You can find Chillingsworth in the Bad To the Bone section at SPOOL (click)
Like the joke where the person asks how to get to Carnegie Hall and the answer given was “practise, practise, practise”, quilting is much the same. There is little way around this pesky fact and yet so many people get stuck on just WHAT to practise.
There is little more panic inducing than a big piece of solid fabric waiting for some sort of magic to occur. You stand/sit there, dry mouth and nervous glance and not a freaking idea in your head where previously there had been wild swirls and dreams of sexy texture. Yeah, we have all be there and it sucks, BUT there are a few things that can help.
Planning to Learn –
First job is figuring out what you want to learn. Saying that you want to learn “free-motion” is one thing, but style is another. Are you looking to learn classic measured feathers and quilting to enhance traditional piecing or are you wanting to learn to follow your crazy quilter muse and create wild action in the negative space of a quilt ( that is totally what gets me off, but I bet you knew that already!)? While there is some crossover, having in mind where you want to take your talent will help you hone in on the skills you need to learn to get there.
BadAss comes in many different forms so don’t feel you have to fit someone else’s idea of what quilting should look like. If you adore feathers jump right in and learn them! If you would rather pluck out your nose hairs one by one than do a feather that is cool too… learn what makes you happy!
Pick Wisely –
“You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friends’ nose” Yeah… I just put that there.. make of it what you will!
And while we are on the subject of picking, the fabrics and threads you use for your practise need to be the most forgiving possible so that you don’t loose faith early on in the process. Quite frankly even the best freaking quilter can look like a total hack when high contrast thread and fabric are part of the mix, it is a hard one to pull off but not undoable. It just takes a lot of practise!
Not that there will not come a time when you might not want to go wild with colors on solid fabric ala Karlee Porter.
Did I mention she also has an amazing book…. Check out Graffiti Quilting! Something TOTALLY to aspire to!
In the meantime I really suggest matching or at least coordinating your thread to your fabric and picking fabric that helps you become the quilter you want to be.
It’s Not Cheating When You Do It With Style –
When I am wanting to practise a new technique or just dust off some old ones I turn to modern “cheater” fabric for a spring board to inspiration and design. These can be somewhat hard to find so when I do I pull them into the shop and have bundled up a couple of learning packages for your quilty pleasure.
Each package has 2, 1.5 yard cuts of fabric which makes for a nice throw sized quilt or add some borders and grow these bigger for even more practise room!
These fabrics are perfect for line work, ruler work and free motion quilting. On all of these I would highly suggest the use of monofilament* for playing up the lines but making the stitching disappear leaving what you want.. amazing texture! Play up design elements in this piece and even subsect it to give the illusion of other block configurations .. so much fun!
These circles are just calling for ways to make them pop off the surface. This would be a great one to use to practice with curved templates!
Yet another piece with great curves and this one has a lot of space in the rings that are just calling out from some funky free hand work!! Take some time with a water soluble blue pen to draw out some design inspiration until you are happy with your ideas!
Last but not at all least! This fabric is PERFECT for learning the control needed for stitching in the ditch and straight line work. But don’t stop there.. add ribbon candy or bold geometric work to the those bars. You can do it!
Why Buy Cheater Cloth?
The honest truth is you don’t have to. You can slap any two pieces of fabric together with some batting and just go for it!
Fabrics like these just give you that added push and a bit of direction at a time when sometimes our minds can go blank and our palms can go sweaty with anxiety.
This is the Modern Grays <– click to order
Modern Geometrics <– click to find out more
Modern Brights <– you know the deal
Click here to see all the kits at once
In Part Two
So next up I am going to do some filming of me working with these fabrics. What do you want to see or want explained? Hit me up and I will see what I can do to show you what I know or find someone who can!
** Monofilament is not the devil or even his distant third cousin. There are many brands that are smooth, thin and supple. Seek them out and they can become a quilters best friend.
