Today’s Topic: Why Every Quilter Should Doodle
Welcome to Week 3 of our 2021 Quilt-a-Long, Even Better Machine Quilting
This FREE multi-week tutorial is based on my books available in my Etsy shop: LoriKennedyShop
Sign up for emails of the class HERE.
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Find the 2021 QAL links HERE
Find the 2020 (25 Week) QAL links HERE
Good Morning, Quilters!
Welcome to Doodle Week!
For those of you who have followed LKQ for any period of time, you know how much I stress the importance of doodling. I hate to sound like a broken record, but doodling is an essential skill! (Will future quilters even know what a broken record is….LOL)
In the introduction to the 2021 QAL, we discussed The Four Skills of Free Motion Quilting
Free motion quilting can be broken down into four skills:
- Machine Knowledge
- Understanding Materials
- Understanding Design Principles
- Skill–Mechanics of Quilting
Doodling is essential in learning both the mechanics of quilting and testing design principles.
Learn a New Motif
The fourth skill, the mechanics of quilting takes the most time and practice. This skill includes creating a variety of motifs while maintaining an even stitch length.
This is where doodling comes in. In order to move the quilt smoothly under the needle, FIRST–you must know where you are going. Doodling is the fastest way to learn how to create a motif.
When learning a new motif, doodle each step over and over until you can complete it without looking at the step outs.
Only then are you ready to stitch.
Doodle to Evaluate a Quilt Design
Once you have chosen a motif and learned the steps, it’s helpful to test the scale of the motif relative to your quilt blocks.
Doodle the motif small and then large to be sure you like how it looks when it is scaled up to “quilt size”.
Doodle to Test Motif Combinations
Some motif combinations are better than others. I LOVE straight dense quilting around curvy more open quilting, for example.
Doodle to Test Travel
While quilting, it is always best to minimize stops and starts to avoid creating knots.
Doodling is a great way to practice the stitching path to minimize knotting off.
Doodling Will Develop Creative Pathways
Once you start doodling, you’ll notice creative connections and ideas will start flowing!
Doodle every day!
Start with any of the motifs HERE.
Happy Quilting!
Lori
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. Thank you!
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