Arctic Vortex Quilt Along Week 6.5


Hold on a second. Just because you have a finished quilt top, doesn’t mean it’s time to start quilting! This week, we’re taking some time to plan and prepare first, so that the quilting goes a lot smoother. And yes, you can start quilting once you’ve taken these important steps.
Step 1: Choose your quilting method

How are you going to quilt your project? By hand? Using a walking foot? Free motion on a domestic machine? Longarm? Send it to a longarmer? Some combination of the above? This decision will influence all of the subsequent steps. Take stock of your preferences, skill set, budget, and available time.

Step 2: Plan your quilting

The eternal question: How Do I Quilt It? We could do an entire 8-week course on this subject (and hey, maybe I will some day!) but my favourite way to plan out my quilting is to draw on a picture of the quilt top. You can use your colouring page and pencils, a clear report cover with a whiteboard marker, or a photo of your quilt top and a drawing app. Try out a few different ideas and see what looks good and what feels doable in terms of density, complexity, and efficiency of movement.

If you haven’t planned the quilting for a triangle/hexagon quilt before, you can follow my design process as I worked through the quilting plan for Rebecca Bryan’s Solstice Modern Triangle BOM.

12 days of Sewing Tips: Quilting In Contrast


Have you ever gotten your quilt sandwich all basted, your machine all threaded and then… crickets? It’s like the sewing equivalent of stage fright! Maybe you even have a quilting plan, but you second guess it after doing a few lines. Now, I firmly believe that there are no Quilt Police and you should make … Continue reading 12 days of Sewing Tips: Quilting In Contrast