You Are Wasting Money If You Don’t Do Your Own Quilting

I have talked about the fact that you are wasting money if you don’t do your own quilting on your projects before but I think it is time to do a little math just to see how big the impact can be. As you know, I think there are impacts to not doing your own quilting and direct costs are a tangible place to start. There are essentially two types of direct costs:

Money Paid to Have Someone Else Quilt Your Project

The easiest direct cost to identify is the price you would pay to have someone else quilt your project for you. This can run from $100 to hundreds of dollars depending on how the type of quilting that is done. For this analysis let’s ignore situations where you choose to send an extra special project to a professional for custom quilting. This will be expensive but in certain special situations the results from a professional quilter will be worth the extra expense.

If you know how to free motion quilt, you will find that most of your projects can be successfully quilted by you without a professional’s touch. Let’s take a look at what the cost-savings could be in one year. The cost savings will depend on the number, size, and type of quilting that is done. This will vary considerably between quilters so let’s explore a few scenarios so that we can determine a range of cost savings. For the purpose of the analysis I have assumed that all the quilts would be lap-sized and would cost $100 each for a professional quilter to quilt with an edge to edge design (pantograph).

Your costs will vary depending on the size of quilts that you make and how complex you want the quilting to be. The more creative you become in your project choices, the higher the cost to quilt the project will be. You can see how the annual costs could really skyrocket if you are doing projects that require custom quilting as the cost per quilt could be in the hundreds of dollars.

You may want to do some research locally to see what the costs of professional quilting are so that you can estimate the benefit of doing your own quilting on your type of projects. Once you plug in your own numbers, you will quickly realize that you can save a lot of money if you quilt your own projects. Learning free motion quilting just makes good economic sense.

Money Invested in UFO’s

The other place where money can be wasted is in your stack of UFO’s. Many UFO’s are a result of a quilter stopping after they have completed the top because they don’t know how they should quilt the project. If you are unable to try free motion quilting but are unwilling to get someone else to quilt it, then your project will end up in your pile of UFO’s. The inability to finish the project is a huge waste of effort and money.

Now you could make a case that the money spent on a UFO is not wasted because you will finish the project “someday” so let’s approach this analysis as an assessment of the money you have invested (rather than wasted) in your UFO’s. For the purpose of the analysis I have assumed that all the quilts would be lap sized with a cost for materials ($100 per quilt) and the cost of labour (10 hours *$10/hr) of your effort to complete the top.

As you can see the inability to finish the project is a huge waste of effort and money. In addition to the cost of the “wasted” fabric, it’s tragic to put your creative efforts into a project only to leave it in an unfinished state. This analysis doesn’t include the frustration and of guilt of not completing the project or the impact of having to find somewhere to store the UFO’s.

If you are accumulating UFO’s because you can’t quilt your own projects and won’t send them out to be quilted, then there will be a huge investment in your studio that you or the people that you will give the quilt to are not able to enjoy. If you value your time and your creative work, you need to learn how to free motion quilt so that you unlock this investment for yourself and those that would receive the finished project.

Download a worksheet so you can do your own cost calculations.

The Bottom Line

The costs of paying someone else to quilt your projects or the amount of “investment” stuck in your pile of UFO’s make learning to free motion your own projects a “no-brainer”. Investing in learning free motion quilting will pay massive dividends once you start quilting your own projects.

Download the free Get Out of the Ditch! guide to learn how to start free motion quilting by clicking here.

Now that you know how much money can save by free motion quilting, get more information on my course “First Steps Into Free Motion Quilting” by clicking here.

If you already know how to free motion quilt then you may be interested in “3 Ways to Improve Your Free Motion Quilting” by clicking here.

P.S. Do you strive to improve your quilting skills? Do you want to have fun doing it? Do you want to meet other quilters in a supportive, safe environment?  If you answered “yes” to these questions, you need to join The Quilter’s Way. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. Don’t wait another day! Join now.

Every Quilter Needs to Know How to Free Motion Quilt

I don’t want to put pressure on you but you really, really need to know how to free motion quilt. Some quilters go through their whole quilting life without learning free motion quilting and they are missing out on a huge part of the quilting journey. I believe that using free motion quilting in your projects can be the most creative and satisfying part of the quilting process. Along with choosing the fabrics, quilting your projects is one of the two ways that you can really put your personal stamp on the quilt. It’s a shame that some quilters miss what can be the most creative aspect of the project, even more impactful than choosing your fabric.

