Materials & extras
Downloads
Handouts, flashcards, and note cards from your instructor — print any of them.
HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List ## Intermediate Machine Quilting
Sooo, before we meet, get your supplies together. You don't need much, and I'd rather you spend money on practice fabric than on a gadget you'll use twice. Below is what actually matters, split into what you need and what's nice once you're hooked.
---
THE BUDGET TIER (get this, skip the rest if money's tight)
Your machine. Whatever you have. A regular home machine works fine if it can drop the feed dogs or you can cover them. Don't go buy a fancy longarm-envy machine for this class. Master what you've got first.
A darning or free-motion foot. This is the one non-negotiable purchase if you don't already own one. Check what fits your machine brand before you buy. Ten to twenty-five dollars, usually.
Practice fabric. Ugly stuff. The uglier the better, honestly. Go to the remnant bin or grab something from your own stash you've never liked. You are going to make several ugly practice sandwiches before you touch anything you care about. This isn't optional and I will ask you about it.
Batting scraps for those practice sandwiches. Doesn't need to match anything. A yard or so of cheap cotton or poly batting cut into placemat-sized pieces will get you through a lot of practice.
Cotton thread, a few spools. Nothing fancy. A mid-weight cotton in a color that contrasts with your practice fabric so you can actually see your stitches while you're learning. That contrast matters more than thread quality at this stage.
Fresh needles. Bring a pack of quilting needles, size 90/14. Change your needle before class even if you think the one in there is fine. A dull needle will make you think you're doing something wrong when you're not.
Safety pins, the curved quilting kind if you can find them, for basting. I pin baste. I know spray basting is popular and faster, but for lap-sized and throw-sized work I think it's overrated and kind of messy. Pins hold better and you're not breathing anything.
---
THE NICE-TO-HAVE TIER (once you know you like this)
Quilting gloves, the rubber-fingertip kind. This is the one accessory I actually push people toward. Moving a quilt sandwich smoothly under the needle is most of the battle in free-motion work, and gloves give you grip you don't get with bare hands, especially with our dry air drying out your skin half the year.
A machine extension table, if your machine didn't come with one. Extra surface area to support the quilt as it moves keeps your stitching steadier. Not required, genuinely helpful.
A stitch-in-the-ditch or walking foot, for structured quilting between free-motion sessions. We'll talk about when to use which.
Basting spray, if you want to try it despite what I said above. Some people love it. I'm not going to pretend I do, but that's just me.
---
SHOPPING NOTES
The craft stores along State Street and out toward the mall carry basics, and their coupon apps are worth using for needles and batting since those add up. For real fabric selection, plan a trip toward the fabric shops in Provo or up in Salt Lake, or order online if you know your brand. A Costco run won't help you here unless you're stocking up on thread in bulk, which honestly isn't a bad idea if you quilt a lot.
Don't buy expensive fabric for this class. Save that for the quilt you make after you've got the hang of things.
Bring everything to our first session, even if you're not sure you're doing it right. We'll sort it out together.
HandoutHandout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Settings & Techniques
Handout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Settings & Techniques
Keep this one taped up by your machine. It's the stuff I get asked about every single class, so I'd rather you have it in writing than trust me to remember to say it twice.
---
Machine Setup
- Feed dogs: dropped, for all free-motion work. If you can't drop them, cover plate works fine too.
- Foot: darning foot or free-motion foot. Low shank versus high shank depends on your machine, check your manual once and then stop thinking about it.
- Stitch length dial: doesn't matter for free-motion. Set it and ignore it. Your hand speed and fabric movement are what actually control stitch length, not the dial. This trips people up more than anything else in the course.
- Needle: quilting needle, 90/14. Change it every project, or every 8 hours of sewing. A dull needle will make good tension look bad and you'll blame the wrong thing.
- Bobbin: check it before you start every session, not just when you notice a problem. I ran a whole bobbin dry once and quilted two feet of nothing but needle holes before I caught it. Now I check it like checking a mirror before merging.
Tension
- Test on a practice sandwich, same fabric and batting as your real quilt, every time you change thread weight or type.
- Even stitches, no loops on the back, no thread pulling to the top. If it's off, check your threading path first. I spent a whole project blaming humidity and thread brand before I found out I'd skipped a guide. Simple mistake, big lesson.
- Loosen top tension slightly for thicker batting. Sooo, if you're not sure, go down half a number and test again rather than guessing big.
Speed & Hand Movement
- Foot pedal: steady, medium speed. Not flooring it, not creeping.
- Hands: light grip, steady pace, moving the fabric in the direction you want the line to go. Gloves help here, I use them every time. Grip matters more than pressure.
