Seams French

When I first started dabbling with machine quilting in the late 90's, it was a quick means to a finished quilt. The machine quilting was very basic and simple. It was utilitarian and nothing more. It was after I became acquainted with Diane Gaudynski's work, that the amazing world of free motion quilting opened up for me. Seeing her incredible quilts, with their flawless execution and elegant designs inspired me to pursue this technique with a renewed excitement. Both of her books, "Guide to Machine Quilting": American Quilter's Society, 2002 and "Quilt Savvy: Gaudynski's Machine Quilting  Guide": AQS, 2006 are still my first "go to" resources for everything related to machine quilting. "Guide to Machine Quilting" covers every possible aspect of machine quilting, from managing that great big bulk in a domestic machine, to controlling and coordinating machine speed with hand movement, to detailed descriptions on perfecting

I'm happy to say that the "Sanglier" placemats are done and 8 happy little piggies are nibbling their way through a sunny vineyard all the way to their new home. The eight 13 1/4" x 17" placemats were quilted on a domestic machine using only free motion.  The sanglier was machine embroidered separately first, then appliqued to the quilt top prior to sandwiching. To highlight the palm tree, I used embroidery thread for the quilting. A close-up of a corner shows where the colour of the thread changes with the colour gradations of the fabric as described in the previous post . The cross hatch grid was achieved with free motion and the use of a ruler. Even though I currently don't have a presser foot designed for ruler work, this is a much faster way to stitch straight lines than using a walking foot. I used the plastic FM quilting foot that came with my machine and it works fairly well, but I have no doubt that a presser foot desig