How To Quilt It: Straight Lined Puzzle

Here's another free motion filler technique for you, straight line puzzling. But first...

Things you need to try and focus on while quilting:

• Keep your shoulders down, it's very common for quilters to draw their shoulders up to their ears. This will result on back and neck strain - you don't want that, or you'll need recovery time before you can quilt again!
• Your needle speed versus your speed moving the quilt around. You need to find a happy balance of how fast your machine is going, versus how fast you are. If your stitches are very long, you are moving too fast or your machine is not stitching fast enough. If you're stitches are tiny and close together, nearly perforating your fabric, it's likely that you are sewing faster than you are moving your quilt around under the needle. Of course you may see a combination of both issues, some long, some short - it's really a matter of slowing yourself down and practicing the feeling of moving the quilt around.

Here is a video showing the technique:


Here are some examples of how I have used this filler technique. Notice you don't have to keep it going it straight lines - you can even use it diagonally!

This is an excellent one for practicing changing directions without distorting the stitching! Take your time, and experiment between pushing/pulling forward and back versus side to side. Personally, I prefer front to back - but it really is just personal preference! And again, the key is practice, practice, practice!