Money

Let’s start with the most straight forward reason to learn how to free motion quilt – money! I don’t think that saving money should be the only reason for doing your own quilting on a project but it certainly is a tangible benefit that you will get for every project you quilt yourself. The cost of getting someone else to quilt your project can run from $100 to hundreds of dollars depending on the type of quilting that is being done. Now, I am not saying that you shouldn’t send out a project to someone else for quilting. Some of my best quilting friends are long-armers and they can do an amazing job for you. If you have an extra special project that warrants custom quilting and you are not confident you can do it justice, then it is definitely a good idea to get a “professional” to do the quilting. The results from a professional longarm quilter will be worth the extra expense. Most projects don’t need a professional’s touch so if you are able to quilt your own projects, you’ll be able to save money on every quilt that you do yourself. Depending on the number of projects you complete, this can mean hundreds or thousands of dollars in savings in a year.

In addition to the explicit cost-savings of doing your own quilting, the cost of quilting can show up in the number of UFO’s that are in your studio. A significant number of UFO’s (or WIP’s as I prefer to call them) will be stopped at the stage where the top is finished but there has been no progress in the quilting. This is often because the quilter doesn’t know how they should quilt that particular project. They are unwilling to try free motion quilting themselves but are also unwilling to have someone else quilt it. The inability to finish a project is a huge waste of effort and money. In addition to the cost of the fabric, thread and time that have gone into that quilt, it’s tragic to put your creative efforts into a project only to leave it in an unfinished state.

Finally, the cost of having someone else quilt your projects will impact the decisions you make in very subtle ways. If you don’t want to pay someone else to quilt your projects, you may be unconsciously choosing methods for quilting your projects that you are capable of doing (e.g. stitch in the ditch only). You may even be choosing projects to make that don’t need free motion quilting just to avoid the whole issue. Just imagine what you could do if you knew how to free motion quilt yourself.

Control

Not knowing how to free motion quilt means that you are abdicating control over a key part of the quilting process. You will either be sending your quilt to someone else to quilt or you will be making design choices that limit your choices when it comes time to quilt your project. As a creative person you may feel really uncomfortable giving up control of something in which you have invested so much of yourself. By learning how to free motion quilt you will be able to take back control of your projects.

Once you become comfortable with free motion quilting technique, you can complete your project from start to finish the way you want. Quilting just becomes part of the process of making a project and can be adapted to ensure the project turns out the way you envisaged it. You will be able to control the design decisions and the timing decisions for the project rather than be dependent on the decisions or availability of a third person. If you do the free motion quilting, you can complete your project how you want and when you want. Even better, you’ll be able to say that you did it all yourself.

In the situation where you want to send out your project for quilting, your knowledge of free motion quilting will really help you communicate your expectations to the person who is going to quilt it. It can be difficult to communicate how you would like the final product to look if you have never done any free motion quilting. Your experience with free motion quilting will help you discuss options with the professional quilter so you’ll both be happy with the end result. It’s always good to have some knowledge about the service for which you’re hiring someone to avoid miscommunication and disappointment.

With Allison Spence of Meadow Rose Quilts

 Creativity

Enhancing your ability to express your creativity is what I think is the greatest benefit of knowing how to free motion quilt. Being able to complete the whole process when making a project allows you to free up your mind and bring your creativity to bear on the whole project. You will be able to make creative decisions that coordinate all parts of your project from the original design choice, through fabric choices, quilting and finishing. Having control of all aspects of the creative process allows you put your personal stamp on every one of your projects. Not only do you get to make the initial design choices but you can adapt as your project progresses. If your original thoughts about quilting motifs don’t seem to be working out, you can make adjustments to adapt the quilting to your new perspective. The ability to adapt as you move through your project allows you to problem solve and also opens up opportunities to make creative decisions as inspiration strikes you. The ability to influence all parts of your project construction will make the creation of your quilt an integrated, organic design process rather than a set of rigid tasks.

Awesome Blossom pattern from Chatterbox Quilts

As you become more confident in your free motion quilting, you may find that the quilting part of making a project becomes the dominant part of the creative process and the signature feature of some projects. Adding more complex quilting to areas of your quilt will allow you to express your creativity in ways that are not possible if you just do simple quilting. The ultimate example of this is a whole cloth quilt where you start with a “blank page” and use the quilting to make the design. The freedom of not being constrained by a “pattern” or fabric choices can be daunting at first but can also result in some of your most creative work.

Feather courtesy of Terry Rowland of T Row Studios

Finally, as you become more comfortable with free motion quilting, you may find that your desire for creativity leads you to experiment with projects that are on a whole different level. There are an infinite number of ways to combine different quilting such as free motion quilting and ruler work with nontraditional materials such as cork or leather in ways that result in an amazing project. The free form nature of free motion quilting allows it to be adapted to many applications rather than just keeping your quilt sandwich together. Once you get started you won’t want to stop.

Dragon courtesy of Sharon Blackmore of Love Shack Quilts

“Just Do It”

There are many reasons that quilters should know how to free motion quilt but I think that having creative control of your whole project is the most important one. Once you learn how to free motion quilt, you will revel in the creative freedom that you have when quilting even the simplest quilt. Sure, you’ll save money if you quilt your own project but I think that the ability to put your own personal stamp on a project is priceless. So what are you waiting for? It’s past time for you to begin improving your free motion quilting skills.

