Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine
One of the very first classes I purchased after joining Craftsy was Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine (affiliate link) back in September 2012. I loved it. Ann Peterson’s conversational style explaining her techniques is easy to understand and follow. Since it has been almost two years since my original purchase, I decided to view it again before writing this review. And guess what, I enjoyed just as much the second time around….with two years of free motion quilting experience under my belt. The nice thing about these videos is you can return to them over and over. And surprisingly, I’ve picked up more techniques the second time around I had forgotten from the first viewing (forehead slap here).
Ann covers 5 different techniques for quilting large projects: 1) Quilting the whole quilt 2) Splitting the batting 3) Splitting the top 4) Block by block and 5) Medallion quilting. She also covers basting the quilt, workplace setup, design previewing, and various quilting techniques throughout these 5 sections.
Items I use and love that I learned watching this video: biggie is spray basting. Once I tried it after watching this video it there was no going back to pin basting. I LOVE spray basting!! No more puckers. But I did learn the hard way…use a very light touch with the basting. Too heavy and it leads to lots of needle gumming when free motion quilting. Another technique I love is her method for auditioning threads. Spooling bits of thread on the fabric is much better than just holding a spool next to the fabric. Her stitch-in-the-ditch technique is another I really like. Because the quilt has been spray basted, you can start anywhere. Instead of starting in the center, I now start on the outer edge, and work my way in. And basting the outer border edge is another technique I faithfully use. It does an excellent job of preventing the border from stretching. Attaching fabric swatches to the outer batting/backing margin to test thread tension is a technique I had forgotten. I have to recheck my tension every time I change my bobbin and am constantly looking for mini sandwich swatches. These are just a few of the many techniques covered in this video…
The platform allows you to ask questions, take notes, post pictures, and more. I highly recommend Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine (affiliate link) if you are interested in learning to quilt your own quilts. It’s an excellent place to start!
