Sewing With Nancy

A quilt without personality is just a blanket. That's the insight from today's guest, whose artistry is teaching how to add character to our quilts using machine quilting techniques. Please welcome Lori Kennedy, who is with us today, and she's developed a very novel but learnable approach to free-motion quilting. Glad to have you on the show, Lori. Well, thanks for having me. I am really excited to be here. I've been quilting for more than 15 years. And I've developed some motifs and techniques that I'd love to share. Mm-hmm. During this program, you are going to learn to stitch a variety of motifs. Some of them look complex, but they're-- once they're broken down into manageable steps, they're easy. "Free-Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3," that's what's coming up next on Sewing With Nancy.

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On an angle. - On an angle. But I'm gonna go up and down and make this loop. Sure. And as I do it, it should get a little bit smoother. There you go. And I'm getting a little bit smoother already, okay? So I will practice that several times to make sure it looks nice for-- for the size of the quilt I'm making. So I'm gonna put that aside now, and I'm gonna come to the stitching part. I have my fabric all prepared. I have a quilt sandwich that's pinned and ready to go. And I've marked the lines with some chalk marks. They're about 1" apart. To begin stitching, I always bring the thread to the top. So I'm gonna put the needle down... and the needle up. Now, on this machine, it's just a button to do that, but on other machines, you might use your hand wheel. I always have tweezers with me. And I'm gonna reach in and grab that little piece here. Okay, there we go. And hold that down. And I hold that taut as I begin to sew so it doesn't get in my way. Now I'm gonna lower the presser foot. And I'm ready to stitch. I have my hands creating somewhat of a little hoop. Mm-hmm. - And I begin to stitch. So here we go. Now, I stitch a couple stitches. I'm gonna do these loops. And as soon as I can, I stop for a second, and I trim those little tails, because that might get in our way later. Sure, mm-hmm. - Throw that away. And I'm ready to go again. So I'm gonna stitch the loops. And I don't stitch very fast. I'm not a fast stitcher. I just try to do it at a comfortable speed. Although, sometimes, I find I actually stitch better if I try to stitch a little faster. So I'm gonna try that right now. - There you go. But again, it's not too fast. You're developing a rhythm to that. Right, and listening to the sound of the machine helps coordinate the timing. So I'm gonna keep going. Now, you can take this little loop and add it to a loop-- loops that already-- I've already stitched upside down. And that creates one of the secondary patterns. Gives us kind of a wider border. Yes, very attractive. And then you could do a little bit more embellishment if you wanted. Absolutely. There's... Another way to change this up, though, is really just to make the loops closer. And that looks different as well. Lori has many options of this, but you can see, once you get the rhythm, once you learn the process, that you could add it to a quilt border, which we have in this little sample, and you could use a double or a single, close together, far apart. It's one way that you can personalize your quilt. Stitching spiral roses is the next lesson in free-motion quilting. Easier than making spirals, these roses don't have to be perfect to look beautiful. In fact, if the stitching is a little messy, it enhances the character of the design. When practicing for this show, Lori, I told you earlier that when I worked with these spiral roses, I had the best results, that this was an easy, fill-in free-motion quilting for a border but then will give you the more advanced, of the cluster that could fill in a block very nicely. It works great as a border or a block, and so it makes it really fun. This is a motif that has a lot of character. Mm-hmm. So, as usual, I start with doodling. And I'm gonna start with a pencil this time. And I think you'll find that different pens or pencils feel different in your hand, and so try a variety. But we're gonna go in a circle, clockwise, and then come out, clockwise. Just keep going in the same direction. So again, it crosses over the other stitches, and it may look messy, but that's what a rose looks like. Uh-huh, it does. So then, we'll add the leaf. And I kind of make that messy as well, and do the other leaf. Now, what you do here is, you might need to stitch out straight for a few stitches to give you space to make the next one. You can go over that, come around, and continue on that way again. You can then make the leaf. Now, I have my sewing machine set up already. And my fabric is marked with what would be a border. So I have a couple lines drawn, and I've already stitched one. So I'm gonna show you how that goes. Again, I'm gonna stitch out a few stitches here so gives me a little bit of room. And