Free Motion Freedom

I love to give you tips that can save your time and money and improve your free motion quilting efficiency and experience!

Hello Dear Friends and Readers!

Some men, (without being sexist) I have noticed, are able to free motion quilt without the need of gloves. I have to say that I have admired that ability and freedom….. but I can’t do it. However, it did get me to  thinking……

I have a super quick tip today which will save your time and money.

The dexterity of the fingers is considerably reduced with the donning of gloves.  It is a trade off.  The quilting experience  is improved, but the fine motor dexterity is much reduced… Hmmmm,…  so how to fix that?

I do not buy expensive gloves for free motion quilting.  I use the kind which you can buy in any supermarket and are usually marketed as gardening gloves.  They have a rubbery surface which is grippy on the inside and a flexible breatheable back.

The ones I am using today are Ansell Hyflex gloves.  The grippy surface is fantastic for guiding the fabric through the machine and moving it with ease.

However, I got sick and tired of taking them off to pull up the thread from underneath, to  wind a new bobbin, thread the machine or undo any snarls or trim off stray threads.  This is a bit annoying as it interrupts the flow.  So…..

I decided to cut off the tips off of the gloves from the thumbs and the first two fingers of each glove.  Its awesome!  I’m saving so much time and the quilting seems to flow so much better. With much less interruption!  The gloves are cheap ,  so I don’t feel like I’m losing anything by cutting them.

Now I can seamlessly  ( ha ha) move between free motion quilting and rethreading my needle, bobbin winding etc without having to remove and donn gloves continuously!

Check out the gloves in your local supermarket, next time you are there, so you can give this great technique a go.  I think you will love it!

If you enjoyed this post you may also like these tips

Free Motion Quilting Part 4 – Begin FMQ

or this one

Signature Pre-Cuts from Your Stash

All the best, as always,

Susie