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Free Motion Roundabout – A Review
Hi!
I’ve just finished watching a new class from the Creative Spark platform, and it’s certainly got me thinking. I did Jen Eskridge’s “Free Motion Roundabout: Stencil to Quilt series”, and it was surprisingly comprehensive with what she covered. I do already quilt all of my own quilts, but using a set stencil design, Jen worked through right from the basics, to much more advanced ideas, which really makes this class suitable for most quilters.
In the class, Jen covers it how to design and quilt this mini wholecloth quilt as a sample. She starts with choosing fabrics, and goes into great detail about how to personalise your quilting designs, based on this stencil.
There’s a comprehensive 10 page downloadable handout included, which also includes a practice sheet for drawing your design plans, and a full size template for the 15 inch square mini wholecloth practice piece.
You are encouraged to use the Goals Worksheet too, to plan out some ideas for potential designs, and things you want to learn / practice / achieve through quilting this design. She’s right – it is good that have something like that to refer back to afterwards too, once you can see what worked, and what didn’t so much, and look at what you learned.
A really fun step in this process is playing around with drawing designs on the practice sheet.
I liked Jen’s pointers on how to break up the design into smaller, repeated ‘chunks’ (and really, with a design like this, there’s HEAPS of different ways of doing it).
It’s hard to see, but I outlined my areas in green pen.
And then the design part starts! I find the freedom of planning out quilting designs on paper first is a ‘must do’, as you can try different designs in different sections, and look at them together and see if they work as you like, or if you want to try something else.
Jen shared a few of her designs – all planned using this one, same stencil design. Wow!!
And still more….
Once the design step was finished, Jen demo’ed marking the outlines onto your fabric. I learnt something here too – I didn’t know you can use the Crayola washable markers for this, but Jen insisted they washed out no problem, so I’m off to find a pack tomorrow!
I liked that throughout this class, Jen made it inclusive for quilters at all stages of their quilting journey. There were more technical points for more advanced quilters, and she explained things in a really easy to understand way, for those who haven’t had as much experience with quilting. There’s no ‘Quilt Police’ here, and she advised that if you want to draw all your design lines on, then do it! The lines all wash out later anyway, so who knows what you did or didn’t mark!
The other section that was great, was that she showed in real time how to quilt these designs too.
From outlining your design…
…to stitching feathers…
…and filling in and finishing (with some great troubleshooting tips!)
And to finish, Jen covered three different ways of finishing your mini wholecloth quilt off, including a detailed tutorial on adding facing as a change to regular binding.
What can I add? At only $29.99, I believe this “Free Motion Roundabout: Stencil to Quilt Series” class from Jen Eskridge is exceptional value, and whether you want to learn how to quilt, or pick up a few more quilting skills and ideas, then this course is well worth taking. You’ll find it on the Creative Spark platform here.
One lucky reader won’t have to buy this class either, and I have one to give away, courtesy of Jen Eskridge and Creative Spark. To enter, just add a comment below, and tell me why you’d like to take this class, and what you’d like to learn from it. I’ll draw the winner’s name randomly, next Tuesday 9th September.
Good luck, and enjoy your week!