I'm just-- go clockwise... Into the center and keep going clockwise out. So you're making-- first, you're making big loops and then smaller circles. This is much easier than doing the very controlled spirals. I have tried that, and I have-- I'm not successful at it, but this, I like. And these look just as nice. Mm-hmm. - So they're really fun. And anyone can do these, anyone. Just keep going in. And I'm gonna try going a little bit faster here. Sometimes, speed... You don't want to go too fast, but you have to find your comfortable speed. So linear works, but then, so does a cluster. So I'm gonna scoot down here. I'm gonna keep my machine... - Sure, mm-hmm. Just gonna travel down here. You wouldn't do this on a block. And we're gonna start making a few of these together. Now, if you were just stitching these circles, they might not look like much. But the key here is to do several together. And what makes you know that it's a rose is that we're gonna add the leaves. Sure. And the leaves give you the visual clue that this is-- these are flowers that we're making. And I like the way you varied the size because I'm thinking of seven sister roses, where you have a cluster of roses together and they're at different stages of their maturity and that's what you're doing. And then they look like maybe rosebuds... Sure. - If you do a small one. And to travel, you can just kind of echo stitch around this area, and then maybe I would add another leaf here. Now, imagine, we have high contrast of thread, but if you wanted to use-- variegated thread might be a nice option or even matching thread to the fabric. And we're using just solid fabrics to show you this, but most of the time on your quilt, you would have, oh, you know, a print, a mottled print, then a light print. There's just so many options. I really enjoy watching Lori stitch this because it's relaxing. Notice where she has her hands, just kind of guiding that-- instead of guiding a pencil, you're just guiding the fabric the way you would draw. So, it's lovely. And as she finishes up, I'll just show you again on her sampler this cluster of roses, how she's worked with other designs to enhance it. But we're concentrating on the spiral rose, a great technique for beginners. Next, how about a little flower power? Use this free-motion quilting technique as the background of your next quilt design. What may look complicated is very doable once you learn Lori's commonsense approach. For this technique, we're not going to be drawing any lines or working within a border or a specific design, but it's a background fill. And it has a distinctive look. You can tell it's a floral design. But it's very much a replacement for what many of us call stippling, Lori. Right, stippling can be hard for many people because it doesn't have any beginning and ending points. It's supposed to be just a continuous line. Like little puzzle piece ends, but how do you connect them? Right, it can be kind of challenging for many quilters. Mm-hmm. This motif looks really nice, and it's a lot easier. So we start with just a little curl, which is the center of the flower. And all you do is add scallops. And any time along the path that you feel like stopping, you can stop because there's these logical points, here or here, to stop. Mm-hmm. Now, one key thing about this is that as you get to the stem, you reverse directions and not cross over the stem. So let's take that over to the sewing machine. I have my machine-- my fabric set up. There's no markings on it. - Sure, mm-hmm. And I'll just begin stitching that motif. So we start with the curl and then scallops... All the way around. And here, I'm at the stem, so I'll reverse directions. One of the things that I really like about this motif is, it has the same fill effect as stippling... Mm-hmm. - But it is easier. And the other thing that's really nice about this motif is, it can be very-- stitched very big or very small. You could make one of these flowers 6" or 8" large... Sure. And it would look great. Now, anywhere along here, you just start a new flower by curling off. And again, just scallops all the way around. This is so rhythmic. I guess I've used that term a couple of times today, but it adds a lot of beauty to the design. And that your even stitching... You didn't learn how to do that overnight. No, this took me a long time. And it's kind of like driving a car. You have to learn to steer and get the speed at the same time. One of the things that really helps is to listen to the sound of your sewing machine, but also, you don't need to sew very fast. It's not something you have to rush through. Sure. And one thing you mentioned is that you volunteered to do several-- to quilt projects for volunteer groups so that you could practice your stitching. What a great idea, you know. You can learn on something, perhaps, that's going to be used-- I'm not saying perfect-- that perfectly-- but at least it gives you lots of practice area. Absolutely, and people are always willing to let you practice on their quilts. -