Download the free Get Out of the Ditch! guide to learn how to start free motion quilting by clicking here.

Now that you know the reasons you need to learn free motion quilting, check out my course “First Steps Into Free Motion Quilting” by clicking here.

If you already know how to free motion quilt then you may be interested in “3 Ways to Improve Your Free Motion Quilting” by clicking here.

Kim

Creatively,

P.S. Do you strive to improve your quilting skills? Do you want to have fun doing it? Do you want to meet other quilters in a supportive, safe environment?  If you answered “yes” to these questions, you need to join The Quilter’s Way. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. Don’t wait another day! Join now.

I hate the statement “Quilt As Desired”!

If you’re like me, you shudder when you hear the words, “Quilt as desired” in the pattern instructions. This is so not helpful for someone who has never quilted a quilt before. How could you be expected to know what you should quilt on your first project? You would think that the pattern design would have some idea about what would look good on their design.

So not fair!

Choosing a quilt motif can be intimidating for even experienced quilters. I recently was talking with Sharon Blackmore of Love Shack Quilts about just this topic when we were doing some filming at my studio for my online club, The Quilter’s Way. One of the most surprising comments that she made to me was that even the most proficient quilter, like Sharon, still feels some uncertainty and anxiety when deciding how to quilt a show quilt. Fortunately, Sharon has lots of experience and she can fall back on her tried and true formulas to get amazing results. She has a system that she uses that helps her make these choices.

I also have a system you can use to help you decide what quilt motif to choose and I’m going to share it with you now. It’s very simple, but it works for most situations:

Contrast Works in Quilting

Use a quilt motif that is contrasting to the type of piecing or designs in the quilt. This makes for a much more interesting finished quilt even if you are just adding the quilting for texture. If the quilt has straight lines in it, try some curvy quilt motifs. If the quilt has curvy lines in it, try some straight-line quilting or could even do walking foot quilting.

Consider the Fabric

If the fabrics in the quilt top are really busy, there’s no point in doing custom quilting with a variety of motifs and quite dense quilting. You won’t see it, so don’t waste your time doing it. Stick to a simple repeating design.

Consider the Use

I also like to consider the use of the quilt before I decide on a quilt motif and even how much quilting I put into the project. A child’s quilt doesn’t merit dense custom quilting, but you do want to be sure that the quilting you do will stand up to multiple washes and lots of dragging around the floor. A 50th anniversary wedding quilt is one of those special, once in a lifetime projects, that definitely merits dense, custom quilting, but only if you don’t expect to use it on a bed.

It isn’t as hard to choose a quilt motif for your quilt when you have some guidelines in place. If you would like to browse some books for ideas you should visit my Free Motion Quilting Books kit where I have gathered together all my favourite books about free motion quilting. Just click here.

Keep practicing!

Creatively,

Download the free Get Out of the Ditch! guide to learn how to start free motion quilting by clicking here.

P.S. Do you strive to improve your quilting skills? Do you want to have fun doing it? Do you want to meet other quilters in a supportive, safe environment?  If you answered “yes” to these questions, you need to join The Quilter’s Way. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. It’s not your grandmother’s quilting circle! Don’t wait another day! Join now.

P.S. I am an Amazon affiliate and, if you purchase items by clicking through the links in this post, I will receive a small amount of commission. This doesn’t cost you any more $$$, but helps me to continue creating free content for you. Thanks!

4 Tips on How to Quilt Your Quilt

The biggest problem I hear from quilters when it comes to the quilting part of their project is that they don’t know what motif to put on their quilt. They’re afraid that they’ll “ruin” their quilt, either through lack of skill or poor quilt motif choice. I’m not going to say that you can’t ruin a quilt through poor choices in these areas, but there are 4 considerations that I think will help you to avoid “ruining” your quilt. (And you can’t really ruin a quilt unless you tear it, stain it, burn it, etc. – everything else is just a learning opportunity).

This is what I like to consider before I choose a quilt motif for my quilt.

1.     What is the purpose of the quilt?

This is the first thing I consider before quilting any of my projects.

Most quilts we make are ones that we want to be used. They may be baby quilts to be dragged around the house, a lap quilt to be snuggled under when reading, or a bed quilt to keep us warm at night. These types of quilts will be used and washed repeatedly – they’re what I call “utility” quilts. These types of quilts don’t merit custom quilting. A simple pantograph or all-over design will work perfectly well for the majority of these types of quilts. Pick a quilt motif that compliments the fabric or design of the quilt and get ‘er done.

