Thursday 21 November 2013

Going in Circles: A Tutorial on Quilting Circles with your Walking Foot

I have a  confession. I am afraid of Free Motion Quilting. If you are a regular visitor to my bog this is not such a secret, and you will know that I am always tying to find ways around it. While straight lines are my best friend, I do try to branch out. This past weekend I experimented  with sewing circles using my walking foot. I thought it might be nice to put together a little tutorial on what I learned

 

Quilting Circles With a Walking Foot

You will need:
  • A round shape to trace (I am using bowls)
  • A marking tool of your choice (I am using a Frixion Pen)
  • Walking foot
  • Scissors, thread, iron...the regular stuff

Step 1
Prepare your project. In this example I am Quilting As You Go some on Patchwork Wheel Blocks. I am addicted to QYAG and have done a little tutorial on that which you can find here and here. Quilting circles is a great option for QYAG since you have to be able to move your block around continuously. So small projects are good!

Step 2

Chose a round household item to suit the size of circles that you want. I really wanted to emphasize the wheel in the blocks, so chose to do radiating circles. I was looking around the house and spied these bowls:

These were perfect, not too small (smaller circles can be harder to manoeuvre around) and they radiated out perfectly. You could use dinner plates, pie plates, jar tops, whatever suits you! No need to buy fancy rulers for this project :)  

Step 3
Use your tracing tool to trace the circles on to your block. Now, this is the exciting part. I have recently discovered the Pilot Frixion Pen. I don't think these pens were originally designed for fabrics. They are an erasable pen, and when you run your iron over the ink on your fabric, the heat makes it disappear
Step 4 
Next, to the machine you go. Fit your machine with your walking foot, and thread of your choice. Start stitching, following the curve of your traced lines. In this type of work, slow and steady wins the race. The slower you go, the more control you will have as you work your way around.  

note to self - next time dust walking foot before close up photo shoot

Step 5 
With all of your circles done, head to the ironing board. Simply iron over the stitched lines and the Frixion Pen lines disappear! (I have no stocks in Black & Decker by the way) 


ummmm, right. This is a great close up of my overshoot as I tried to join my circle ends. So lesson learned there, GO SLOW and your ends will join better than mine :) I did get better over time.

Step 6 
Enjoy your handiwork! You now have a block with quilted circles! I can't wait to put all of my blocks together. I think the effect is going to be great.



I hope you enjoyed this little lesson. I am off to finish my circles on the rest of the blocks!
Adrienne

Linking up this week

25 comments:

  1. Ok...I have added Frixion pens to my shopping list! You did a great job :) I'm going through my red/aqua phase as well, so crisp and fresh! Thanks for sharing...
    www.sewcraftychick.blogspot.com

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  2. Hey that's my block! :) It looks great! I used a walking foot for my jumbo churn dash quilt. Much more consistent circles than with FMQ

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  3. It is going to look really neat. I liked the other QAYG you linked to. I loved your use of the bowls.

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  4. Thanks for that tutorial! This will really come in handy. PS I'm afraid of free motion quilting too!

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  5. Great tut! Thanks for the hints and helps!!

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  6. Another reason to love Frixion pens! Thanks for the lovely tute, Adrienne.

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  7. Lovely! I haven't seen those markers before...my pen doesn't seem to want to write much on fabric for me...not sure why...maybe it's old. =( I'm going to have to try and find the markers. =) thanks for the tutorial!

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  8. Great tutorial - thanks! And you also reminded me that I still to go and buy a replacement marker pen as I cannot find the one that I know is around here.... somewhere!

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  9. I love this type of quilting. Gorgeous!

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  10. Very nice. I love quilted circles but haven't tried them yet! Thanks for the Tutorial.

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  11. Very nice. I have been using the black original pen. I didn't know they was coloured versions. Thanks for sharing your technique.

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  12. Excellent tutorial - I just posted to my blog about making the Thimbleberries Swoon Quilt using aqua and red colour palettes so it's really nice to see how lovely blocks in that colour scheme look! It's wonderful you're participating in the Blog-A-Thon, and thank you for the opportunity to win some lovely Kona brights!

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  13. This is great! Can't wait to try it and I love the Frixion pens too.

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  14. Love it! I must get some frixion pens! Right now i use my little guys washable markers!

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  15. I love it. I've never thought to use my walking foot to quilt circles....dumb, I know. I must try this. I have the pens so off I go. Thanks.

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  16. Thanks so much for the tutorial! I am also afraid of FMQ, but want to quilt with curves. I'm definitely going to try your method!

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  17. great little tutorial, Adrienne! ps- my walking foot is always dusty too!

    Thanks for linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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  18. You make this look do-able! Thanks for sharing your fears - and your solution!

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  19. Great tutorial, I'll be trying this one for sure! Thanks for sharing.

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  20. Great idea! My walking foot appears to be much bulkier than yours. I have some free time today, so I'm going to give this a try.

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  21. I'm going to try this out on some of my Xmas gifts I'm making, thanks!

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  22. I love this idea. I was listening to another blogger who says with the frixon pens if you give it a shot of steam after you first iron it the gel disappears into the batting and wont come back with temp changes. I dont know if this is true but I am going to try it. Thanks for the tutorial on circles.

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  23. Great tutorial! Thanks so much for linking up xx

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