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I was just reading that a newbie should practice an hour everyday and I totally agree that is good advice. However, that is a lot of fabric and batting that is wasted. Believe me that after I have been practicing it is not something that I would use afterwards. Is this what you all had to do to get good at this. I have the basic machine with know extras for it, and it is not gliding around he fabric as smoothly as I thought it would.

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Hi Sheila...yep you gotta practice, practice practice....but I practice on simple bed quilts...and I have done a number of charity quilts also...and haven't done a lot of just practice on muslin....I hope to start doing some ruler and custom work soon...so will probably load a practice sandwich on soon.  A lot of the folks on this forum have been doing this for years and have many, many hours of running their machines....I am truly just starting out and have mainly done edge to edge and no ruler work or custom quilting.  as for the machine not gliding around the fabric...maybe a bit more info would be helpful.  what machine do you have?  Is it used or new? How old is the machine?  These info would be helpful for folks to know so they can make suggestions... Have you had any lessons?...Hang in there   Lin

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It takes LOTS of practice, maybe more than one hour a day. When I first got my first machine I would spend all day Saturday and Sunday in there, just making lines, swirls, cursive e's and cursive l's, etc.  The more you practice the better you get.   Even now, before i will try a design on a customer quilt I will practice it first on a small piece, using the thread, batting, and same weight material- so I know how it will turn out.

 

Use your practice pieces for hot pads for your table, throw rugs to catch the winter snow and mud, pads for your pets to lay on, bathmats.  They might not look pretty, but they do have uses.  If you find that you did a really good job on one little section, cut that piece into a little square and slip it into a clear plastic sheet protector in a binder. That way you can go back and look at the design.

 

Don't get discouraged. If you find your machine is hard to move it might be that you are holding on too tight.  Use a very light grip and steer with your body instead of your hands. 

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Thank you both for the tips and incouragement. I have a new Lenni, only had it a week and I do need lots of practice and I do not mind practicing but it is the waste that I do not like. I will find some uses for the practice pieces. So far I am using fabric that I have and do not know why on earth I bought it in the first place. I am also piecing batting together to use that up too.

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It sounds like you have the right idea.   Try drawing some 12 inch squares on your fabric with water eraseable marker, then quilting inside that square until it is completely full. THen try another 12 inch square.  Also, develop your own style.  That took me forever to learn.  My designs will never look exactly like somebody else's designs.  I fretted over that and criticized myself for 7 years before I realized that I can do beautiful work even if it doesn't look exactly like the one I am using for inspiration. 

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Thank you, Teresa. I love quilting and would eventually quilt for other people to help pay for my Lenni. But I need to get a lot better than I am now. I will try marking the material into twelve in squares and hope I can put some of the designs I have floating in my head on them. I have not had my free one day lesson on Lenni yet, that will take place in two weeks. I will keep practicing daily.

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I got cheep baby panels and practiced on them. Then I gave them to the local Next Step Charity. While practicing drawn squares on fabric is good practice I found it a huge transition to actual quilt squares. But maybe that's just me!

Don't give up, and don't be to hard on yourself. It always looks better to someone else than it will to you!

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I did a lot of drawing on a big drawing pad, too............I could sit with it on my lap and watch TV and doodle............practicing feathers, etc.........I used up a lot of Wal Mart sheets to practice on, too...........haha   My guild makes a lot of very simple quilts for charity, so those were good to practice on as well.............we all learned that way.

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If you are just worried about moving your machine around and  practicing loops and lines put a plain cloth on and cover it in practice stitches in one color the next day switch colors and stitch over the same piece of fabric any design you want to practice you can stitch over in another color and stitch again again just switch to another color of thread. this way you are not waisting a bunch of fabric then use a middles of hot pads or donate to animal shelters for the bottom of their cages.

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Practice pieces make great animal beds and can be donated to animal shelters. I keep a big one in my truck and have used it many times; even for my dog to sleep on during trips. You can also put a new piece of fabric over an old practice piece and reuse the batting and backing. Have fun with your new Lenni!

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The best tip I received was from Jamie Wallen.

He said buy the kids drawing tablets at Dollar Tree, and practice on them.

I've also used the old phone books, and some news paper.  Just be aware,
the ink will bleed through at times, so protect the surface you  are working on.

