Thursday, February 13, 2020

WALK 2.0 Preview 2


WALK 2.0 begins with a chapter entitled "Walking Foot Refresh". Even I need a little brush up on skills and techniques every once and awhile and I'm always learning so there are a few new and improved ideas for you in this chapter along with a nice overview of what every walking foot quilter should know.  If you are a beginner or haven't quilted for awhile I recommend that you start with the "Walking Foot 101" chapter in the first WALK book.


The "Big Six"

I've created a set of skills that are the fundamentals for all walking foot quilters.  When you master these six you can tackle about any design.  The big six walking foot skills in order of difficulty are:
1. Following a marked line
2. Echoing straight and curved lines
3. Echoing with 90-degree and other angled turns without marking
4. Point to point lines with pivoting
5. Quilting in reverse
6. Gentle curves which includes arcs, s-curves and free form curves

In addition to The Big Six which I consider basics, I've added one advanced skill:
1.  Turning and quilt manipulation

While these skills aren't everything you need to know as a walking foot quilter, they will give you a firm foundation and the confidence to tackle more challenging designs and larger quilts on your home sewing machine.

The Walking Foot Refresh chapter reviews The Big Six and gives you hints, tips and techniques to master these skills. Chapter 4, which is the Rotational Designs chapter focuses on tackling turning designs and has lots of great information on how to adapt challenging turning designs to make them more continuous and easier to quilt on larger quilts.