Pattern is Chock a Block by Chatterbox Quilts

If the quilt top you have created is intricately pieced, it may merit custom quilting. If you would consider this an heirloom quilt to be viewed, but not used, custom or semi-custom quilting is the way to go. This might involve smaller, more complex quilting motifs or ruler quilting. You may want to use different quilt motifs in different parts of the quilt. This type of quilting takes more thought and will take longer to complete, but, if the quilt top merits it, this is the way to go.

Decide what type of quilting this particular quilt top needs and you are then ready to move onto the next consideration.

2.     What is the focus of the quilt?

When I’m looking at a quilt top, I need to decide what will be the focus or star of it: will it be the piecing or appliqué or will it be the quilting itself?

For appliqué quilts, you definitely want to emphasize the appliqué itself. The quilting should enhance or accentuate the appliqué, not compete with it. In this case, the appliqué is the star, and the quilting is the supporting actor. Keeping your quilting motif simple will work on this type of quilt.

Pattern is from Community Quilt Along by Chatterbox Quilts & QuiltFusion

If, on the other hand, this is a pieced quilt with lots of negative space, for example, a modern quilt, the star will be the quilting. You’ll be able to do lots of custom or semi-custom quilting in the negative space on these types of quilt. The sky is the limit here, so have fun and combine multiple quilting motifs to show off your skill.

Which brings us to the next consideration.

3.     What is your skill level?

I always say that it is better to do a simple design well than a complex design poorly. (I should have this tattooed on me!).

If you struggle to do feathers or don’t like how yours look, don’t do feathers on your quilts! If you are a master at stippling, use this on your quilts. Simple designs can look just as good as more complex ones if done well.

Don’t think you have to do a certain quilt motif because you see it on many quilts. If you can’t do it well (yet!), stick to the designs that you have mastered. There will be lots more quilt tops just waiting for those feathers when you have mastered them.

The next thing to consider is…

4.     What is the style of the quilt?

Some quilt motifs are more appropriate on certain styles of quilts. I’m not saying that this is a rule (are there really rules in quilting?!), but it’s something to consider.

Is your quilt a traditional or modern quilt? You may want to use more traditional quilting motifs, such as feathers, crosshatching, etc. on a traditional quilt top.

If you have a more modern quilt, simple designs, such as geometric shapes, stippling, or wavy walking foot quilting, might be more appropriate.

All of these considerations are suggestions only as everyone has their own ideas as to what type of quilting they want to have on their own quilt tops, but they are a starting point to help you in making this decision.

In all cases, remember that if your quilt has busy fabrics, you won’t see the quilting well, so your beautiful custom quilting won’t be seen. If you choose to put this amount of effort into quilting a quilt with busy fabrics, don’t be disappointed when the quilting doesn’t show. The reverse is true: you will definitely see the quilting on solid fabrics, so go for that custom work.

In general, I like to use curved quilting motifs on quilt tops that have straight lines in them and straight line quilting motifs on quilt tops that have curved piecing in them. Use the opposite type of quilting motif to the quilt top to work harmoniously together.

For more information on choosing a quilt motif, click on the image below.

 These are some ideas you can use when considering the quilt motif to be used in your next quilt project. What are the things you consider when choosing a quilt motif for your quilts? Leave a comment below to let me know.

Creatively,

Download the free Get Out of the Ditch! guide to learn how to start free motion quilting by clicking here.

P.S. Are you serious about improving your quilting? Do you want to connect with other committed quilters in a supportive, safe environment?  If you answered “yes” to these questions, you need to join The Quilter’s Way. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. Don’t wait another day! Join now.

P.P.S. Did you know that you can sign up to receive emails full of FREE quilting goodness? Click here to receive FREE content directly in your email inbox every few weeks from Chatterbox Quilts. I know you'll be glad you did!

P.S. I am an Amazon affiliate and, if you purchase items by clicking through the links in this post, I will receive a small amount of commission. This doesn’t cost you any more $$$, but helps me to continue creating free content for you. Thanks!

Needle and Threads for Free Motion Quilting

Every quilter needs to know how to quilt their quilt. Whether they free motion quilt it or prefer to do walking foot quilting, they need to know what threads and needles to use when quilting.

I recently had a discussion with Allison Spence of Meadow Rose Quilts (Handi Quilter national educator and Superior Threads’ certified educator) about the type of needles and threads that work best when free motion quilting. There are different weights and compositions of thread and some work better than others when doing this type of quilting. Once you’ve chosen your thread, then you have to match it with an appropriate needle.

Click on the image below to learn more about choosing the "right" needles and threads for free motion quilting.

What type of thread do you prefer to use when quilting? Let me know in the comments below.

Creatively,

P.S. Did you know that you can sign up to receive emails full of FREE quilting goodness? Click here to receive FREE content directly in your email inbox every few weeks from Chatterbox Quilts. I know you'll be glad you did!