My Lesson in Machine Quilting

I learned free-motion quilting from my mother, several years ago.  She lived in Washington and I had a baby shower and needed to take a gift (that evening), so I telephoned her.  Mom told me the basics -- that you need to eliminate the influence of the feed dogs (either by covering or by lowering) and that it works best if you use a presser foot designed to allow for the bulk of a quilt.  She told me to lower the tension and that I should secure the fabrics to the batting using a fabric spray, as well as encouraging me to get a fairly low-loft batting (and she had a suggestion for that).

That first baby quilt was pretty rough!  I arrived late to the shower and found it packed.  They opened my gift and passed it around so everyone could see it -- and I was mortified, since the stitching was so irregular I feared a baby might catch its toe on the biggest threads!  Ladies I did not know (my neighbor had only recently moved from California) were asking me questions that indicated they knew much more about it than I did.  My only comfort was...there was no real comfort in this situation, but I imagined these ladies would probably never see me again.

Needless to say, I kept at it.  The borrowed foot was returned to my mother-in-law and I got one of my own for my birthday (that was the birthday date that was interrupted when my husband got called to bail out one of his business associates from jail and never was paid back).  That birthday present has been well-used and was a great investment! 

I got better over time.  The positioning spray had to be used outside (it was cancer-causing and inhibited breathing, apparently) and it was expensive and somewhat problematic, so after awhile I gave up on it and use straight pins instead.  I learned baby quilts were easier to work on, but even when the backing shifts, it is not too noticeable (unless I sew over folds on the back), once shrinkage and the charming puckering sets in.  I had hand-quilted some twin-sized quilt tops for my daughters and had one left; what had taken weeks and late-night books on tape to finish was accomplished during a single movie (a long movie, but I was able to watch the end of it with my girls).  I still love to hand quilt, but usually a quick baby gift is ready for binding after an hour on the machine.

A few months after I started machine quilting, I went to visit my mother.  She had some projects for me to do and she asked me to show her how to machine quilt.  "But, Mom," I remonstrated, "you taught me!"  She then admitted she had never done it: she had once had it explained to her and she had merely been repeating the instructions!  The real key is practice. 

Potholders, like the ones used to illustrate this article, are great practice:  they are a small project and the backing stays pretty stiff and straight.  When you are done, you're done.  You can take comfort in knowing they will get used and stained and thrown away.  And, as a bonus, you can practice making and installing binding (a 10" potholder has a lot less investment and the same number of corners as the biggest king-sized quilt you can imagine).