I am thrilled to have Sarah Vedeler as our November FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge, and delighted to share insights with you today about this very talented woman.
Many of you may already know Sarah. Possibly from The Quilt Show (TQS), where she is teacher for the Sedona Star - BOM 2012. All members of TQS get this BOM design for free, as well as the machine embroidery designs that Sarah has created for this beautiful quilt.
Or maybe you know Sarah from episode #904 of The Quilt Show?
It might be that you saw her on QuiltingArts TV Show #505. You may have seen her beautiful quilts on exhibit at various quilt shows around the world? Or, you could be one of the lucky ones that have been able to take a free-motion quilting and/or machine embroidery class with Sarah. But, for those that have not yet been introduced to Sarah, I'm delighted to be able to introduce you to her today.
I can't honestly remember when I first spotted Sarah's quilts, but I do believe that it was instant love and SewCalGal may be her first official stalker! She is not only a talented designer, exceptional teacher, but she is a very special woman, who truly enjoys creating beauty and inspiring others.
Sarah learned to sew when she was about 6 years old, when her mum taught her to sew, growing up in England. She started off making doll cloths, craft projects and dabbled in home decorating projects. Along the way, she pursued college and obtained a PhD in Computer Science and worked for many years as a Software Engineer and Project Manager. When her two beautiful children came along (Heather and Jasmine), she decided to purchase a new sewing machine and from that point her destiny on Quilting and Machine Embroidery began. She no longer works for a large Corporation, but earns her living by selling her designs and teaching.
She discovered applique, machine embroidery software and quickly learned to digitize and has created a signature style of stunning machine embroidery designs popular with quilting, sewing and machine embroidery enthusiasts. And, she no longer uses machine embroidery for the quilting, but spectacular free-motion quilting that enhances her quilts, turning them into award winning quilts with great visual impact!
Sarah Vedeler Designs is her design house, where she has a number of collections of machine embroidery designs, that each include several project designs.
One of her newer design collections, Jazzilicious has a variety of quilt patterns (e.g. quilts, wallhangings, table toppers, etc.). She will also soon be launching "Sarah Simplified" which will offer designs for those that do not use machine embroidery, but prefer to do hand or machine applique'. Her "Fresh Ideas" patterns are great projects that offer more ways to use her machine embroidery design collections. And, as a designer, she has created many beautiful designs that have been license to AccuQuilt, where you can buy dies to easily and accurately cut out fabric for her designs that can be hand, machine, or machine embroidered to your projects. These dies are available from Sarah's online store, as well as AccuQuilt.
Sarah's quilts capture the eye and draw you in to want more. And, they are all beautifully quilted.
Sarah has won many awards for her quilts. But, she probably gained the most awards with her GO! Be Dazzled Quilt. One of the amazing awards this quilt obtained was a First Place award at IQF Houston in 2010.
And, many quilters that have made her designs have also won amazing awards.
{above} Judy Steenblik won the Laurene Sinema Award for Exemplary Workmanship at the AZ Quilter's Guild show in 2011.
{above} "BeDazzleder!" by Lisa M. Sipes (aka McLisa Tangerine Starfish Sipes) received a lst place ribbon at the 2012 Road to California Quilt Show. You may also want to follow McLisa on Facebook as she has more photos of her spectacular BeDazzleder quilt and frequently shares photos showing her amazing free-motion quilting and beautiful quilts too!
Sarah does travel to teach, but is trying to prioritize time on designing. While this amazing woman never seems to run out of ideas, SewCalGal is interested in hearing your feedback on what designs you'd like to see Sarah create for her "Sarah Simplified" collection, which does not require you to do machine embroidery.
If you would like to learn more about Sarah and her designs, you can find her at::
Basic spirals in a straight line are best practiced on a grid. The grid can be any size that you like, but I am going to recommend you practice two different sizes, a 1” grid and a 2” grid. When you put these spirals onto a quilt, they are great in borders and sashing. The width of the spiral will be marked by the seam lines. The length of each spiral can be marked by placing a dash at the required interval, using your favorite marking pen or pencil. My favorite is the Sewline Fabric Pencil, with either a pink or a white ceramic lead (the color of the fabric I am drawing on determines which color lead I use).