- Slow and even beats fast and jerky. Every time. If your stitches are inconsistent, it's almost always a speed mismatch between hands and pedal, not a machine problem.
- At thick seam intersections, slow way down and walk the needle over by hand if you need to. I broke three needles in one evening before I learned this. Cheap lesson compared to a new needle plate.
Basting
- Pin baste. That's my preference and I know it's the less popular one in some circles. Spray basting is fine if you love it, I just find it messy for lap-sized work and not worth the extra step.
- Pin every 4-6 inches, more in the middle where fabric shifts most.
- Smooth from the center out. Don't rush this part, a bad baste job will fight you the whole time you're quilting.
Common Stitch Patterns — Quick Notes
Pattern Watch for Stippling Keep loops open, don't cross your own line, vary size on purpose not by accident Loops/echoes Consistent spacing matters more than perfect curves Straight-line/walking foot work Feed dogs UP for this one, different foot entirely Simple feathers Plan your spine first, fill second, don't overthink the fill When Something's Wrong
Ask yourself in this order: 1. Bobbin - is there thread on it, is it seated right 2. Threading - did you skip a guide, especially after cleaning the machine 3. Needle - is it bent, dull, or wrong type for the job 4. Speed mismatch - are your hands and pedal fighting each other
Ninety percent of problems in this class are one of those four. Check them before you assume the machine hates you. It doesn't. Mine's a used Brother I bought off a classifieds ad and it's never once hated me.
WorksheetHandout 3: Free-Motion Practice Checklist
Handout 3: Free-Motion Practice Checklist
This is the one I want you to actually mark up. Pencil, pen, coffee stain, whatever. Bring it back next week and I'll ask you about it.
Work through these on a practice sandwich, not your real quilt. Ugly fabric. Something you won't mourn.
---
Before You Start Stitching
- [ ] Bobbin checked and full (not just "probably fine")
- [ ] Machine threaded correctly, every guide, nothing skipped
- [ ] Darning foot on
- [ ] Feed dogs dropped
- [ ] Practice sandwich pin basted (not sprayed — you know how I feel about this)
- [ ] Gloves on if you're using them
- [ ] Chair height and table height feel right, not straining your shoulders
If you skipped the bobbin check, go back and check it. I ran a whole two feet of nothing once because I didn't. It's a boring habit to build and it saves you every time.
Stitch Sample 1: Stippling
Fill a 6-inch square with stippling. Don't aim for perfect. Aim for even.
- [ ] Speed feels steady, not jerky
- [ ] Stitch length looks roughly consistent (not obsessing over the dial — feel it)
- [ ] Lines don't cross themselves too often
- [ ] Your shoulders aren't up around your ears by the end
Honestly, your first one might look like a seismograph reading. Mine did. That's not a problem to fix today, it's just where you start.
Notes on this sample:
_______________________________________________
Stitch Sample 2: Loops or Feathers
Pick one. Fill another square.
- [ ] Consistent size across the sample, not shrinking as you go
- [ ] Hands moving the fabric smoothly, not stopping and starting
- [ ] You tried slowing down at least once when it got wobbly, instead of speeding up to "power through"
Sooo, here's the thing about the wobbly spots. Speeding up almost never fixes them. Slowing your hand movement down usually does. It feels backwards. Do it anyway.
Notes on this sample:
_______________________________________________
Stitch Sample 3: A Design You Choose
Whatever you want to try. Something you saw, something you made up, doesn't matter.
- [ ] Named what you were going for before you started
- [ ] Compared it honestly to what came out
- [ ] Identified one specific thing to work on next (not "everything," pick one)
What I was going for:
_______________________________________________
What actually happened:
_______________________________________________
Tension Check
Look closely at the back of all three samples.
- [ ] Thread lying flat, no loops poking through
- [ ] Top and bobbin thread meeting in the middle of the fabric, not pulling to one side
- [ ] If tension's off, check your threading path again before you touch the dial
I spent an entire project blaming my machine, my thread, the weather, before I found the skipped guide that was actually the problem. Check the boring thing first.
One Question for Yourself
What thread weight were you using today, and did it match your needle? Write it down. You'll want this later when something looks different next time and you can't remember why.
_______________________________________________
---
Bring this back next week even if it's messy. Especially if it's messy.
HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Every one of these problems has happened on my machine. Some of them happened this month. Here's what's usually going on and what I'd try first.
1. Skipped stitches
Usually a needle problem. Either it's dull, bent, or it's the wrong type for the thread you're using. Change the needle first, before you touch anything else. It's the cheapest fix and it solves this nine times out of ten.
