Free Motion Quilting

I took a machine quilting class at the Quilting Loft in Ballard on Monday -- and what a revelation that was! Finally, finally, I learned how to use the free motion foot on my machine (including a trick I never would have figured out on my own about why this is hard to do on a Pfaff and how to get around it), and now a whole new quilting world is open to me -- I can quilt in something other than a straight line!!

I learned to stipple and make loops:

The instructor said most people prefer either stipples or loops. I thought the loops were really fun.

I made snails, and flowers, and stars on a chain -- and yes, these are all screwy, but it was my first time doing this and it takes a while to get good at it:


And back-and-forth landscape quilting, and something she called "Es and Fs" (bottom left corner):



And then I came home and practiced on some old quilts from my unfinished projects bin -- stuff that was probably never going to get finished anyways so I didn't mind practicing my less than perfect freehand motion on it. Like this old Christmas wallhanging I never finished. So I stippled and looped all around the snowmen and trees on this, then did stars in the border:


View from the back:


And then I bound this tiny little thing and did some back and forth quilting on it and made bubbles around the rocks at the base of the lighthouse:

Brett's taking this to work today to hang in his cubicle. It's tiny, probably 6 x 8 inches, something I got a long time ago out on San Juan Island. But very cute!