Man Sewing: FMQ: Square & Arc 8:10
Hey all you jazz fans out there.
It’s another fantastic free motion quilting motif.
This one is great for the modern quilts.
Let’s get started.
I’m often challenged when it comes to coming up with cool motifs to put into modern quilts.
I love the way modern quilts are quilted a lot of times in the background.
But I wanted to think of something that would look kind of architectural.
So check this out.
This is the block and arc design.
It is very very simple and it allows you to double back so you don’t get quilted into
a corner.
Follow along, so in the description below right next to that subscribe button of course
is the free printable.
And this will show you how to do these.
Now the little hash marks here are arrows for motion.
So you would start right up here.
And then you’re going to come down and make your square first.
When I get to the end of the square then I make an arcing shape.
And that usually hits somewhere along the other edge.
It doesn’t have to hit in the middle.
And then from there that starts the next block or square and then the arc.
So one of the things I often recommend with these kinds of printables, if you haven’t
done much with free motion machine quilting take out a sharpie marker, or a pencil, something
that’s going to glide nicely over paper and draw over the free printables a few times.
That starts to ingrain that motor memory so that you can then perform it when you get
to your sewing machine.
So I literally drew it just a few times.
And this is the very first time I stitched it out.
You can see it probably could use a little bit of structure.
There’s some wobbly little arcs and things in there.
But quilting is just that.
The more organic it looks I think the more we appreciate the quilting.
Form it that way.
So again here the blocks.
You can see some of these areas where you can double back in.
The thread gets a little thick so you don’t want to do it too many times.
But let me see if I can’t show you how to do this on one of our little samples here.
So we’re coming to the machine.
And I do have on some Machinger’s gloves which help my fabric slide, excuse me help
me grip my fabric very nicely.
And then I’ve got the Sew Slip mat underneath which also helps the fabric move very nicely
on the bed.
Let me see if I can bring up my thread tail.
I often use my thread cutter on this machine and so that leaves a little teeny tail down
in there.
And I’m not sure if I can get it for you or not.
Well it’s barely there.
I’m just going to stitch onto it a couple of times like this and I’ll show you a trick
here in a minute for starting and stopping another way, ok?
So I’ve now locked my threads in and I’m going to start in the middle of my project
because I can go in any direction with this.
And I’m going to begin to do my square first.
I came a little long so I”m going to come back to the corner.
From here I’m going to come in and do some fun arc.
Take a moment.
I’m going to cut this thread tail while we talk about the arcs.
One of the things I did find is I don’t want all of my arcs kind of heading in the
same direction.
So that helps, adds some variety to our quilting.
So let’s not get too tunnel visioned in our shape.
And now I’m building off.
So the first square is a full square.
And then from there the squares don’t have to be complete.
Now I’m in the middle of a run so I could come here and I could bring my arc back up
to a corner like this.
So now again those arcs are the same direction.
I can put a bigger square.
I can make it not necessarily hit in all directions.
And let’s say I come back with a really nice arc coming all the way in, then I can
just follow this same line I created.
Look we can make a small square right here too.
So what becomes fun is just building off of the design creating a variety of sizes of
squares.
And a variety of styles of arcs.
Now I still would like your arcs to look kind of circular while you’re doing it.
But they don’t want to all have to stay headed in the same direction.
And they certainly don’t have to start in a corner and they don’t have to stop on
an edge.
This is just a real fun modern design here.
So I filled in that square.
Coming back around here, chasing it.
Ok, so I think you get the idea here.
Now let’s go ahead and do this on the big quilt.
But I promised I would show you some good start and stop techniques.
So let’s start with the stop.
That’s not easy to say.
So I’m going to bring my handwheel up, raise my presser foot.
And I actually have now a hold of the thread.
And hopefully you can see.
When I come in here and cut, look at that.
That’s the bobbin thread too.
So when I snip that that should have freed the entire project.
And now I’ve got a nice long thread tail from the bobbin that I can capture while we
grab the big quilt, the monster man sampler here.
And this is fun.
This is a quilt we’ve been working on with a bunch with a lot of different fun motifs.
I’ve got a lot of motif videos out there if you haven’t seen them already.
And so the point this quilt really helps us remember is that no matter the size of the
quilt you’re only quilting in a small window at a time.
So I don’t want you to all be overwhelmed when it comes to these quilt projects if they’re
giant just because they’re giant.
You’re just going to take one stitch at a time.
Now I’m looking for the spot I’ve chosen.
Again a lot of different kinds of block work in this sampler quilt in purpose.
In here, this is nice big patchwork or nice big rectangle.
So I’m going to try to fill in all of this gray area here.
I can start up in the top corner because this is where I’ve already been quilting so that
I don’t trap batting in and fabric up here.
So I want to quilt away from my areas.
So I’m going to start in this area where the other quilting is and start moving away
on this quilt.
I’m going to pop this pin right now because I already quilted within a few inches so I
can get the safety pin that was basting it, out of the way.
And one of the things I really love to do at home is I love to machine quilt with some
big headphones on and some of my favorite music, actually music I listen to a lot.
So it kind of helps me get that rhythm.
Think of your quilt like your dance partner, right?
If you practice quilting to the same music often then you get a good rhythm based on
that style of music.
And that can be a lot of fun.
So in a few moments I’m going to turn up my music, let you enjoy me doing my block
and arc design.
But let me walk you through that start before we get too carried away.
And then you can enjoy just watching me quilt for the end of the video here today.
So at the moment my presser foot is still up.
I’m going to take a single stitch by hand there at the wheel in that corner.
And now I can pull forward slightly and I have gotten ahold of the bobbin thread.
Now I can put back.
Make sure you drop your presser foot, take a few stitches in place.
And now I’m just going to run down this seam like stitch in the ditch at first.
Stitch somewhere near the ditch.
And then I’m going to cut these thread tails out, ok.
Pretend headphones on and here goes the rock and roll.
We’ll see you in a few minutes.
Well I certain hope that has given you another fun design and motif that you can work on
with some of your modern quilts, some of your borders, some of those big long areas you
need to fill in.
And as always I read every comment.
And I certain love hearing from all of you, what kind of designs you’re interested in
learning in the free motion quilting era so drop them in the comments below and we’ll
catch you next time here at Man Sewing.