Sewing is one of my more regular craft-type pursuits. Quilting is a more recent one and I’m willing to experiment with my sewing machine. Specifically the quilting, free-motion, or darning foot.
Without getting too technical when using this particular foot, the feed dogs are lowered and the pressure on the foot is set to light. This allows the sew-er to gently maneuver the fabric in any direction while sewing, not just in a straight line.
I wanted to experiment with free-motion quilting and our heating pad needed a new cover. No one would ever see this so what better way to learn than to practice!
I layered a piece of 100% cotton batting between two pieces of cotton fabric and pinned this all together before taking it to my sewing machine. The total size was 12 inches by 27 inches. I began stitching in the center and made my way out toward the edges.
My stitches aren’t even as I moved the fabric around. Going slowly gave me better control of stitch length. You can see some longer stitches and very short stitches as I tried to make this star.
I drew a leaf with pink chalk and tried to go over the lines here.
More leaves and a heart.
Can you see the hidden messages below? 
All quilted.
I added binding around the entire piece (don’t look at the horrible corners!) then folded it in half to make a padded envelope for our heating pad. I also made a new flannel cover to conceal it all and make it removable for washing.
I do need lots more practice using this foot on my sewing machine before I tackle a regular-sized quilt. It was fun and I learned a few things.
Do you sew and have you tried using all of the feet that came with your machine?
Knitting In Flashes 
Amazing, as always. You are soooo talented.
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Excellent! A fun and useful way to make the days go by. I’ve used the button foot and the zigzag foot.
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I just unearthed my sewing machine while cleaning the basement. It is a basic Singer from the 50s or 60s I think. It only does straight and zig zag. It is amazing what I accomplished on that machine though. Yikes!
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This is so cool that you posted this, I actually bought a darning foot for my machine a couple of months ago and a book on how to machine quilt. I’ve gone through the first three lessons, which are done with a walking foot (that term always makes me giggle) and next up is free style with the darning foot. I’ve hand quilted for years so this will be interesting to learn! I bought a 1/4 inch foot at the same time and where has that been all my life? My darling hubby bought me a new machine back in May, it has a boatload of built in stitches so I’ve played with a lot of them, and a few of the feet that came with it.
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I should get a book or take a course on machine quilting. What book did you buy and would you recommend it?
I’ve only made three twin bed size quilts and one baby quilt and used my sewing machine one all for the straight line quilting. I had a hard time doing that! I don’t know if I could handle a twin size or larger doing the free motion quilting. I might try some other smaller projects like hotpads or placemats.
What kind of sewing machine did you get? Does it do embroidery? Mine has about 150 stitches and letters and numbers (Janome Memory Craft 6600P).
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I got this one: https://www.amazon.com/Quilters-Companion-Complete-Machine-Quilting/dp/1589232437/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+Quilter%27s+Companion+the+complete+guide+to+machine+quilting&qid=1611098636&sr=8-1
But I got it on Ebay for less than $5. I did a baby sized quilt doing stitch in the ditch, and it worked out pretty well for a newbie! I got a Janome Sewist, not sure of the number but it has 180 stitches and a little button you push to cut the thread that makes me giggle every time I use it. (I’m easily amused) I love this machine!
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Thanks for the info.
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Has to be hard moving sll the materials around on the machine– certainly not easy…. can’t imagine a larger quilt! Good job!
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Thank you. Practice makes perfect…or better.
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It’s wonderful! I use rulers a lot with my domestic and my new long arm machine. But I am trying to be more adventurous with FMQ, it’s just I have so little fine control. LOL!
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