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I mean, you have to be, you know, good enough, but... If you had a large quilt, then you would also be pinning more than we are today. We're not doing a lot of pinning 'cause we're in small areas. You could use safety pins or more pinning techniques. So as Lori is finishing up the design, and we'll take one more look at the design that she has in this border area, and then, also, how she's incorporated-- there's just not one way to do things. In this other sampler, we have a flower power design, but then she added a couple of leaves from the last technique, of the spiral roses. So there are many techniques that you can incorporate. The key is to practice and enjoy the process of free-motion quilting. Add whimsy to a square block or half-square triangle block with the multipurpose square flower design. Not to worry, precision is not recommended. This design can be offset or symmetrical. Curious? Well, Lori has the solution. Often when I think of free-motion quilting, I think of, "Everything has to be exact." And I think this block, this fill-in design is really clever. And we're gonna start with-- in the center of the block, add petals, and you can personalize those blocks however you'd like with as many veins or textures as you'd like. And you're gonna actually, again, do it in-- this time, in a quilt block. I like this block. It's called the square flower, but it really fits in any shape. It could be a square, a circle, a diamond, anything. Just--the leaves or the petals morph into the shape. Mm-hmm, sure. So I doodle it by starting in the center, and you can do a really controlled spiral, or, we've learned the messy spiral, so you could do that too. And you come out to the edge of the block. One of the things that I like to do is incorporate this corner into the second petal. And that gives it kind of a distinct shape. Come down, get the-- that corner. Now, sometimes you'll end up having eight petals, sometimes nine. It doesn't really matter. And that's how you do that block. So we're gonna stitch that into this quilt block that we have. So I've already started in the center. And I'm gonna just finish this spiral, make it a little bit bigger. And now we're gonna head out and make the first petal. Now, the key here is, I'm not gonna come all the way down to the-- the center of the spiral; I'm gonna leave a little bit of a space because we're gonna come back and maybe add some design elements after the fact, after we've completed the basic flower. So we want to leave a little bit of a room between that--the petals and that spiral. So now we're gonna get that corner. And they don't have to be equidistant from each other, just the way petals are in nature. Now, whenever I have to move my hands, I like to stop stitching and then move my hands and then begin stitching again. It's--I get better control that way. Good idea. Let's speed up a little bit here. Now I'm gonna move my hands again. And I'm just gonna stop and look how I want to finish that. So if I need to look at my block, I also stop. Mm-hmm. And I look where I want to go. And I'm gonna finish this last petal. Now, to give this a little bit more design element, I'm gonna add a little-- I'm gonna go backwards. We went clockwise before; we're gonna go counterclockwise back and add just a little vein in the center. Just adds a little bit more personality to this block. I'm gonna stitch a little bit faster. Now, by using the contrasting thread, you really see the motif. And, of course, it shows up more on solid fabrics than it does on a printed fabric. But using a heavyweight thread will also increase how much you see of this. Now I'm gonna exit out of here. And if I want to add even more punch to this design, I would echo stitch it. Echo stitching is just doing a line of stitching close to the previous line. Mm-hmm. Now, you can see Lori has filled in the half-square triangle right below that square flower and just did a partial flower with the center stamen area at the corner. So as she's kind of working on that, we can just see the-- here we go, we get-- getting it going. So you don't have to do the full square. That's why it makes a great design for a variety of shapes. And speaking of variety of shapes, while Lori finishes this, let me show you her sample that has a circular design. So let's say you had a circular motif on your quilt. Once you learn the square flower technique, apply to many shapes and sizes. When I asked today's Nancy's Corner guest what he likes most about attending special quilting retreats, he quickly answered, "We're like-minded men." Please welcome Paul Lger, who is one of the coordinators of the all-guys quilting retreat. Hey, Nancy. Thanks for joining us on Sewing With Nancy. Thank you for inviting me. Thanks. The all-guy quilting retreat, that's kind of a novel thing. Quilting retreats aren't, but just all guys and... Yep. Give us a little history of that organization. In 2008, we belonged to a Yahoo quilt group called "QuiltGuy." Uh-huh. And we were doing fabrics exchange. We were doing block exchange. And somebody said, "We need to get together." And then Jim and Bob, that had a quilt store in Woodstock, New York, said, "Do it here." So we got together, seven of us, and we had our first retreat, and it was fun. We decided, "Let's do another one." And now I think this is number 17 coming up. You do it twice a year. Twice a year, September and March, every year, just before tourist season, right after tourist season, so... We have the space that we want. In the northeast area of the United States. Yeah, yeah, right now, we're meeting in Vermont, yeah. Vermont. And you're from Ontario. Yes. - So you make a trip down, and people come from all over the country. Yeah, we-- all over the country? Well, Canada, all over the U.S., literally from the East Coast to West Coast. And we have one gentlemen that's actually flown in already once from England, for the weekend. And flown back. - What fun. Yep, yep, yep. - What fun. Now, you have some interesting little stories to tell about-- You play poker. It is a form of poker. It is a form; it's called "Right Left Center." We play with dice, and it's a winner-take-all. And the winner-- the bounty is? Basically, fat quarters. -

