How to Plan + Practice Free Motion Quilting | Lulu Louise Quilt

Before I ever put my quilt under the needle for free motion quilting, I like to have a plan.

That doesn’t mean every single stitch has to be decided ahead of time, but I do like knowing where I’m going, which designs I want to use, and how those designs will work with the piecing of the quilt.

Today, I’m sharing a little peek inside the Lulu Louise Quilty Class with two full lessons from our free motion quilting chapter. We’re going to plan the quilting for Lulu Louise and then practice the feathers before we ever stitch them onto the actual quilt.

👉 Want to make Lulu Louise and quilt along with me? Start the Lulu Louise Quilty Class here.

👉 Just need the pattern? Find it here.

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Watch: Planning + Practicing the Free Motion Quilting

In the video, you’ll see me work through the quilting plan first and then take that plan over to the sewing machine for some practice.

I think that practice step is especially important with a design like feathers. You don’t need them to be perfect before moving onto your quilt, but spending a little time drawing and stitching them first helps your hands and brain get comfortable with the movement.

Planning the Free Motion Quilting

The piecing in Lulu Louise gives us such a good starting point for the quilting.

For this version, I decided to quilt feathers through the foreground, allowing them to follow that V-shaped movement already created by the piecing. In the background, we’ll use S-curves to create texture without competing with those feathers.

Before I begin stitching, I like to actually draw these ideas out.

This gives me a chance to see how the quilting might move across the quilt, think about where I want to begin and end, and work through any tricky areas before there’s an actual quilt underneath my needle.

And plans can change! Drawing everything first isn’t about locking yourself into one exact design. It’s simply a way to work through the idea before you start quilting.

Practicing Free Motion Feathers

Once we have our plan, it’s time to practice those feathers.

Feathers can look intimidating when you see an entire row of them quilted together, but they become much more manageable when you break them down into the individual movements.

In the video, we’ll practice those movements together and spend some time getting comfortable with the shape and flow before moving onto Lulu Louise.

This is one of those places where I really want you to give yourself permission to practice without expecting perfection.

The goal isn’t to make every plume exactly the same. We’re looking for rhythm and movement and getting comfortable enough that when the actual quilt goes under the needle, the motion already feels familiar.

Ready to Quilt Lulu Louise?

And this is where our free preview ends and we continue inside the Lulu Louise Quilty Class. 💕

We’ve planned the quilting.
We’ve drawn it out.
We’ve practiced our feathers.

Now we’re ready to put those feathers on the actual quilt.

Inside the next lessons, I’ll take you with me as I quilt the feathers through the foreground of Lulu Louise, work through the background quilting, and complete this first free motion quilting design.

And we’re not stopping there.

I’ve added an entire bonus free motion quilting chapter using a second Lulu Louise quilt. We’ll create another quilting plan and approach this one completely differently, with geometric free motion quilting through the foreground and loose floral and leafy doodle quilting through the background.

So you’ll get to see the same quilt pattern quilted in two very different ways.

Looking for more quilt patterns?
Browse our 8 most popular quilt patterns →

Join Me in the Lulu Louise Quilty Class

The Lulu Louise Quilty Class includes the quilt pattern and walks through the piecing and free motion quilting with me.

The class is completely self-paced, so you can work through Lulu Louise whenever you’re ready and return to any of the lessons whenever you need them.

👉 Join the Lulu Louise Quilty Class here.

👉 Already enrolled in this class or part of Quilty Club? Your lessons are waiting in your dashboard.

Here’s to making beautiful things, enjoying the process, and finding a little joy in every stitch. 💕

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