Free motion quilting or embroidery is such a valuable skill for an art quilter, texile or fiber artist to know!
I use it on all of my fiber art pieces, for a very simple reason.  Free motion quilting gives you so many options for embellishing your piece of artwork.  I can use it to create simple lines, make a densely-embroidered surface or to tie a composition together.
If you’d like to try your hand at free motion quilting, or if you’d just like to improve your technique, Quilting Arts Magazine has a cool gift for you.
They’re offering a free e-book, written by …read more

Free motion quilting is a fantastic tool for fiber artists – it adds dimension, interest and can act like a drawn line on the surface of the fabric.
It can be challenging to get started for some people.  They tense up and get frustrated because the line isn’t flowing as smoothly as they’d like.
Some teachers recommend beginning with drawing simple stipple patterns (like the piece of one of my art quilts shown here) on a piece of paper.

I’ve never had good luck with that though – the movement of drawing on paper is the exact opposite of quilting.  With drawing, you’re …read more

Check out Sharon Schamber’s “The Spirit of Mother Earth“, the best of show quilt at this year’s Houston Quilt Festival.
Seriously, click on the link!
Now look at the closeups.
Isn’t that the most spectacular free motion quilting you’ve seen!?
Back to practicing my free motion stitching…

I’m working on a series of posts to commemorate the New Year and wanted to start off with my favorite tutorials on Tangled Thread:

embroidered crazy-quilt Christmas card
mini Hallowe’en bag
autumn-themed yo-yo wreath
embroidered butterfly memory box
cooling bandana (not really necessary right now – but it’ll be warm sometime…)
celtic interlace napkins
easy ribbon roses
embroidered monogrammed cards
machine fusion fabric (don’t forget to check out part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, and part seven!)

I think that should be enough to keep you busy for now

I’m working on quite a large piece of fabric that’s been heavily fused together.  Needless to say, my sewing machine needle is covered with sticky gunky glue and is breaking thread like crazy!
Did you know that alcohol-based hand sanitizers will dissolve the glue from fusibles?
I keep a cotton ball lightly dabbed with the gel next to my sewing table when I’m working with fused fabrics.  Just run the cotton ball up and down the needle every couple of minutes of sewing.
Presto!  No more gunky needles or broken thread

I’ve just found a wonderful new website called Fiberella.  It’s a combination fiber art supply store (check out their wool roving!) gallery site & teaching program.
It’s definitely worth checking out