Newbie Question

[Happy_Panda]

Hi Everyone I am a complete novice at quilting, and I found MSQC by watching videos on Youtube, and I absolutely LOVED the ones by MSQC. I have my heart set on making a Dresden Plate quilt. I have a question, and I know this is probably a very dumb question: What is the beautiful stitching called that I am seeing on quilts? It is swirley, and makes a beautiful quilt gorgeous! How do you do it? I have a pretty standard Singer sewing machine, it has several different stitches on it.

Sorry, like I said, I'm a Noob Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

[meemeecyn]

Welcome to the Forum, Panda. Your user name puts a smile on my face! To me, what you are describing sounds like the actual quilting after the pieces of the quilt are all put together. The quilting holds the sandwich (layers) together. On the home machines, I believe they call it FMQ (Free Motion Quilting). There are also Long Arm machines that quilt, too. I have done neither! (Too chicken) I bring my quilts to a professional who has a huge, very expensive Long Arm. I have tied some of the baby quilts. BUT...there are lots of experienced and skilled quilters on this forum that could help you so much. You are right, MSQC does great tutorials! This is an awesome Forum and you will learn a lot.
Cynthia from NH

[Happy_Panda]

Thank you so much! It's good to know you can take it to someone else!

[Monique]

Welcome from Canada, Panda.

Doesn't it look awesome. I only hand quilt so I am not much use to you either. But welcome to the forum. There are so many talented people here that I am sure you will get an answer in no time.

Take care,
Monique

[quilter.martha]

Welcome Panda from New Hampshire! You're gonna love it here. LOTS of inspiration and great advice.

I have been quilting for over 20 years and am just now brave enough to do free motion quilting. In the past I have either done stitch in the ditch (sewing the finished quilt in the seam lines of the fabrics to where the stitching doesn't show), or hand quilted. I LOVE to hand quilt, but it takes longer. It's a great way though to add something extra to a quilt top. And, it's not hard to do. Free motion quilting takes lots of practice to get to the point where you can actually quilt a design in the quilt. I'm not quite there yet.

So, have fun, experiment, and don't get frustrated with results. It's all a learning process!

[DanielaK]

Hello, welcome to quilting. Quilting your quilt can be done in many different methods. On a traditional sewing machine you would need to drop your feed dog and use a open toe foot or stitch in the ditch. Using meandering or stippling method will allow for an all over end to end coverage. It takes alot of practice I only do small project and quilts, for the larger quilts I make, I take it to long arm quilter. I have had Missouri Star quilt a few of my projects. They do a great job.
Have fun and keep quiling.

[Susan M]

Welcome from Connecticut. If you are interested in free motion quilting you just need to practice, practice, practice and more practice. Your stitches should be uniform but after all the practicing you will get it. Your machine needs to be able to drop the feed dogs, and have a mending or free motion foot for your machine. A straight stitch is all you need. I just made a large practice sandwich with muslin on top and bottom and of course the batting in the middle. Have fun with it. Before long you will be making flowers and loops...even stars.

[Happy_Panda]

Thank you everyone for your help! Now that I knew what to search for, and I feel awful silly for not knowing the term was 'quilting' LOL! I watched a few tutorials, and I think hand quilting looks like fun! I also watched some tutorials on machine quilting, and I know I'm not ready for that! I can't wait to get my hands on a few charm packs and see what happens! Thank you everyone for the warm welcome!