To create a basic spiral in a straight line:
1. Start at the top in the center and go counter clockwise.
2. Touch the left side.
5. Continue into the center of the spiral.
6. Now come out of the spiral, making a path between the existing lines.
7. Touch on the right side.
8. Touch on the bottom. This is the start of the next spiral, so you are now back at
step 1, starting at the top in the center.
When you are coming to the end of one spiral and about to begin the next spiral you want to aim for the cross-over to be horizontal. You will ultimately need to be able to quilt spirals in all directions, so remember to practice the “other” (clockwise) direction as well! For the clockwise direction, you will still start in the center at the top. You will then touch on the right side (instead of the left side, step 2), leave a gap at the bottom (same, step 3), leave a gap on the left side (instead of the right sidestep 4) and wind into the center (step 5). On the way out you will touch on the left side (instead of the right, step 7) and end up in the center of the bottom ready to begin the next spiral (step 8).
For basic spirals in a straight line, all of the spirals go in the same direction. For the spirals shown in the diagrams above, that direction is always counter clockwise into the center of the spiral, and then clockwise out of the spiral. When you are coming to the end of a spiral, you will be going clockwise. Then you touch the bottom and move into the next spiral, you change direction so now you are going counter clockwise.
For this spiral variation, the direction of the spirals alternates. The first spiral will go counter clockwise into the center, and clockwise out of the spiral. The second spiral will go clockwise into the spiral, and counter clockwise out of the spiral. This is possible because of the addition of a little “tail”on the end of each spiral.
2. Come out of the spiral, making a path between the existing lines, touching on the
right and at the bottom.
3. When you get to the bottom, instead of moving into the next spiral, continue going
around the current spiral until you hit the boundary line on the left.
4. When you hit the boundary line, change direction and echo the spiral back to the
center.
5. Now you will go into the center of the next spiral in the opposite direction - clockwise, touching on the right and leaving a gap at the bottom.
Note: The addition of the “tail” to the end of the spiral pushes these spirals out of
the grid so you are now dealing with an imaginary bottom to your grid.
6. Come out of the spiral, making a path between the existing lines, touching on the left
and the bottom (at least it would be the bottom if the grid had a space for the tail!).
Keep going around the spiral until you hit the boundary line on the right hand side.
7. When you hit the boundary line, change direction and echo the spiral back to the
center. You’re now at the start of the next spiral, which will go counter clockwise
into the center.
For both the basic spiral in a straight line and for the spiral variation, try this: Instead of coming out of the spiral “between the lines”, come out of the spiral “on the line”. This will give your spirals a completely different look! One thing to note - since you are coming out of the spiral “on the line” there is no need for an escape route, so on the way into the center of the spiral you will touch on both sides and the bottom.
Happy Quilting!
Sarah
Thank you Sarah for providing us with the above tutorial!
NOVEMBER CHALLENGE OVERVIEW
While this challenge is focused on learning and/or improving our free-motion quilting skills, you also have the opportunity to win prizes. To be eligible to win a monthly prize, simply complete the current months' tutorial in the month it is released and get your entry submitted via the linky tool, at the bottom of this page, no later than November 30th. But do remember this challenge is more about learning and improving your FMQ skills, so don't rush thru the exercise just to enter. Take time to practice and embed this design to your muscle memory, before you enter. To clarify, DO NOT just add a link to your blog, but to your post that shows that you have completed this tutorial. You get one link, so keep practicing until you feel you are finished with this tutorial.
For bloggers:
Please post your entry on your blog. To clarify, you can include as many photos of this tutorial exercise in your post, but you can only add one link to the linky tool below. You may also want to include insights in your post about your past FMQ experience and thoughts about this tutorial. Totally, optional, but you may also want to let everyone know that you have taken the Pledge and you did this exercise to enter the the challenge this month, where randomly selected winners will win a prize. You may inspire others to want to join this challenge too!
1) You will need to have a Flickr account (www.flickr.com).Remember only one link (entry) per person that has taken the pledge to learn and/or improve their Free Motion Quilting Skills, on a home sewing machine, in 2012.
