Learning progression

[quilting_business]

I'm a newbie. I have been practicing on meandering & I feel comfortable doing this. My circles & diagonals are a bit "jerky" looking. But I'm sure with practice I'll get better with them also. What I would like to know is--what would be a typical progression of things to learn from the front of the machine? (I'm not wanting to do pantos yet)

[Myrna Ficken]

Take some classes, buy books and practice designs on paper( very important) Starting out you will be doing more simple things and you will just start adding to your skills with every quilt. Look at others quilt photos to get ideas.

Myrna

[JudyL]

I was never able to take classes but what worked for me was to spend a lot of time looking at quilts on webshots. You can go to http://www.webshots.com and find a longarmer you like and look at her quilts, look at the quilts of the members she has marked as favorites. Load muslin and go to town! Practice what you want to learn to do. If you're anything like me, you will be very surprised at how awful your first attempts look but with just a little practice, you'll be thrilled with your results.

The other day at longarmchat.com, someone posted a whole string of photos of feathers she had been practicing. The first ones were pretty sad but by the end of the day (I think she did all the practicing in one day), her feathers looked like award winning quilting. It was really hard to believe.

I found that practicing one technique til I got it down was best for me. Instead of trying bunches of things, I'd practice one thing and when I felt that was decent, I'd go on to something else.

Good luck!

[CLRtoQuilt]

I have taken Myrnas' suggestion of designing on paper. I bought a cheap kids sketch pad from walmart and work on one design till I have it down pat, its stuck in my head and makes it a whole lot easier when I practice on the machine. This is something I do at night when we are chilling out for an hour or so watching a favorite TV show. Good Luck!

Char

[ramona-quilter]

Hi Q-B,

I agree with all this advice. Practice, practice, and well, you

know, practice.

Until you can get into a class, you can doodle. You are training

your brain whenyou create designs on paper or etch-a-sketch

or whatever.

My progression started with getting comfortable moving the

machine from left to right; getting used to the weight and

listening to the machine. I had to figure out when to slow

down, when to speed up. Then I moved onto wiggly lines,

simple stars or leaves or hearts; anything simple.

Then I took a couple classes that showed me how to draw

designs on paper and then transfer that drawing to fabric.

At first, I had to draw with a chalk pencil to know when and

where to start and stop a design within a block.

Now I am trying pantos. Just a few. The designs are good

practice to learn how to do curves, flowers, etc.

I am working on freemotion stitch in the ditch (SID) but it

is not pretty:(. Need lots more practice. I have not tried

rulers yet but that is mostly because I don't have a stitch

regulator. I'll get to that in time.

I think we all find the practice method that works best for us.

You will too. And if you have questions or need inspiration,

this is the place.

Happy quilting