LongArm Quilting at

Upgrade to Mastery Practice Quilts

The following Quilt Tops will be needed for you to work on.  Bear in mind that these are for practice purposes, so don’t use a top you’ve slaved over, or that is intended as a gift.  While many of these tops will be turned into nice, usable quilts, you don’t want to be freaking out about making mistakes when you’re learning new techniques.  However, I can’t teach you just using practice fabric, so you will need to provide these tops.  I don’t think they will prove too onerous ;-)

For each quilt top, make a backing 6” larger than the top in each dimension.

I hope these descriptions give you ideas for quilt tops to pull from your store or to whip together for your long arm practice.  Just remember that they are for practice and don’t spend too long making a really elaborate top that you’ll be afraid to experiment and learn on.  You don’t need to follow my exact patterns, just read and understand the purpose and needs of each lesson and go from there.

Lessons 1-2 – First Quilt

The first quilt should be made up of squares an/or rectangles, fairly large in size, of plain solids or marbles.  One or more large blocks should have figures which would look good with grid quilting behind them.  The design at right, made of 15 1/2” squares, with the addition of some raw-edge appliquéd flowers or other figures, would make a suitable project, and result in a lap quilt you can show off as your first long arm project.  Of course you can pick your favorite colors!  Other suitable designs would be Trip Around the World, or Kimono Medley by Marge Burkell.   Or you can pick any 9-Patch square and make it big.  The quilt top should be no smaller than 36” x 12”, and no larger than 45” x 45”, unless you want to lease extra practice time to complete it (which actually isn’t a bad idea).

Lesson 3 – Following Fabric Motifs

For this lesson, you will be following lines printed on a sheet of fabric.  Select a figured fabric such as a large-scale floral or paisley; something with curves and straight lines.  Or buy a quilt cheater with a design printed on it, which can be washed out.   One yard makes a good size.

Lesson 4 – Stitch in the Ditch

For this project, do some raw-edge appliqué of complex shapes combining curves and straight lines, such as hands or teacups.  Also include some pieced blocks such as 9-patch blocks or star blocks, with the seams pressed towards the center.  Make sure there are some diagonal seam lines.

Lessons 5-6 – Pantograph Quilting

Here you want a top that will work well with an all-over quilting pattern.  A simple watercolor quilt might be appropriate, or any pattern with no clear differentiation between foreground and background.  Complex fabric will make the patterns harder to see, so you may want to stick with solids or marbles.

Lesson 7 – Specialty Threads

Pick any quilt top you have that would benefit from some glitter!

Lessons 8-9 – Pattern Quilting

Again, a quilt top like your first quilt would make a suitable project.  Or buy a cheater.  Another possibility is to make a whitework quilt, or to follow an Amish quilt pattern.  Anything that gives you room to try pattern motifs.  Again, plain fabric will show your work better.

Lesson 10 – Hartley Fence

Large circles pieced or appliquéd onto split squares make a good project.  You want something with large circles and diagonal lines.  The design at right would be suitable; again, the squares should be 15 1/2”.  This makes a lap quilt.