Stop, Drop and Roll Quilt Along, part 4.2 (straight lines)

Welcome to step 4.2 of the Stop, Drop and Roll Quilt Along! I am hosting this for the Old Red Barn Co. Flickr group.

Week 1: We made our blocks.

Week 2: We assembled our quilt tops.

Week 3: We basted our quilts.

Finally, we quilt!

All of the quilt patterns this week are practicing this week are based on straight lines. Free-motion straight lines. If that scares you, think of them as straight-ish lines, or lines that are "mostly" straight (for the Princess Bride fans).

The machine:

I used my Janome 6600 for this video. I bought it at my favorite quilt store, The Quilt Basket. I have owned this machine for about 2-1/2 years, and the honeymoon is not over. This is a fantastic machine for piecing and also does a superb job of quilting as you will soon see. I used the darning foot on the machine and I dropped my feed dogs.

The thread:

For the top thread, I used Tutti from WonderFil, color TU01 Sunny.

For the bobbin thread, I used DecoBob. by WonderFil, color DB131 Dark Gold.

The video:

Today's pattern is all horizontal and vertical lines. I think this looks like the pipes and pathways that the Mario Brothers are always running through in those Nintendo games. (Yes, I am married to a gamer.)

Grab some scrap fabric sandwiches and practice this design:

The hints:

• I usually pause in the corners to allow the machine to take an extra stitch. This makes my corners nice and sharp.
• When I need to stop the machine, I stop in a corner. If I stop in the middle of a design, the stop/start will leave a visible jog.
• Even though the first machine quilting teacher told me to "quilt fast and don't stop," I quilt rather slowly. I set my machine to the speed I want to quilt, and then put my pedal to the floor. This helps keep my stitches a consistent length.
• I stop frequently while quilting. This keeps me from getting a sore neck, allows me to reposition my hands, and gives me time to figure out where to place the next design.