2. Thread breaking
Check your top tension first, then check whether you're pulling the fabric instead of guiding it. Free-motion is about moving the sandwich at a steady pace, not muscling it around. If you're yanking, the thread's going to snap eventually.
3. Bird's nests on the back
That's a top tension issue almost always, sometimes combined with a bobbin that's not seated right. Rethread the top completely, don't just tighten the dial and hope. I skipped a thread guide once and blamed everything except myself for an entire project. Rethread from scratch before you troubleshoot anything else.
4. Puckers and tucks on the back
This is a basting problem more often than a stitching problem. If your pin spacing was too wide, the layers shift while you quilt and you get a fold you didn't see coming. My first finished quilt has a pucker the size of a quarter dead center. I kept the quilt. I did not keep quilting with that pin spacing.
5. Uneven stitch length
This is the needle-speed-and-hand-speed relationship, not your stitch length dial. Slow and steady beats fast and jerky. If your stitches are long in some spots and tiny in others, you're speeding up and slowing down your hands instead of keeping one steady pace.
6. Needle breaking
Usually you've hit a seam intersection with too many layers stacked and pushed through it instead of easing over it. I broke three needles in one evening doing exactly this before I learned to slow way down at thick spots and walk the needle over by hand if I have to. It's a small adjustment. It changes everything.
7. Bobbin thread disappearing, no stitches at all
Check the bobbin. I once quilted about two feet of nothing, just needle holes, because the bobbin ran out and I didn't notice. Now I check it the way you check your mirrors before merging. Get in that habit early.
8. Fabric not feeding evenly, machine "eating" it
Feed dogs might not be fully dropped, or your darning foot is riding too high or too low off the fabric. Check both. Also check that you're not pressing down on the sandwich with your hands, you want to guide it, not flatten it into the bed of the machine.
9. Design looks jerky or shaky instead of smooth
Honestly, this is almost always speed and nerves, not skill. My first stippling attempt looked like a seismograph reading. I still have the photo. Slow the machine speed down, keep your hands moving at that same steady pace, and let the design be a little wobbly while you're learning. Wobbly and finished beats perfect and never attempted.
10. General frustration, nothing looks right
Sooo, here's what I'd try: stop and make a fresh practice sandwich out of fabric you don't like. Not your real quilt. Something ugly you won't mourn. You learn faster when you're not afraid of ruining anything, and most of these problems get easier to see clearly on scrap fabric before you go back to the project you care about.
---
If you're stuck on something not listed here, bring it to class. I'd rather look at your actual stitching than guess from a description. What thread weight were you using, and what's your machine tension set to? Those two answers solve most mysteries.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —so I'm holding this quilt up in the break room and everyone just goes silent, because there's clearly a spot in the middle where the stitching looks like a heart monitor freaking out.
SARAH: That's the stippling one. I still have that photo on my phone.
JESS: You keep it on purpose.
SARAH: Next to a good one, yeah. I show people the before so they'll stop apologizing for their own stuff. Everybody's first stippling looks like a seismograph reading. Mine included.
JESS: Okay, for people just tuning in, this is the class podcast for Intermediate Machine Quilting, we're up at Utah Community Learning, and this is Sarah, who teaches it. Sarah, first session's in the books. How'd it go.
SARAH: Good. Quiet room, which I like. People were actually sewing, not just watching me talk.
JESS: You always say that's the goal.
SARAH: It is. If I'm the only one talking for two hours I've failed at something.
JESS: So tell people what week one actually was, because I know it wasn't "everybody free-motion a feather design immediately."
SARAH: No. Week one was practice sandwiches. Ugly fabric, nothing anybody's precious about, and just moving the machine, getting a feel for speed. Honestly, that's most of intermediate quilting right there. Not the fancy stitch, just staying steady.
JESS: You told a story in there about your tension, right? Somebody asked me about it after.
SARAH: Oh, yeah. This was a while back, I had this one project where the tension was just off the whole time. And I blamed everything. The machine, the thread, the humidity, I think I even blamed the room being too dry, which, fair, it's Utah, the air's dry enough to crack your hands in January.
JESS: Elevation excuse.
SARAH: Right, blame the elevation. Turned out it was me. I'd skipped a thread guide when I rethreaded it. One little guide. That was the whole problem, the whole time, and I spiraled about it for way too long before I actually checked.
JESS: So the tip. If someone's listening and they're not even in the class yet, what do they do with that.
SARAH: Rethread from scratch before you troubleshoot anything else. Take the thread all the way out, out of the tension disc, everything, and put it back in slow, checking every guide it's supposed to pass through. Don't just re-tighten a dial or guess at a number. Ninety percent of weird stitching is a threading problem, not a machine problem or a you problem.