Another thing, practice the "Same Thing" over and over and over until you

are good at that, then Add another design, practice it, but also practice the

design you started with.  Jamie practices up to 8 hours a day.  and he is GOOD !!

Others use a dry erase, it needs to be small enough to fit on your lap, to mimic

the use of the machine.  Train your muscles to draw the shapes you want.

 

Check out The Quilter's Apothecary.  Jamie has a lot of good info and video's.

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Thank you all for the good advise and I will try everything and hope for good results. I can see an improvement and will continue to practice.

Teresa, I live in Maine so it is a little to far to travel to get help, but I certainly appreciate your offer and would take you up on it if I lived closer.

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A "white" board became my best friend and I still use it today.  It is one of those white boards that you can keep wiping off the markers.  It is large enough that it barely fits in my lap.  I practiced drawing 15 - 20 minutes every night while listening to the news.  I practiced drawing leaves and feathers going every direction.  It saves a good deal of fabric.  DO NOT move the marker with your wrist, but rather move your arm like you will when you are moving your machine.  It is called "Muscle Memory".  I actually use this white board each day to "warm up" or practice a new design before I go to the actual quilt.  It allows me to "wrap my brain around" a new idea or to get a feel for the size of a pattern I want to do.  After I have decided the size or proportion of the design (especially on an all-over) I leave the white board sit on the end of my table/frame as a reference so I can keep comparing my stitching to the pattern on the marker board...am I getting smaller or larger as I travel down the quilt???

 

Also, when you are practicing, you can keep changing thread color to a darker color (as mentioned in a post above) and stitching over the previous color.  Then you can just lay another piece of fabric over the top and start with a light colored thread again.  You don't have to keep using a new backing and batting.

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You might also consider loading some fabric and batting, to simulate the drag of quilt on machine, but take out the needle and stitch, concentrating on making smooth muscle movement.  Also, buy  some old sheets at garage sale or secondhand shop and use those for practice rather than new/unused fabric.  You could draw out the design you want to quilt, such as loops, feathers, curls/swirls, and then follow that with varying colors of threads as suggested previously.  Draw or stitch straight lines and then stitch out designs in them.  Be patient with yourself! 

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I also hate waste, so I also use inexpensive muslin to learn new designs or experiment with ideas...then I add to the muslin samples using fabric dyes/crayons/pens and multicolored threads to make smaller things from the sections of quilting I like.  I love making notebook covers for my college age daughter and her room mates, tote bags and book bags, little quilted cross body bags to hold cell phones and iPads, and the like.  IF there's an area of the quilting you don't like, cover it with embellishments.  Great suggestions above about what to do with the scrap quilted practice sections you used to learn on.  Animal beds, hot pads, table mats, place mats, book marks, computer covers, appliance covers.  Good luck with your new machine.  You'll love it!

Beth

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Practice is a necessary evil but can be fun.  I bought the cheapest fabrics I could fine, like Walmart stuff and batting.  Mine practice pieces weren't pretty.  LOL, I just read Heidi's post, we think alike.  I give my practice pieced to the local no kill animal shelters, they love getting them for animal beds.   Another thing that you might check out is attaching a marker/crayon  to your needle bar (don't run the needle) and use a roll of paper to practice moving the machine smoothly.  I think Circle Lord may even have the bracket for the marker/crayon.  Don't give up, when you get frustrated stand back and/or have a glass of wine.  We've been where you are, it will get better.  We're here to help.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I really don't like to practice, so when my Lenni was new, I quilted a lot of charity quilts. I found that I needed first to get the feel of the machine and then, later, I could worry about how to get from one place to another without cutting threads, learn more complicated patterns, etc. I had to get over the idea that every quilt would be a masterpiece and just do it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Robin,

I have come to the point that I am doing quilts and I am liking the results. I have some pantograghs that I have done and they came out pretty good but there is room for improvement. My latest quilt I did some ruler work on it but have never been told what the right way to move around when doing it. Some lines I went over two or three times. Is there someplace that tells how exactly to travel around the quilt when you are using rulers?

Sheila

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  • 9 months later...

When I first started longarming my practice quilts were so funny looking, but I would always hand them to my husband, and he would say, how nice the stitching was and he loved me for giving him them, because he carries mobility scooters and wheelchairs in his van so he wraps these up with my practice quilts, so they dont bump each and I dont even have to bind them. LOL He says everything has a purpose.

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