Machine Quilting at Home: Lessons from My Cloud Surfing Quilt

I was originally going to share all these machine-quilting details with you when I wrote about my latest Cloud Surfing quilt, but the more I quilted, the more I felt this part of the story deserved its own dedicated spot on the blog.

I’ve been determined since the beginning of my quilting adventures to be able to quilt my own quilts at home on a domestic sewing machine.

This has taken me years of practice, patience and a little gumption to keep at it – ha!

There are definitely challenges to machine quilting your own quilts, but there’s also something so satisfying about looking back and seeing your progress over time.

That said, it can feel pretty discouraging when you’re right in the middle of learning.

And aren’t we all still learning? Just at different points in our quilty adventures 😉

As I machine quilted this Cloud Surfing quilt, there were a few things I kept noticing that I wanted to share with you — not because I’ve perfected them, but because they were such a good reminder that every quilt teaches us something.

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Planning My Machine Quilting Design

Before I even sat down at my sewing machine, I spent a lot of time just staring at this quilt while she hung on my design wall.

Learn how to make your own design wall here.

I know that probably doesn’t sound very productive – ha! – but giving myself that time helped me think through the direction and flow I wanted the quilting lines to take. I wanted the quilting lines to work with the movement already happening in the quilt design, so I gave myself time to think through the general direction and flow before putting her under the needle.

I didn’t plot every single quilting line.

Instead, I figured out the overall direction I wanted to take in each section and then worked my way through the quilt one area at a time.

Some lines were marked.

Some were guided by the line that came before.

And some were very much a case of:

“Okay… where should the next one go?”

Ha!

Making it up as I went didn’t mean I started without a plan. I knew the general feeling I wanted the quilting to have, but I left myself room to make decisions once I was actually stitching.

That balance of planning and playing ended up being one of my favourite parts of quilting this version.

Using My Quilting Guide Bar

The quilting guide bar was one of the tools I reached for the most on this quilt.

Once I had one quilting line stitched, I could use the guide bar to help position the next one without having to mark every single line.

Hurrah!

It helped me create repetition and consistency while still giving me freedom to change direction as I worked through the quilt.

But guide bars are not without their quirks.

• They can be fiddly.
• You need to reposition them.
• And even a small shift can mean your next line ends up slightly farther away — or closer — than you intended.

Then there’s the question of what happens when your previous quilting line isn’t perfectly straight.

• Do you follow the wobble?
• Try to gradually correct it?
• Ignore the guide bar and eyeball the next line?

I did a little of all three.

Which means there are definitely imperfections in these quilting lines.

Okay… quite a few imperfections – ha!

But I’m okay with that.

Each line gave me another opportunity to see what worked, what didn’t, and what I might do differently the next time.

When I Chose to Mark My Lines

Even though the guide bar allowed me to avoid marking most of the quilting design, there were still a few places where I wanted more control.

For the lines that I knew I wanted to stay straight and continue through the negative space, I used a ruler and hera marker to plot them before stitching.

There were probably only about ten lines that I marked this way.

Not many.

But they gave the overall quilting design some important anchor points.

I love that a hera marker gives me a visible crease to follow without adding ink to the quilt, especially when I know exactly where I want a quilting line to travel.

Plotting Small Details with an Air-Erasable Marker

There were also a few areas where I wanted the machine quilting to come together into little points.

You can see an example in the upper-right section of the quilt.

For those details, I used a ruler and an air-erasable marker to plot a point before stitching each line.

It was a simple way to give myself a target to quilt toward without having to draw out the entire quilting design.

Since air-erasable markings can disappear fairly quickly, I only marked what I was ready to quilt.

And, as always when using any kind of fabric-marking tool, it’s worth testing it on a fabric scrap first.

Stitching in the Ditch Still Keeps Me Humble

Stitching in the ditch is actually where my machine-quilting exploration started.

And I’m still amazed at how challenging such a simple-looking quilting technique can be.

The idea is straightforward: stitch along the seam line so the quilting blends into the piecing.

Easy, right?

Ha!

Add in curves, changing directions, and turns, and suddenly staying neatly in that ditch becomes an entirely different adventure.

When I first started machine quilting, I was often dissatisfied with the results.

• My stitches wandered.
• I’d miss the ditch.
• My lines weren’t always where I had envisioned them.

But I decided quite early on that I didn’t want to spend all my quilting time unpicking every imperfection.

I wanted to spend that time quilting.

So instead of immediately reaching for my seam ripper, I tried to notice what had happened.

• Did I pull the quilt too much?
• Did I turn too quickly?
• Did I lose sight of where the seam was heading?
• Did the bulk of the quilt start working against me?

Those little observations helped me understand what I could try differently on the next section.

And then the next quilt.

It’s by doing that you learn how to handle the unexpected.

Or what eventually becomes the expected 😉

Lessons I’m Taking from This Quilt

By the time I reached the end of machine quilting Cloud Surfing, I had accumulated a little mental list of things I want to remember for my next quilting adventure.

