I took “Advanced Machine Quilting” with Mickey Depre when I attended Road to California recently – the quilters conference and showcase extraordinaire.

Mickey taught us three simple principles to achieve fabulous machine quilting stitches.

1. First, – make that mind body connection drawing out your free motion designs on paper. If you can draw it – you can stitch it. Here’s my pencil drawing and then the stitched out design done free form with no marking on a practice quilt sandwich.

2. Next, look for inspiration all around you.

Mickey handed out some ads and had us look for design elements within that ad. Here’s what I came up with – can you tell what part of the ad I’m using?

I saw diamonds on the fabric in the ad and they morphed into concentric squares. The lamps gave me two shapes to play with – a tapered squiggle and half-moon design. The sun/stars came from playing with the tassel design in the picture.

Then we combined two of the styles and did another pencil drawing and quilt design. I combined the squiggles with the stars and here’s what I got:

3. The final words of wisdom she gave is that we need to practice several times a week. I call it “quilting exercise”. Once your quilting hands are primed for daily quilting, it will be as easy as drawing on paper. This was a fabulous class, taught by a fabulous teacher!

Check out Mickey Depre’s website at mdquilts.com.