Quilting the Quilt: Getting from here to there

September 22, 2015

Quilting the Quilt, APQS, Dawn Cavanaugh, longarm quilting, quilting tips, how to quilt flying geese

The fast-paced world in which we live has contributed to the decline of hand quilting. The Internet connects us instantly with quilters around the world. We can buy fabric in our pajamas and can find inspiration online. It’s no wonder machine quilting is now the top finishing method—we’ll never live long enough to complete all those projects we want to stitch by hand!

While we may secretly aspire to make a Best of Show quilt, most of the time we make quilts simply because they are fun! Many times we fell in love with the fabric or the pattern. Since we have so many quilts to make and so little time, machine quilting is a natural decision. We can cover the territory quickly with an allover quilting pattern. But if we do want to pay special attention to parts of our quilt, it’s nice to know some secrets for speeding up that process as well.

I’ve chosen flying geese to illustrate how to rethink the pathways that can help you finish quilts faster. The quickest way to quilt a project is to use the same blending thread color throughout, but that isn’t always the most desirable choice, especially if you have high contrast between your fabrics. The key to speedy machine quilting isn’t necessarily moving your machine or fabric faster. The secret is taking the time to plan your route so that you can efficiently move from patch to patch with few starts and stops. It means quilting your background sections at the same time as your main fabric sections if you can use the same color of thread. However, if you want contrasting thread, you must think about your designs in a different way so that you can connect shapes instead of allowing them to float inside a patch of fabric.

Download the rest of this Quilting the Quilt article.

Quilting the Quilt, APQS, Dawn Cavanaugh, longarm quilting, quilting tips, how to quilt flying geese
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