How to Learn Machine Quilting

Learning to machine quilt is fairly easy as long as your hands and sewing machine move in sync around your quilt top. If you have never done this before, make a few small machine quilted squares and practice your skills before moving on to the king-sized bed quilt you really want. The most important part of machine quilting is learning the feel of the material and how it moves under your quilting needle.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Basting spray or large safety pins
• Table top
• Assembled quilt top
• Backing material at least 2 inches larger than quilt top
• Batting--same size as backing
• Sewing machine
• Quilting foot
• Nylon thread

1. Assemble the strips of your quilt top by machine stitching them together. It is best to start with geometric patterns so that you can keep your seam lines straight. After you have assembled the interior of the quilt top, sew a coordinating border all around and you are ready to start machine quilting the top to the batting and back.

2. Lay out the backing material face down on a table top. Pin the batting to the backing or spray the batting with basting spray and flip it over onto the backing to stick it down thoroughly. Lay the quilt top over the batting assembly, moving all of the pins to the front as you go. You can also spray the back of the quilt and place it over the batting. If you are working on a very large piece, do small sections at a time, starting at the top and rolling the quilt top down toward the bottom evenly.

3. Attach the walking foot to your machine. The walking foot will keep everything in place as you stitch. Use nylon quilting thread for its shine and versatility. Begin machine stitching in the ditch between the border and the quilt squares. You can also stitch in the ditches between your geometric patterns.

4. One of the most creative ways to machine quilt is to free style. Free styling is like doodling. It doesn't have a particular pattern. To set your machine to move easily, read your manual to find out how to lower the feed dogs on the bottom sewing plate so you can easily move the fabric by hand. Using the quilting foot, begin in the middle of the quilt and work toward the edges, using a longer stitch. Start moving the fabric under the needle. Go back and forth or around in circles. Apply free style to any or all of your pattern blocks within the quilt.

5. Once finished with your machine quilting, cut a 4-inch width of material that is the length of the quilt's perimeter for the binding of your piece. Sew it right sides together along the front edge. The 2-inch excess material batting and backing will be tucked inside your border. Turn and fold each corner into a mitered 90-degree angle and turn the raw edge under, making it fit over the backing and batting. Machine stitch it closed on the wrong side by stitching in the ditch created by the front side.

Tips & Warnings

• Instead of free styling, you may want to machine quilt a picture or design on your squares. Make a design transfer onto the top of your quilt and stitch along the lines to make the pattern.
• Free styling is fun to do, but you need to move slowly until you have a feel for your fabric. If you go too fast the whole piece gets scrunched up and you have to stop and smooth it out and redistribute the fabric. Use a seam ripper to remove unwanted stitches.

References

• Video lessons
• Anyone can machine quilt
• Machine quilting book of instructions

Resources

• Finish your quilt with a mitered edge