Free-Motion Meandering„A Beginner's Guide to Machine Quilting

~ ~ ~ Note on Kindle vs. Print Version: Please see end of review. ~ ~ ~ Angela Walters clearly targets beginners in Free-Motion Meandering. It is very brief, measured, and efficiently full of just enough information for starters. Yet the book has beautiful examples that will inspire all levels. Does “drop the feed dogs” paralyze your brain and cramp your fingers? Does “relax and remember to breathe” seem impossible to do simultaneously? The prolific Angela Walters has always had a favorite teacher’s way of encouraging the timid and the tentative to break through the stitch-in-the-ditch barrier. The book includes tools (specifying some of the author’s favorites), tips, FAQs, what-ifs, helpful close-ups of real hands, and lovely photographs. A beginner can go from the very 1st step of popping up the bobbin thread to creating the fabulous whole-cloth quilt on the cover. You’ve just got to be willing to practice and make mistakes – lots of ‘em. And get over the notion of expense in wasted fabric, thread, batting, and time. There is no such thing in the free-motion world of quilting. No single book can substitute for literally hands-on experience. Personally, I had overwhelmed myself with a bevy of books on the subject. I will always remember the day I “got it” just by practicing for hours the day before. I felt like the top of my head broke open and my busy thinking brain no longer restricted me. My quilting spirit soared. It was the same feeling I got when I really, truly learned to drive a manual transmission car. It’s a freedom that is disciplined and controlled, but freeing none the less. Definitely a beginner’s book. Fans of Angela Walters might be disappointed by how short the book is compared to her others. I was at first, until I could remember my pre-free-motion restricted small world. Free-Motion Meandering could have replaced a whole shelf full of similar books in my sewing room. ~ ~ ~ Kindle vs. Print Version: I purchased both, and prefer the print version, especially for beginners. The Amazon Kindle for Samsung app curiously scatters what the “real” Kindle might not. Text that overlays pictures in the print book gets separated out, making the overall appearance disjointed. The Table of Contents is inaccessible. The gorgeous 1st page with title info atop a lovely quilt is missing. The copyright page appears at the END of the Kindle for Samsung version. This is a disservice to the author. In this internet age, authors’ and artists’ rights are of primary importance. Thus usage restrictions should appear in the primary section of the book. Often disregarded, the copyright page contains vital legal information. For example, and of particular importance to brand new beginners of free-motion quilting: yes, you may photocopy pages for your own personal use. It is particularly helpful to print out and trace over quilting lines, first with a pencil, then with your machine. ~ ~ ~

I'm currently enrolled in an online FMQ course. It's really great, but there are times I wish I could break the entire process of learning a motif down to its more basic level. We don't all learn the same way. Angela has done just that - she's taken some of the most basic moves (meandering, circles, etc.) and made it so easy to follow how she added more and more motifs to the pattern until they fill the space. That's the part I was struggling with. Struggle no more...help is here. She's also got some unique variations of motifs in the book that I've never seen, but which I think I'm really going to like - and be able to accomplish! She also has pages about supplies, and so forth, giving her opinions but also other options. All-in-all, it's a good beginner manual for FMQ, but I'm moving on towards intermediate and I still find it useful. Every FMQ does it their own way. Sometimes more than one opinion/method is valuable.

This is a great book for anyone new to free-motion quilting (FMQ). I've got to admit that I am a FMQ book/tutorial junkie. I've been doing FMQ for about a year and consider myself pretty lousy at it...although I'm getting better. I found Angela's book entertaining as well as helpful at perfecting my meanderings. At the end of the book, Angela also gives some detail about improve quilting (sometimes also called mash-ups) where several motifs are used in the quilting rather than just using one motif as an all-over design. The beginning of the book provides some basic about getting ready to quilt. It's likely that an absolute beginner would want more detailed information. I liked the fact that Angela wants you to practice and NOT criticize your quilting while you are doing it. Just quilt...when you are done, then look at the entire piece if you want to critic it. I know from experience that practice is everything. I highly recommend that when you quilt on practice pieces, you save them. Angela suggests that you write the date on them. I agree (I didn't do that and I wish I had). It is amazing to look back on those practice pieces later. You then can see how far you have come. I am amazed at some of the combined motifs I've stitched in the past and how nice they look. Then I catch myself thinking...well, apparently I did this before so I must be able to do it again. Way cool! This book doesn't have a lot of pages (I think it was 80...what my husband teasingly calls a quilting 'magazine' rather than a quilting book) but the information provided is solid, the stitching diagrams are great, and the pictures of completed pieces are beautiful and the stitching is very clear. I know it is silly to even mention it but I did see three places in the book where the editing wasn't as good as it could have been. You know, where they use the word 'you' instead of 'we' and that type of thing. Love the book and it has helped me with my issues with hooked spiral meandering.

As a beginner, I found the concepts in this book easy to follow and in a sequence that made sense to me. I have done meanders and loops and swirls, and I’m still learning these simple quilting techniques now. This is a great resource and I’ll be referencing it for a while to come.

Even tho this book is written for domestic machine free motion quilting and I am a long quilter, I found the designs fun and doable for my needs! Thanks!

Una guida fantastica per gli amanti del filo

livre très clair et très bien expliqué par l'image pour un se lancer dans le free motion quilting. le livre en anglais se lit assez bien si l'on dispose d'un anglais scolaire niveau lycée

Great book, but more for a starter quilter than experienced sewer

Excelente opção pra quem aprecia quilting livre. Muitos movimentos, super didádito.

This is such a helpful book for a beginner like me. The writing style is utterly charming: just the right mix of encouragement, reassurance, and anticipatory hints (e.g. solving a problem you wouldn't know you might encounter, right at the outset). Will definitely be looking out for more books by this author. Thank you! :-)