I am really enjoying teaching these days! It's so much fun to share my love of quilting with other people, and to share things that I've learned along my quilting journey. And quilty people really are the best people, so it's great to get to spend a morning with other fabric lovers. If you happen to be in the area, my monthly Beginning Free Motion Quilting class is coming up this Friday morning at Inspire Quilting & Sewing in Plant City, FL.

In this class, we get down and dirty with your machine to find and fix any free-motion troubles you may be experiencing, whether it's tension issues, needle issues, you name it. We also practice four to five different free motion stitches, two of which are all-over designs and three of which are linear designs. This gives you the opportunity to stretch both sides of your brain and find what feels more comfortable for you.


Practice is the name of the game when you're getting starting with free-motioning. The first quilt I ever free-motioned seriously looks like it's quilted with creepy, long fingers all over it. You have to push through, and keep trying, rather than getting frustrated and defeated by your first attempts. They may not be pretty, but they're going to be, with practice and effort.

We talk a lot in class about different tips and tricks for making your early attempts at free-motion as smooth as possible, from choosing the right needle and thread for your machine to different techniques for holding and moving your quilt as you free-motion.

There's just a few seats left in my class this week, but if you're interested in joining in the fun, you can sign up for the class by calling the good folks at Inspire Quilting & Sewing at 813-704-4867. In the meantime, I'm going to be having fun stitching up a crazy piecing project I started at The Stash Bash, using one of my favorite fabric lines ever, Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley. Have a great day!