JESS: That's a good one because it costs nothing.
SARAH: Costs you two minutes. Way cheaper than the hour I spent adjusting bobbin tension for no reason.
JESS: Did anyone in class have a moment this week? You always notice when something clicks.
SARAH: One woman, she'd been white-knuckling the sandwich, going too fast because she thought fast meant confident. I just crouched down next to her machine and said, slow down your hands, not the needle. And she did, and you could see it land. Suddenly the line was smooth. She didn't say anything, just kept going, but I saw it.
JESS: You don't make a big deal out of those.
SARAH: I don't think it needs one. She'll feel it more than I could tell her about it.
JESS: Alright, so next session. What are people walking into.
SARAH: We start actual design work. Stippling, some simple loops, maybe a feather if people are feeling brave, though I'll be honest, feathers are still a battle for me too. Bring your practice sandwiches from this week if you kept them, we're going to build on whatever you already started instead of starting fresh.
JESS: And for people who missed week one entirely.
SARAH: Come anyway. I'll get you a sandwich made before we start. Nobody's behind yet.
JESS: I like that as a closing line, honestly. "Nobody's behind yet."
SARAH: Give it a few more weeks.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay but did it actually come out, or is that just what you tell people so they feel better?
SARAH: No, it came out. Loud, kind of ugly, exactly what she picked.
JESS: Okay wait, back up, I dropped in mid-story. Whose fabric?
SARAH: Alice's. My daughter. She was maybe eight and I let her pick fabric for a quilt, thinking she'd grab something soft, some pastel thing. She picked the loudest print in the stack. Clashing colors, big scale, nothing I would've touched.
JESS: And?
SARAH: And it's my favorite quilt I've made. It lives on the back of the couch. Everyone who sits down under it comments on it.
JESS: See, this is what I want from these episodes. Actual stories, not just "and then I learned free-motion quilting."
SARAH: Honestly, I think about that one a lot. Because my instinct would've been something calm, something I'd have chosen for myself. And it would've been fine. It wouldn't have been that.
JESS: So the lesson is let an eight-year-old pick your fabric.
SARAH: The lesson is I don't actually know color theory as well as I pretend to sometimes, and letting go of that control produced something better than my control would have. I tell people that in class too. I'm not the person to ask about why colors work together. I go by what feels right, same as anybody.
JESS: This is episode two, for anyone just joining, of the Intermediate Machine Quilting podcast. Last week was mostly setup, tension talk, that kind of thing. Sarah, where's the class actually at right now.
SARAH: We're deep into free-motion. Most of the room is past the panic stage and into the "why does my stitching still look shaky" stage.
JESS: Is that a normal stage.
SARAH: Completely normal. It's the longest stage, honestly. People want it to click in one session and it doesn't. It clicks in like the fourth session, for most people.
JESS: Okay, give me something. A tip somebody listening at home, not even in the class, could use tonight.
SARAH: Sooo, here's the one thing that fixes more problems than anything else. Stop watching your needle.
JESS: That feels counterintuitive for sewing.
SARAH: Everybody thinks it's about the needle. It's not. Free-motion quilting is about moving the fabric at a steady speed under the machine, and your hands and the machine speed have to agree with each other. If you're staring at the needle, you're reacting to it instead of leading with your hands. Watch a little ahead of where the needle is, where you're going, not where you are.
JESS: Huh.
SARAH: Slow and even beats fast and jerky every single time. People want to go fast because they think fast looks confident. It just looks jerky on the quilt.
JESS: Okay, that's genuinely useful and I don't even own a sewing machine.
SARAH: You don't need one to understand it. It's the same principle as driving, kind of. You look where you're going, not at the hood of the car.
JESS: Did anybody in class have a moment this week? Like an actual breakthrough?
SARAH: One student, she'd been fighting a stipple pattern all session, getting real tense about it. I sat down next to her and just asked what speed she had the machine set at. Turns out she had it going fast, then slowing her hands down to compensate, which is exactly backwards. We slowed the machine down to match her hand speed instead of the other way around. Stitches evened right out. She didn't say anything, just kept going, but I could tell.
JESS: You could tell.
SARAH: You can always tell. The shoulders drop a little.
JESS: I love that. Okay, what's coming next session, because people want to know if they should bring anything.
SARAH: Next time we're moving into feathers. Which, fair warning, is where people get frustrated again, because it looks so simple when I do it and it is not simple the first ten times you try it.
JESS: You gonna show your bad ones?
