Today, let's take a look at some renters who are improving their free motion quilting skills by working from the front of the machine. Connie quilted this patriotic star quilt with a free motion meander. While we have a design board that does the same thing, she knows that working from the front of the machine to do an allover design is faster than using a design board or panto. It looks great and you can choose your own scale of meander. Gloria also used a free motion meander on this quilt for her new granddaughter. One thing that this allowed her to do was personalize the quilt. At the very bottom right of the quilt, she wrote her message of love to her granddaughter and added a heart, all in her own handwriting. What a unique and loving touch! Sarah brought in a colorful string-pieced top to quilt one day. She wanted to do something more complicated than a meander or an allover quilting pattern and had beautiful negative spaces between the string-pieced sections, so she used the piecing intersections as jumping-off points for free motion spirals and curls. In the border, she quilted a continuous looping design that included a spiral and loop combination to fill the triangle shapes well. This type of design is completely adaptable to the needs of any quilt and is fun to do. Last but definitely not least, Angelique brought in this enormous top to quilt from the front of the machine. Gravity, designed by Julie Herman of Jaybird Designs, finishes at 96" by 97" and Angelique constructed the center using fabrics from her own stash. If you zoom in, you can see lace and a variety of textures. Angelique used a variety of designs in her quilting, including herringbone to fill in the shaded grey areas outside of the star and different meanders in the center. If you'd like to expand your own free motion skills, I am offering a hand-on class on July 29 to help you grow as a quilter from the front of the machine. This class is also open to longarm owners who would like to upgrade their meander and filler designs. Come join us!