesson is based on observations of new quilters in my workshops. For some quilters, once they start their engines, they don’t want to stop–for any reason. (Some newbies don’t breath or blink for several minutes at a time–LOL!)
The Simple Hand Position Rule
Once you lay your hands down on your quilt (see Finding YOUR Sweet Spot) act as if your fingertips are fused in place on the quilt. Your hands and the quilt move as one-while the machine is running. In order to create a motif. move your hands and the quilt together to create the design. If the motif is large and extends beyond your fingers, STOP STITICHING and move your hands to the new space on your quilt. Once you are in position, begin stitching again.
Stop and Start
Quilting is a constant series of stops and starts.
You should not slide or walk your hands or crawl your fingers while you continue to stitch. When you try to move your hands while stitching, you do not have full control of the quilt. Your stitching line will be wonky !
Proper Sequence:
- Find sweet spot.
- Begin stitching.
- When the motif goes beyond your fingers, stop stitching.
- Move hands to a new sweet spot.
- Begin stitching.
Please Share
Do YOU feel like you have good control when you are stitching a motif on a qullt?
Have YOU ever walked your fingers like a spider while quilting?
How have YOU been storing your finished doodle sheets?
Are YOU inspired to quilt today?
We’d LOVE to hear!
May YOUR day be filled with a bite of chocolate, a dabble of doodling and a big snuggle under a cozy quilt!
Warm regards,
Lori Cupinnedy
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy Quilts and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to LKQ. For all other purposes, please contact me at Lori@LoriKennedyQuilts.com!
Check out my books on Etsy: LoriKennedyShop
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy Quilts and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to LKQ. For all other purposes, please contact me at Lori@LoriKennedyQuilts.com!
Check out my books on Etsy: LoriKennedyShop
