Christmas In July 2026 - 03: Monday Mess Making


Since my last post, I've finished my first version of the Christmas stocking.


 

 I'm pretty pleased with it.  However, free motion quilting is so different from straight line quilting or stitching in the ditch.  Since free motion requires the feed dogs of the machine to be down, I have to coordinate my hand movements with the speed of the needle.  So far, it's been like chasing a runaway train.

As in most instructional YouTube videos, things like this aren't covered.  The videos make it seem straightforward enough.

It isn't...at least for me.  I can't just do steps 1, 2, and 3 and get glorious results.

Instead of a one video tutorial, I need more detailed lessons and more practice on how to catch the rhythm of this style of quilting. I also want to try another means of stitching the names on the stocking.  What I did was fine, but the lace ribbon was difficult to work with.  

Speaking of straight line quilting...


This is my first quilt done start to finish on the new machine.  One of my coworkers is having a baby, and this is for her.  One new skill I did learn from this is how to hand stitch the quilt binding on the back of the quilt.


I used this tutorial:


 Well, until next time.

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