Line up the FMQ ruler foot with the starting position of the template (on the left side.) Now, without turning your sewing machine on, start moving the template under the needle, keeping the foot against the side of the template to ensure you have smooth curves.
Then place the Dabline Template Grip and Meander Template onto the quilt sandwich. Take a practice quilt sandwich, at least 10”x12”, and bring it to your sewing machine. This extra practice will help your hands and brain learn the movements necessary for smooth stitching, especially around the curves of this template. We recommend practicing the motions before you even turn on your sewing machine. Now that your machine is set up and ready for quilting with templates, you can begin practicing with the Meander Template. Let’s go over how to use this template for your quilt projects.īefore we go over how to use the Meander Templates, make sure you Set Up Your Machine for Quilting with Templates. The Meander Template is just one of the eight templates in the Dabline Quilting Template Set. What if I told you that using our Meander Template can quickly achieve the meander quilting design with barely any practice or complications. When you first start learning how to free-motion quilt, the meander is probably the motion you practice first.
I can't wait to try this on my next project.If you were to poll 100 quilters and ask them what they think is the most popular free-motion quilting design, most would say meander quilting. Thanks for sharing the allover leaf design with us, Angela. I'm just using my hands flat and trying to push it as smoothly as possible." "And remembering that on the sit-down long arm machine, you have a food pedal so you can stop, reposition your hands and continue on." "Absolutely." "Sometimes I think that that's the hardest part to remember-you are in control of the gas pedal, so just ease off and give yourself a chance to reposition and see where you're going to go. I want to make sure it's filled in as consistently as possible, and I'm also not grabbing on to the quilt top. As you can see here, if you wanted to, you can just add an echo to one you've already quilted and continue adding." "And you're always looking ahead to figure out where you next leaf is going to be." "Exactly. And just continue echoing and quilting that shape, filling the areas in as consistently as possible. But when you're ready to add your next one, you just add the next one going in a different direction. Sometimes I get into more trouble if I'm trying to be too literal in getting the shape together." "Exactly. It's almost like a pointy teardrop, which I know doesn't exactly look like a leaf, but I'm just going for the general overall look." "Right. So to quilt it, you're just going to come out to a point and back. I guess you can't really see the whole quilt, but this area you can quilt it. The one thing to remember is that you can echo around it, so if you get stuck to a point that you can't fill in, just echo around it a couple of times and it'll be good." "And for this quilt, the background you're considering to be the gray fabric." "Yes. And any time you quilt any type of meander, you're basically just quilting the shape and repeating it to fill the area in as consistently as possible. So this is a very versatile design that I use a lot in my quilts." "Alright, so let's stitch it out and see how it goes." "So, I'm going to quilt this as an allover design in the back of the quilt, which happens to be this gray spot. You can also combine this design with other designs, such as the pebbles and the leaves. Doing a curve-it's kind of hard to stop in that curve, so you can stop at the point and then reposition your hands and move on. So, how do we go about making this kind of design?" "What's great about this design is that it works well on every kind of machine, but these points that you're referencing are great for a sit-down machine, because it gives you an area where you can reposition your hands.
And it's great for masculine quilts or maybe quilts that you want more of a landscape look to." "I love that it has a little bit of points in the design, so different from the curves that we see in stippling. But instead of doing just a basic meander, which is just a curvy line, I brought a lead design, which makes it a little more fun and a little more different. You know, and allover design is just a design that goes all over the quilt-pretty simple. And Angela, what you have to share with us today is an alternative to an allover stitch that most of us might not know." "Exactly. And today, we're working on the sit-down long arm machine, the Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen. Hi, I'm Jennifer, here with Handi Quilter ambassador Angela Walters.