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You all know I’m a sucker for machine quilting and I love it when others helps spread the message, that yes, you CAN quilt your own quilts! 🙂 Prolific quilter and author Amanda Murphy has just released her latest project, The Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book.
It’s chock full of ideas on how you can apply specific motifs to actual blocks. It includes over 150 step-by-step designs that are sure to jump start your creativity! Just take a look at these two ideas from the book:
I love it that the book is organized so that you can look up the motifs by quilt element or design family. But what makes the book extra special is that you can apply these ideas to your quilts whether you are a stand up long arm quilter, or a sit-down machine quilter. Amanda started off as a domestic machine quilter (like me) and she’s now the spokesperson for the new BERNINA long arm, so of course I think she has great taste in machines!
Here’s Amanda, in her own words, describing why she wrote The Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book:
“I wanted to write an idea book to help people figure out how to quilt their quilts by breaking them down into a series of steps. Each quilt element featured in the book has multiple designs but all are based on the same basic allover designs featured in the front of the book – so it is easy to create a cohesive look. For instance, there are several designs for quilting flying geese, and they work well with other designs that feature the same families. There are also coordinating borders, sashing, and stand alone designs. There is a simple table runner design included to get you started.”
As an added bonus, Amanda and her publisher have teamed up to offer a companion to The Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book. It’s called the Free-Motion Quilting Idea Sampler and is available as a PDF download which gives you loads of block patterns to piece and practice on!
Sampler Quilt for Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book
Giveaway
Leave a comment telling me your favorite free-motion quilting motif. (Mine is swirls!) Contest is open to everyone through the end of the week. US winners will receive a hard copy of the book; international winners will receive an e-copy.
Blog Tour
Check out the rest of the stops on the hop for more inspiration, and your chance to win a copy of The Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book:
- Monday 11/2: C&T Publishing
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Tuesday 11/3: Generation Q Magazine
- Wednesday 11/4: A Quilting Life
- Thursday 11/5: Pat Sloan’s Blog
- Friday 11/6: Mandy Leins
- Monday 11/9: Sew Sweetness
- Tuesday 11/10: Christa Quilts You are here!
- Wednesday, 11/11: Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio
- Thursday 11/12: Amanda Murphy
Christa Quilts 
This looks like a fantastically helpful book! My favorite quilting motif is probably feathers, though straight lines have gotten my attention lately. I would like to be more competent at swirls. Mine tend to line up like fat soldiers all in a row!
Looks like a good book. I like pebbles. Thanks for the giveaway.
Pebbles are what I try to keep me going round.
Vermicelli is my most used design.
Feathers are my favorite. Thank you for your kindness.
I like circles.
Oh my goodness….feathers of all types intrigue me. Not confident enough to try yet.
I’m petrified of free-motion, but SO want to learn. I’d love to learn pebbles, swirls, and wood-grain.
I loooooove feathers!!!
I am really new to quilting, but I have been playing around with waves. It is really freeing and fun.
I just saw this book in a quilt shop today. It looked fascinating! I am a beginner FMQer. I can’t say I have a favorite yet. I JUST this week go the hang of doing some simple feathers, so at the moment, I’m excited about them.
I have always been a fan of meandering, or stipple quilting. You can just let yourself wander!
Feathers are m favorite.
I love feathers.
I love to quilt anything with swirls. That book looks amazing! Thank you so much for the chance to win.
My favorite is anything that is not a super tight motif.. I am drawn to the light airy stuff..
I like paisleys.
I am ALWAYS looking for inspiration, and this book looks chock-full of ’em!
I just love leaves and spirals/swirls.
Looks like another great book! I love loops and flowers. Thanks for the chance to win!
My favorite thing to do is meander. I can incorporate stars or even words into the quilting when I meander.
I have a swirl and curvy design that works well for me. Thanks for sharing the giveaway.
I haven’t mastered swirls but I do love them. I’ve been trying to do stippling lately. This is such a fun book
I love feathers and flowers. Thanks for the review. This book sounds awesome!
I’m no expert at FMQ, but one I feel confident with is simple wavy lines. They seem to look good on many projects.
This book looks amazing! My favorite fmq pattern is feathers.
My favorite is feathers but skills are better oriented towards lines.
I love swirls, but also feathers!
This book looks so amazing! Lately I’ve been loving pebbles with the occasional swirl thrown in. 🙂
I do use some wavy lines, but I stipple most of the time. ;( Would love to expand my skills!
Swirls are my favorite, and I like combining them with hearts sometimes.
I love swirls for free motion, and wavy lines too! But not sure if that counts 🙂
I like to do swirls and sometimes combine them with hearts.
I recently bought a free-motion foot for my machine to start learning to free-motion quilt. It seems so daunting, but it’s the next step in building my quilting skills. My favorite designs are anything free-form, like loops and swirls and waves, rather than more precise, symmetrical designs.
Hmm, I think I like feathers and swirls the best!
I love swirls too, but have yet to master them. Mine always look wonky.
QuiltShopGal
http://www.quiltshopgal.com
Great book! A wonderful explanation of how to make your quilting more interesting on a variety of blocks!!!
I haven’t really done any FMQ other than outline or straight line quilting. I like feathers and geometric shapes and hope to someday be able to do them.
Right now it’s feathers with swirls
I have worked really hard on my feathers, so they are my current favorite. Thanks!
Long lines and swirls
swirls and loop de loops are my current favorites. One day I hope to be able to say feathers, but I am just not there yet.. but I will practice till I get there…
I like wavy stitches with pebbles.
My go to quilting pattern is cross hatching. Also loving Christa’s spirals.
I really like to stipple in some places, and I haven’t decided on any other patterns yet, but I loved my class with you, and am still trying to perfect the patterns, but I need to get this book to help me figure out how to decide what kind of quilting to do! Thanks for the chance!
I am new at free motion quilting, so the simpler the better. Don’t have a favorite yet.
I usually do loops in some variation: loops and hearts or stars, 3 in a row etc
I love swirls but I’m a big chicken to get them done.
I like swirls, but definitely need lots more practice!! Thanks for the sweet giveaway 🙂
WI like feathers and swirls.
That looks like an amazing book! I love mixing swirls and pebbles. I also love quilting feathers. Thanks for the chance to win.