"frood" wrote in message
m...
I understand this practice method for long-arm quilting, but isn't the
equivilent for regular machines to hold the pencil still and move the
paper?
How can doodling help me figure out how to quilt on my machine?
You aren't training muscle movements, but rather training your brain. After
all, the muscles I use for holding a pencil to paper really aren't the same
ones I use to move a 100 lb. longarm.
And I use this same technique for
designing thread embellishments, which I do in a hoop on my home sewing
machine, using the same motions as for free motion quilting.
It's hard to explain in words, so bear with me and I'll do the best I can.
Let me use as an example a pattern I'm doing on the sashing of a quilt right
now. It's interlocking hearts -- along the row, a rightside up heart morphs
into an upside down heart, which changes back into a rightside up heart.
What doodling taught my brain was what curves in, what curves out, where the
points are, and where the "trouble spots" are. (Like how was I going to
start and end the row? What about the cornerstones where the sashing
intersects? What do I do when I'm running out of row?)
There's no substitute for knowing how to control your machine. Before
doodling can do you much good (IMHO), you need to be able to get from one
point to another with your machine, do basic curved shapes, and have some
kind of reasonable accuracy. Not perfect, but reasonable, whatever your
definition of that is. *grin* (There's lots of practice sets for this which
I've recommended here before and will be glad to do again if anyone wants
them.) Once you get to that point, doodling is a fast, easy way to work out
the "kinks" in designs and to try new things. It's very easy to do "what
ifs" with a pencil... what if I make the end of this leaf square? What if I
do a double line here? What if I make this figure 8 into a bee?
Perhaps it would make more sense if I said doodling helps with the creative
/ design aspects of quilting, rather than the mechanics of it? Or would that
just confuse the issue???
--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
longarm machine quilting, Queen of Fabric Tramps
http://www.kayneyquilting.com ,
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