SARAH: Always. I've got a feather sample from probably two years ago that looks like a bird that lost a fight. I bring it every time. Nobody needs to feel behind in this class.
JESS: Bring your ugly fabric, everybody. Not the good stuff.
SARAH: Please don't bring the good stuff.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —so I still don't understand how you knew it was two feet of nothing before you even flipped it over.
SARAH: You feel it, kind of. Or you don't feel anything, which is the tell. There's supposed to be a little resistance and there wasn't any.
JESS: This is the bobbin story. I've heard you mention this in class but not the whole thing.
SARAH: Oh, it's not a good story, it's an embarrassing one. I was maybe eight months into free-motion, feeling pretty good about myself. Sat down, loaded up a project I actually cared about, and just went. Big loopy meander, whole back of the quilt. Felt great doing it.
JESS: And?
SARAH: Flipped it over. Needle holes. That's it. No thread at all, because the bobbin had run out somewhere around minute four and I never noticed, because the top thread was still doing its thing, looking totally normal from where I sat.
JESS: How much did you have to pick out?
SARAH: All of it. Two feet of stitching, gone, just perforation marks in good fabric. I sat there for a minute honestly deciding if I was going to cry about it or laugh about it.
JESS: Which one won?
SARAH: Laughing, eventually. Not immediately. But now I check the bobbin before I start any serious stretch of quilting, same as you'd check your mirrors before you merge onto the freeway. It's automatic. I don't even think about it, I just glance.
JESS: That's such a specific habit to build from one bad afternoon.
SARAH: That's most of my habits, if we're honest. I don't learn a rule until I've paid for it once.
JESS: Okay, so this week we did the meander and the stipple in class. What are you seeing on people's practice sandwiches so far?
SARAH: A lot of hesitation. People slowing way down right before they turn a corner, like the machine's going to bite them.
JESS: Is that wrong?
SARAH: It's not wrong, it's just backwards from what actually helps. Sooo, here's the thing I keep saying and I'll say it for whoever's listening and not in the room. The speed of the machine and the speed your hands move the fabric need to match each other and stay steady. It's not about the stitch length dial, it's not about going slow through curves and fast through straightaways. Pick one speed, keep the machine running at that speed, move your hands at that speed, the whole time.
JESS: So the tip somebody could use tonight, without ever stepping into your classroom—
SARAH: Take a scrap sandwich, doesn't matter how ugly, and just practice running the machine at one steady speed while you move your hands in slow circles. Don't even try to make a pattern. Just get your hands and the machine agreeing with each other. That's ninety percent of it. People want to fix their stitch length dial and the dial was never the problem.
JESS: I feel like that's going to be a controversial tip for people who love a dial.
SARAH: It's fine, they can disagree with me. I've been wrong about plenty of things. I'm not wrong about this one.
JESS: Fair. Okay, before we wrap, anything from this week that surprised you?
SARAH: Somebody asked me tonight why I don't just buy blankets. Which, my daughter asked me that exact question years ago and I still don't have a great answer. I told the class the same thing I told her. Honestly, I don't know. I just like doing this more than I like having a finished blanket, if that makes sense.
JESS: It does, actually.
SARAH: Alice and I still laugh about that conversation. She was maybe seven when she asked it. Dead serious, like she genuinely thought I was missing something obvious.
JESS: Kids are ruthless that way.
SARAH: They are.
JESS: Okay, next session, what should people expect?
SARAH: We're moving into feathers. Which, fair warning, is going to be humbling for some of us, myself included some days. We'll start with the basic shape on paper before anyone touches a machine, and I'll bring my early attempts so people can see what bad feathers look like on the way to decent ones.
JESS: I like that you always bring the bad version.
SARAH: If I only show the good one, everybody just feels behind. That doesn't help anybody learn anything.
JESS: Alright, that's the episode. See everyone next week for feathers.
SARAH: Bring your ugly practice fabric. You'll need it.
Videos worth your time
Hand-picked by your instructor — with notes on what to watch for.
- Free Motion Quilting, Intermediate Tutorial 1 (of 2)Patsy Thompson
Watch how she demonstrates thread tension and pace control for free motion quilting at an intermediate level.
- Three Easy Machine Quilting Designs - Beginner Quilting Tutorial with Leah DayLeah Day Quilting
Pay attention to how Leah Day breaks down three distinct filler designs and transitions smoothly between them.
- Beginner Free Motion Machine Quilting with Jenny Doan of Missouri Star (Instructional Video)Missouri Star
Notice her hand positioning and machine speed as she guides the quilt sandwich through free motion stitching.
Practice corner
6 quizzes and 2 games — playable by anyone, no account needed.
Open the practice corner →