Basting Really Does Set You Up for Quilting

There was quite a bit of quilting happening in different directions on this quilt, with lots of turns and pivots along the way.

And I did end up with some puckering as the layers shifted.

Could my basting have been better suited to this particular quilting design?

Probably.

I pin baste my quilts rather than spray baste. I prefer to avoid spray baste because of the fumes, and pin basting feels like the more sustainable option for my quilting practice.

Read more about my pin-basting setup here and the little tool that made the process much easier for me here.

That said, I can absolutely see how the extra hold from spray basting might have worked better for machine quilting a design with this many changes in direction.

Pros and cons to everything – ha!

More than anything, it reminded me that basting isn’t simply about getting those three quilt layers together.

The way those layers are held can affect what happens once you start moving your quilt all around the machine.

Lesson noted.

Lighting Matters

Another thing that became very obvious while quilting this project?

My lighting could be better. I have this one which is amazing, but that’s the only light I have in a dark area, so it creates some shadows.

When you’re trying to follow a stitched line, seam or marked point closely, having a clear view of exactly where your needle is landing makes a big difference.

There were definitely moments where I felt like I was doing a little more guessing than I would have liked.

Not ideal – ha!

It even had me wondering whether there’s a walking foot with a larger opening so I can see more clearly around the needle.

Something to investigate for future quilty adventures 😉

My Body Needs Breaks Too

Machine quilting is no joke.

Even though the machine is doing the stitching, your arms, shoulders, neck and back are doing plenty of work moving and supporting the quilt.

I definitely felt it with this one.

Working section by section helped, but so did simply getting up and walking away from the machine.

Stretch.

Move around.

Come back later.

There’s no prize for quilting the whole thing in one marathon session.

And, in my experience, quilting is usually more enjoyable when my body isn’t yelling at me – ha!

More Planning Can Mean Less Thinking at the Machine

This version also had me thinking about how differently I approached quilting my original lap-size Cloud Surfing quilt.

For that quilt, I used my oval Drunkard’s Path rulers, a straight ruler and hera marker to plot out the quilting design before I sat down at the sewing machine.

It took me hours.

At least three!

At the time, that felt like a lot of prep work.

But there is something really lovely about eventually sitting down at your machine and having a clear guide waiting for you.

With this Cloud Surfing quilt, I spent much less time plotting beforehand, but I made more decisions while I was actually quilting.

Neither approach is better.

One gives you freedom at the machine.

The other gives you a clear roadmap before you start.

See?

Pros and cons to everything – lol!

And I think that’s one of the biggest lessons I’m taking from this quilt:

The more experience I gain, the less I’m looking for the right way to machine quilt.

Instead, I’m learning to ask:

What approach makes the most sense for this particular quilt?

Practice Builds Confidence

There were plenty of moments of frustration while quilting this Cloud Surfing quilt.

• Lines wandered.
• Spacing changed.
• Things puckered.
• My body got tired.
• And sometimes I simply wasn’t sure what I should do next.

But I kept going.

Because that’s how we learn.

I remember drawing on the plotting lessons I learned from machine quilting one of my Mouse Trap quilts and the curving quilting lines I tackled on another.

See the starburst design in the Mouse Trap BOM QAL Quilt and the curvy lines in this Mouse Trap Abstract Version 3 Quilt.

Those quilts taught me things that came back to help me with this one.

And I know the things I learned while quilting Cloud Surfing will show up again somewhere in a future quilting adventure.

That’s the really encouraging part.

• You don’t need to know how to handle every quilting situation before you start.
• You learn how to handle them by encountering them.
• You try something.
• You see what happens.
• You adjust.
• And eventually you realize that something that once felt intimidating doesn’t feel quite as scary anymore.

That’s confidence.

Not knowing you’ll do everything perfectly.

Knowing that when things don’t go perfectly, you’ll figure it out.

• We quilt.
• We learn.
• We repeat.

And hopefully, we have a little fun along the way 😊

Ready to Give Machine Quilting at Home a Go?

If you’ve been nervous about machine quilting your own quilts on a domestic sewing machine, I hope this Cloud Surfing quilting adventure encourages you to give it a try.

Your quilting lines don’t need to be perfect for you to learn something from them.

Mine certainly aren’t!

Every quilt gives us another opportunity to practice, experiment and figure out what works best for us.

And that’s really where the fun is.

I’d love to know: what part of machine quilting challenges you the most — planning the design, managing the quilt at your machine, keeping your lines consistent or something else entirely?

And if you already machine quilt your own quilts, what’s one thing you’ve learned along the way that has helped build your confidence?

Share below so we can all learn from one another 😊

xo,

Shannon

P.S. Want more quilting inspiration? Join Studio Notes for behind-the-scenes projects, creative encouragement, helpful tutorials, and early access to new patterns and courses. I’d love to have you there.

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