Free Motion Quilting Here We Come!

Saturday I finally found myself back in a class -- after so many years! I think my first class was in 1996 and then a hand quilting class followed. That was it! The rest of my quilting experience has been by trial and error, the purchase of way too many magazines, and the books! So finally, I decided that I couldn't do it all on my own! I so admire those who can! I have ordered CD's and own numerous "free motion" books and have read into the wee hours trying to figure out how I could do it. What I discovered was I needed hands-on and someone over my shoulder telling me what I was doing wrong. Along Came Quilting was hosting Lorraine Stangness with a free motion class for a Saturday. I paid for the class and waited patiently!

Lorraine's class was so enjoyable and her instructions in class (and her book)were so easy to follow! We had lots of time to practice the new stitches and great feedback from her. The only comment the majority of us had was it would have been nice to have a morning class and then head home for the week to practice and then come back the following Saturday for another morning. The full day class was exhaustive, but so worth it! Lorraine is an amazing teacher and hope that she has more classes to come! Here's a sample of my "practice" squares. You can tell that I need LOTS of practice! I'm not so terrified and look forward to practicing!

After practicing again today, I started quilting a baby quilt that is to head overseas. Of course, I had an instant helper! Take a look:

When quilting gets to THIS point, you have to shut the machine down and call it a day! Happy quilting everyone!