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And, well, our retreat coming up, if everybody shows up, will be 21 participants, so it'll be just over 25 yards of fabric for the winner... -

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In fat quarters. So that's a little different twist. Oh, yeah, it is. It is. It is. And it's three days? It's... We start at-- - It started-- We officially start at Thursday noon... Mm-hmm. - Until Sunday noon. This past retreat that we had,

I showed up at 10

30 on the Wednesday morning, and there was already two gentlemen sewing. The big majority will actually show up a day early to get an extra day of sewing. Now we're gonna show our viewers one of the quilts that you made during the retreat, and it got its name at that time. Yes, it did, Steven from Portland, Oregon-- I was trying to figure out what to name it, and he said, "Frog in a Blender." -

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I showed up at 10

I mean, I don't want to say "disgusting," but as... Yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. As it is, I actually did a major sur-- a major sur--a survey of it, and people said, "No, you got to keep the name. It fits it too well." And the interesting thing is that your inspiration for this quilt was just a normal, everyday occurrence. Yes, I was on my way home from work, and I saw this young child walking home with a backpack, and I really observed his backpack, and a few days later, I start working on the planning of this quilt to work at the retreat, just based on a backpack. The inspiration. Now, where you hold your retreat, you kind of asked them, "Well, what's the difference "between a guys' quilting retreat and a gals' quilting retreat?" And this is an interesting response. It is--it's the fact that we-- I've asked several people that had attended retreats and hosted retreats, and-- we're quiet. -

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I showed up at 10

We sew. I mean, we do chat, we laugh. We might even have a drink. Well, sure. - But we're quiet. We sew, we... And I'm trying to think what--what's the difference, but I've noticed that, yes, we... And they also said you were a little bit more respectful in conversation.

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I showed up at 10

Yes. I can say that. Yeah, exactly, you can. It'd be difficult for me to say so, but... Sure. We've been told that we ask for things. We don't... Well, something for us to remember, from the all-guys quilting retreat. So what are you gonna work on at this retreat coming up? Typically, I'll know the day after the retreat's finished. Oh, okay, got it. I'm still trying to-- I don't know. Most of us won't know until-- when it comes time to packing, yeah. So you're meeting with how many people this time? This time, we have 21 coming. Well, wonderful. - And there's 22 spots. And we have 21 coming, and we started with 7, so we've done quite well. Well, the all-guys quilting retreat, what a great thing to have for you to look forward to, Paul, and to tell us about. And perhaps you'll get some other quilting retreats to happen around the country or more members... We're hoping. We're hoping. Well... - We're hoping. Thanks for joining us on Sewing With Nancy. Thanks for having me. - You're welcome. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this first program as well as my interview with Paul and the all-guy quilting retreat and with Lori Kennedy of our first program on "Free-Motion Quilting 1-2-3." We'll be back next time with another program. Remember, you can re-watch this program online and join us on social media at NancyZieman.com. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now. Nancy and her guest, Lo ri Kennedy, teach you how to give yo ur next quilt project an irresistible pop-up texture. Lori's book, "Free Motion Quilting 1-2-3" features more than 60 clever machine-quilting mo tifs and techniques. Get the book, plus the DVD of highlighted tips for $24.99, plus sh ipping and handling. To order call 800-336-8373 or visit our website at se wingwithnancy.com/3105. Order item number BD3105. Credit card orders only.

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