Apparently, I can no more wander on my quilts than I can in real life. “Meandering,” by its very definition, means wandering around. I need to experiment with that some more. I think I have unconsciously learned to push the foot pedal just up to the point where it might stall in order to keep my stitch lengths consistent. It will accelerate smoothly up to a point, stall out for a second, then accelerate really quickly. The meander did seem a bit easier when I sped up my machine, but I also realized that part of the reason I quilt at the speed I do is because my foot pedal has a definite dead spot. Some of the people around me had their machines moving at top speed. I like to quilt in smooth strokes, which is why loops are so easy for me. I think that’s the part I have trouble with. Watching Angela quilt, I realized that the meander involves short, jerky movements.
It was comforting to know that I am not the only one who really doesn’t like the basic meander pattern. It’s interesting that the meander is usually the first pattern suggested for beginners, followed by loops. I’ve done loops on at least half a dozen quilts now. I learned so much from doing just these three patterns:Īngela told us afterward that her students usually fall into one of two broad categories, those who love the meander and hate loops and those who hate the meander and love loops. Angela’s book was one of the first ones I bought when I started machine quilting and I refer to it often: I happened to see the e-mail about the class one morning at 4 a.m., so I went immediately and signed up. I really lucked out getting into this class. The class was held there because they have a lovely classroom area. That is where I take my Janome in to get serviced.
(Think of a store about the size of the husband’s shop.) They carry all sorts of quilting supplies and also specialize in Bernina and Janome machines. The Quilting Bee used to be a tiny store in a strip mall, but they outgrew that space and built a huge custom store two years ago.
Heartbeat is usually the first place I go when I need quilting thread. Heartbeat Quilting is the self-described “longarm store.” They have longarm machines available for rent and sell a wide range of batting and thread. The two big quilting stores in Spokane got together to bring Angela Walters, a machine quilting expert, in for a couple of days of classes.
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