2) Upload your photos for this month's challenge to Flickr, batch organize, send your photos to groups, select "2012 FMQ Challenge". While Flickr, limits the amount of text you can share in your description, feel free to share your perspective on this exercise and/or your past FMQ experience, if you wish.
3) After your photos have successfully been loaded to the "2012 FMQ Challenge" group, click on your best photo in that group, ideally one that shows the stencil and how you quilted using that stencil. Copy the URL link to your particular photo entry. Add that link to the linky tool above, to officially enter this show.
For those that may need help to link up the link to their tutorial project, to the linky for this challenge, Dana (Stormy Days) has also written an excellent tutorial for using linkies, so please take time to read her tutorial if you are not familiar with linkys or have any questions about linkys, in general. Please read the rules above, before you enter by way of adding a link below. And, Only add one link after you have practiced the tutorial to master the design. No rush, you have all month to practice and enter. Please follow the rules on this tutorial post, before you add a link.
Participants of SewCalGal's 2012 FMQ Challenge can link here, during October, to enter to win a monthly prize bundle!
Those on Facebook, may also want to join the 2012 Free Motion Quilting group.
There is also a free forum hosted by AQS that has been setup for participants in this challenge. Simply visitMy Quilt Place, create an account or log in, click on groups and join the group "Free Motion Quilting on a Domestic Sewing Machine".
- The January tutorial, by Frances Moore,
- The February tutorial, by Diane Gaudynski ,
- The March tutorial, by Ann Fahl was only available during the month of March. To clarify, this tutorial will be removed shortly, in keeping with the condition by this FMQ Expert.
- The April tutorial, by Don Linn
- The May tutorial, by Leah Day
- The June tutorial, by Cindy Needham
- The July tutorial, by Angela Walters
- The August tutorial, by Wendy Sheppard
- The September tutorial, by Paula Reid
- The October tutorial, by Teri Lucas
"Bonus" tutorials will be released, this summer, that will also be options for those needing to complete 12 FMQ tutorials anytime in 2012 to be eligible to enter to win a Grand Prize.
- Bonus Tutorial #1, by Linda Moran.
- Bonus Tutorial #2, by Susuan Brubaker Knapp
- Bonus Tutorial #3, by Diane Loomis
- Bonus Tutorial #4, by Teri Lucas (to be released in the Nov/December timeframe).
Sarah Vedeler Designs: http://www.sarahvedelerdesigns.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SarahVedelerDesigns
Oh so much fun ahead!! This is going to be a great practice for me...I need the control that this should bring. Thanks SewCalGal and Sarah....appreciate all the time you are giving us.
ReplyDeleteOh, this is the perfect tutorial for me right now! I'm so spatially challenged and can never figure out how to keep my spirals going. This tutorial explains everything in such super detail, can't wait to get started! Thank you Sarah!
ReplyDeleteYippee!!! This one is just for me. I love doing spirals, just have never done them in a straight line, so I looking forward to trying this. Thanks so much for the very clear directions and templates. Yes!
ReplyDeleteI, too, love spirals but mine never come out looking so even and beautiful. Thanks, Sarah, for a great tutorial! I'm looking forward to doing this one so that I can change that. lol
ReplyDeleteExcellent post...I love it and love how she explains the spirals. Just inspirational.
ReplyDeletethis looks like a fun challenge this month. can't wait to start practicing.
ReplyDeleteOh this is wonderful. I really love this tutorial. I love these type of tutorials. I have never FMQ before and this makes it look easy and fun. Thanks again. Im off to give it a try.
ReplyDeleteHooray! Spirals are my favorite!
ReplyDeleteenjoyable work, but it is very difficult.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sarah, for the great tutorial. Spirals are difficult for me, but I can only get better....or so I hope!!
ReplyDeleteI love spirals, and this tutorial was great! One of the things that I learned was that when I used to do them, I was coming out of the center incorrectly, and that was causing problems. I still need more practice, but I think as time goes on and I use them more, they'll smooth and even out more. Thanks Sara!
ReplyDelete