Design It, Quilt It

Take your pieced or whole-cloth quilts from beautiful to spectacular with free-form machine quilting. Award-winning quilting instructor Cindy Needham shares her tips for quilting from the inside out - starting with gourmet batting, basting, and a refresher on thread tension and making quilting lines, then advancing to designs and fillers that will make your quilt tops pop.

Cindy will show you ways to divide and conquer the space to create a quilting design that's uniquely yours. Start out with stencils, deconstructing them to create original patterns. Explore medallion-based designs and then go on to freeform elements - including feathers, fillers, and repeating motifs you can use to highlight your quilt with beautiful areas of sunshine and shadow.

Cindy will also show you easy and easier ways to make your border designs fit and how to troubleshoot your sewing machine when your threads go awry.

Whether you're a beginning quilter with your first project or a long-time enthusiast with a closet full of unfinished objects, you'll find inspiration here to finish your work with style. Sign up for Design It, Quilt It today!

What You'll Learn in Design It, Quilt It: Free-Form Techniques

• Tools and tips for setting up your workspace and sewing machine, and preparing your quilt top for stitching
• Choosing and combining stencil elements and "found designs" to create unique patterns
• How to use practice drawing and sewing to build "muscle memory" for quilt patterns you'll use again and again
• Dividing and conquering space with free-form quilting to add depth and dimension to your quilt, or to hide "creative piecing"
• Simple ways to plan quilt borders that fit perfectly and look great