Sewing by Sarah

Free motion quilting is a style of quilting that allows you to quilt various shapes and designs onto your quilt by stitching in all directions. When free motion quilting, the feed dogs on your machine are generally lowered, allowing you total control of movement. Now this technique takes a lot of practice but one thing that can help you master those shapes and designs you want is a template. The Quilting Essentials Template Set by Sewing by Sarah has five different shape templates that will help you practice and master nearly any free motion quilting designer motif you want to make. These templates are designed for use with a domestic sewing machine, meaning you don't have to have a long arm quilting machine to master free motion quilting with templates. To start, you'll need to set up your machine. First, lower the feed dogs on your sewing machine. Next, consult your manual to see whether your machine uses a low shank or high shank foot. Both of these feet can be purchased with this template set. Attach the foot to the machine and adjust the height of the foot, so that it lightly floats over the surface of the quilt. The foot allows for adjustment up and down, So adjust to the perfect height and then simply tighten the screw. Next, lower the foot, and then while holding the tail end of the needle thread, take one stitch, either using your foot pedal or hand wheel. Gently pull up on the needle thread to bring the bobbin thread up to the top of your quilt. It is recommended that you never lower the needle when the presser foot is raised. You are now ready to start quilting. With the foot lowered at your desired starting point, place the template against the foot. With free motion quilting, you're in charge of moving the quilts under the presser foot as you stitch. And when you're free motion quilting with templates, you're in charge of moving both the template and the quilt at the same time. These templates have non-slip texture on the backside, which allows you to more easily grip the template onto the fabric and move them both as one. With any kind of quilting, new techniques take practice. Quilt slowly to begin with and consider using one of the more basic shape templates before progressing. The quilting essentials template set that has templates for quilting straight lines, clam shells, circles, arcs, double arcs, feathers, and any combination of these shapes that you can think of. So grab your templates, set up your machine, and start practicing to master free motion quilting with templates on your domestic sewing machine.