Welcome to week 3 of the blog hop. We are blogging our way through the book The Ultimate Guide to Machine quilting and three of my friends are joining me. You can go to HollyAnne , Kristin and Jen pages to read what their insights and takeaways are from the chapter. I am long arming and working from Angela’s perspective and they are using a domestic machine and from Christa’s perspective.

This week is a lesson of continuous curve.  This Means  quilting by traveling through out a block without breaking the thread. I did orange peel curves throughout the little squares in this block and did it row by row. I didn’t cut the threads and quilted an arc on three side of the square across the row of squares then worked my way back.

Here are more curves in the triangles. I then added free motion quilting around the triangle as I went.

Continuous curves in the points of the stars. Christa Watson designed this block for the Aurifil Designers of the Month last year. Here is the pattern link.

Here is my  practice piece from this week. I did a continuous curve in the corners. A flower motif in between , a teardrop motif and then a stipple in the middle. I echoed the curve in the corners too, made a outline statement  and embellished it all with little ribbon candy and tried some pebbles. All individually are ok, not really sold on the floral motif. It is so large I had to mirror the shape when I rolled up the mini quilt. You have to learn to quit in all directions on a long arm. The take away from the chapter is that you have to practice some things over and over. I like the floral motif better when each petal overlaps  on this larger scale another takeaway from practicing. I also don’t like thread that contrasts with the fabric, that is on the other side. Next time, I may try marking some registration lines.  If you want to see how I quilted it watch the video below!

With time and practice we will see progress! Tips : on continuous curves and mirroring images go slower than you think you need to for accuracy. Picking thread that matches the background colors in the fabrics is more forgiving. Takeaway: Big blocks need to be well planned so when you advance the row you can mirror the quilting . Take pictures so you remember what you did!

And finally, if you are not feeling well, don’t try to learn new things and expect that it will be outstanding. Sometimes we should just wait a day when we are on our best thinking to try. Don’t rush and force it.

Remember the book is on sale at the publishers here, get yours to follow along!

Vicki

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