DULUTH: Free Motion Quilting For Beginners - Reverse Applique Show Stopper

Want to learn a dramatic new skill to add to your quilting arsenal? Try free-motion quilting! We know, we know — you’ve stayed away from this quilting technique because you’ve heard that it can be tricky. We’re here to change that by making it fun and easy; by the end of this lesson, you’ll be an FMQ pro!

To begin your FMQ education, we’ll work with special stencils that we’ve designed just for this lesson. You can choose from a variety of whimsical designs, including a rose, feather, turtle, a bunny, a tiger, and more. You’ll trace this stencil on a solid black fabric, which in turn is going to be layered on top of a vibrant Batik fabric, batting, and backing fabric. Once the quilt sandwich is complete, take it to your machine and start free-motion quilting the outline of the stencil. It’s during this step that you can also practice stitching Baptist fans, pebbles, swirls, McTavishes, and other FMQ designs to fill the background around the main centerpiece. Finally, get a pair of scissors and cut into the top layer of black fabric. This reverse appliqué process will reveal a burst of color courtesy of the pretty Batik fabric underneath, and you can cut as much or as little as you like. The end result? An absolute show-stopping piece that you can then transform into a tote bag, wall hanging, placemat, or another creative project.

See? Free-motion quilting isn’t so bad after all. We promise you’ll be hooked on this technique once you give it a whirl!

Class Structure
This will be a workshop-style class; you will learn most of the FMQ principles during the first half of the lesson, and then get time during the second half to perfect your technique. Bring a small lunch so that you can recharge around mid-class!

Required Materials

Premade Kit
We are making kits for this class! The kits will have all of the fabrics that you need for the lesson. Each kit has our 20% class materials discount built-in to the price - Click HERE to purchase yours and it'll be ready when you come on July 14!

OR

Alternatively, if you don't want to purchase a kit, you will need to bring the following supplies:

• 1/2 yard black fabric
• One fat quarter of Vividly Colorful Batik fabric
• Fat quarter of Muslin fabric
• Batting

Additional Supplies
Please also bring:

• Your sewing machine with with a drop-feed feature
• Free-motion quilting feet (i.e. a darning foot)

Optional Supplies
The following tools are very useful for FMQ:

• Extension table for your machine
• FMQ gloves
• FMQ glider