Years and years ago, I worked at a letterman jacket shop and part of that job involved using an industrial chenille machine. I think that, nowadays, most chenille for letterman jacket patches is done on electronic chenille machines, but this shop had the old-timey kind. They looked sort of like industrial sewing machines, with a regular looking foot pedal, but they also had a (wooden!) hand crank under the table that you used to guide the chenille foot around. I'm mentioning all this because, apart from the hand crank under the table, I thought free motion quilting felt a lot like using an old-timey industrial chenille machine.
As a side note, I sure wish I had one of the industrial sewing machines I used to use at that job. They could sew through anything and had a presser foot control that you could operate with your knee!
Anyway, I've had my darning foot for 10 years -- as long as I've had my sewing machine -- but I never quite mastered how to use it. I figured out a long time ago how to attach it, but my experiments in actually using it have been mediocre at best. I finally did some research and learned some helpful things (chief among them that you're apparently supposed to start by setting your stitch length to zero). Once I had the bare bones of "the right way" to quilt using a darning foot, I tried it out on this mini quilt.
I'm very pleased with my first "real" attempt at free-motion quilting and plan to use this method on the two other mini quilts too.
And here's a picture of George-Michael who, as you can see, was a huge help with the quilting process! (Actually, he's on top of my desk right now. He's a huge help with the blogging process too.)
Beautiful quilt and super quilting! My sewing machine (A Bernina) has a knee lift (or what ever it's called in English) that I use a lot!
Posted by: Kajsa | April 10, 2008 at 11:53 PM
You did a great job! I think it's so unbelievably difficult to freemotion-quilt!
Posted by: Tine | April 11, 2008 at 02:05 AM
LOVELY! Congrats on your success at free-motioning. Don't you just love that texture-y goodness?! I'm sorry, I have to come over and touch it.
Posted by: amy | April 11, 2008 at 04:05 AM
It looks good. I'm still trying to master this effect. I need to make more small things to practice it on.
Posted by: Marcia | April 11, 2008 at 06:35 AM
oh it turned out great!! I am too frightened to use my pressure foot...I'll just keep admiring others work :)
Posted by: heather hales DESIGNS | April 11, 2008 at 07:38 AM
Yes, I'd love to get my hands on it as well...it's lovely. Great work! I may have to try this sometime.
Posted by: Frances (HomeMadeOriginals) | April 11, 2008 at 07:44 AM
I'm in love with your quilt, and your use of color! I'll probably be back to this post as I've been to afraid to even do any machine quilting yet.
Posted by: Jackie | April 11, 2008 at 08:19 AM
The quilt is so wonderful... and the cats are so helpful, aren't they! Couldn't do it without them!
Posted by: bethany | April 11, 2008 at 09:54 AM
I love the fabrics and great job on the quilting! What a good cat to help you out...I miss having a cat around to plop itself down right in the middle of projects.
Posted by: Christina | April 11, 2008 at 10:08 AM
This came out great! I wish I could master mine. I love the green in it.
Posted by: Betty | April 11, 2008 at 01:03 PM
The quilt is lovely. But the kitty is divine! I have a solid black Manx named Lucy who weighs 18 pounds, and not an ounce of fat!
Posted by: Rose | April 11, 2008 at 03:57 PM
You did an awesome job on that quilt!!! But I have to say I had to reread the title a couple of times, because I expected an "I tried to free motion, but I quit!" when I saw the title! LOL!
Posted by: Mika | April 11, 2008 at 05:56 PM
Congratulations on the quilt. I have tried free motion as well but without much luck. You have inspired me to try again...maybe on a smaller scale.
Posted by: Kim | April 11, 2008 at 08:19 PM
You did a beautiful job with the free motion quilting! This quilt is amazing!
Posted by: Rebekah | April 12, 2008 at 11:11 AM
I made your little shopping bag this weekend and am thrilled with how easy it was and how cute it turned out! I will have to work on my eyelet installation a little more, but thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Katie | April 13, 2008 at 10:19 PM
Great work on the quilting - I've never tried it myself, you've made it look very professional.
Posted by: Sarah | April 16, 2008 at 04:04 PM
fyi, you can get a knee foot pedal attatchment thing for any sewing machine! they're worth it if you work with them better!!!
Posted by: amanda | December 13, 2008 at 02:32 PM