Beginner Free Motion Quilt tutorial on a home machine 2019

Beginner Free Motion Quilt tutorial on a domestic sewing machine || Everything you need to know to get started with free motion quilting.

In this video I'm sharing my top 5 beginner tips AND I'm showing you all my perfectly imperfect stitches. Everybody who wants to get better at FMQ needs to practice. So yay for imperfect stitches! Because we learn and get better with every stitch we make.

Enjoy!
Irene

F R E E ~ E B O O K
Check out my FREE ebook to learn how to quilt your quilt:
'101 ideas for straight line quilting'

S U G A R I D O O ~ S A M P L E R
This is my first book, a massive bundle of paper piecing patterns, my sugaridoo baby, was published in Dutch and has already sold out, it is still available as e-book in EN and NL and will be published in English someday (I dream big!). If you are or know anyone who wants to publish it in feel free to let me know!

T R E E ~ T R E E ~ H O U S E ~ P A T T E R N
Order your quilt kit here:
and here:

- Where to find Sugaridoo -

- Sugaridoo Sampler -
The Sugaridoo Sampler e-book is a huge collection of paper piecing patterns.

- Credits -

- Business inquiries -

[Sugaridoo]

Showing you my imperfect stitches, keeping it real even though that was kinda scary to film! Thank you so so much for all of your kind comments! 💕 Let me know, what is your biggest quilting struggle? xo Irene

[kathyf]

I was told to practice free motion by first quilting-from-the-back. It's an old technique of getting a busy backing fabric, like large flowers or fall leaves. You practice by following the design in the fabric, like maybe picking every repeat of a particular set of flowers and following the outline of each petal. The positives to this method is that you get familiar with moving the fabric, , you learn how following a specific line (great when you later mark a design on the front and need to follow it), and since it's the back, people won't notice any mistakes you make. And on the front, all they see the pretty flowers or leaves and think you are a very skilled quilter! LOL

[hazel]

Thanks for keeping it real. I think a lot of tutorials/teachers are so experienced they make it look easy and forget that at the beginning you will find it tricky and make mistakes. I might give it another try instead of sticking to stitch in the ditch. 😅

[MGSPhD]

Thank you for showing us all your mistakes, and what effect speed has on the stitches. This was much more informative than seeing someone doing the stitching perfectly. I look forward to seeing more of your videos! Good work!

[vickiemarie]

Wow, I’m so glad I found you. I am a wife mom grandma 65 years old just taking a free motion quilting and it is intimidating. You are the best teacher so far that I have encountered. I gave you a thumbs up and subscribed. I’m so excited to watch your videos. Thank you so much. Vickie from NY

[iamvoxo]

Thank you for including the "oops." It made watching so much more encouraging and fun! Freeing. Great video.

[wilycat]

Believe it, you are a good teacher. This was one of the best FMQ tutorials I've seen. Thanks for the video 😊

[lindalevitan]

You are so right' I had to find all this out over 20 years ago when I had breast cancer . My doctor said I would live any where from 2years to 5. With treatments…I’m so thankful he answered me when I said “and what if I don’t do the treatments you recommend?” He said “about the same amount of time” “well I’m going to trust God in this “ He sent me a registered letter stating he was no longer my doctor. I trusted God went to Colorado Springs and went through a program that offered me hope in natural ways to reclaim my health.. In the years following have learned so much about health care. Sadly I have watched friends die (under doctors care) because they just didn’t have the faith that Gods design of the human body to heal was a reality. Thank you for all you said on your video maybe some day things will change.

[marilynbrennan]

You are a comfortable teacher to learn from. A friend taught me a few years but I haven’t done it in a long time. One thing she told that you didn’t say was, “ Don’t forget to breathe.” 🥴🤓

[JesusisKing]

I am so grateful to have found this video tutorial! I am a beginner quilter and this helps me start, unlike the 4000 other so called beginner tutorials on YT! Thank you so much! Gotta go, it's time to practice!

[SharonRStudio]

Thank you. I have been very afraid to try free motion quilting. Love the idea of a test sandwich and playing till I’m ready to stitch on the actual quilt. Great idea!

[anndalynnketellapper]

Thank you! One of the best “beginner” tutorials on FMQ 👍🏼. I had a very quick lesson once and gave up because I found it too hard to do on my own. The instruction I received was not long enough and was told to just go for it! This is bad advice! I loved how you showed us the errors that can occur...long and short stitches and the designs. I am now going to attempt this on my own...no choice COVID! 🥴 I will refer again to your video while I am in the process of trying it!

[susieodell]

Aren’t you just the cutest thing with your FMQ’ing and your accent???? I adore your enthusiasm and teaching methods! I’ve FMQ’d a couple quilts to date but looking for tips, hints and hacks to get better is always something I do. I really like that you show your practices, it makes me feel much better about my own progress!

Thanks!

[Bbeeche]

This was the best beginner video I’ve seen! It’s ust what I needed. You are very encouraging by letting us know we don’t have to be perfect and we learn y mistakes. Thank you very much. You took my fear away! I’m just going to go for it!

[dejathoris]

Thanks for sharing you are the best instructors I have found 😊 😀 ☺️ ❤

[jillkocher]

I'm often frozen by the need for perfection, even though I'm still learning the basics. This is an awesome video of practicing and not being perfect (even though it still looks pretty darn great)! It gives me courage, and permission to play. Thank you!

[cindyburns]

I have made exactly one quilt top and he’d it quilted. I knew free motion existed and I wanted to try, so now I feel confident enough to give it a go on some scraps. Mistakes and all. Thank you! So very informative. I did not know about quilting gloves either.

[giantgirl]

This was exactly the advice I needed. I wanted to try free-motion quilting and was too scared to start for fear I would ruin it. Now I can doodle, play with a practice piece and eventually, enjoy having a go. I love that you showed all your quilting - even the bits that you didn’t think went so well. So helpful!

[lynhanna]

I had a jelly roll and did the jelly roll race quilt and then i quilted each row with different stitches. Now when i want to free motion quilting i pull out the jelly roll quilt to see how the different stitches look and then i can practice the stitch i like on a scrap sandwich before i tackle the newest quilt. One lady in town does one test block of quilting it allows her to see how well the block works and if it looks like the pattern. She puts these sample blocks in a bag and when i was learning to free motion quilting i would take a block and make a sandwich and quilt it. She would then go over the quilting i did and offer tips. For her 75th birthday she did 75 quilts and she gifted her guests with a quilt.

[itsmejanny]

Delightful attitude and great advice. You get a big "thumbs up" from me! I sometimes draw a design on freezer paper, lightly iron it to the quilt, then follow the pattern on the paper. The paper tears away - just make your stitches small enough to be strong when you remove the paper.