Free-hand Cables

Poor neglected blog! Many things have cut you in the "line of priorities" the past couple weeks. Welcome back to the front of the queue.

Much inspired by this crazy awesome quilting, (paradigm shifting!) I decided to make traditional Amish cables freehand. This is more difficult than I imagined. Because I want them to look free, not...well, hideous.

I've been drawing the lines with a water-soluble fabric pen, then quilting along them. I can't manage without the lines because I don't quilt like normal...I take each stitch individually. Which is embarrassing to admit, in a way. It's ultra slow and probably violates like ten Laws of the Quilt Police. I wasn't even aware there was a "way" until last year. When I tried the traditional quilting technique, it was crazy hard and rather unsatisfying. So back to my (unique? original?) methods.

While my technique (as it were) is liberated enough, I still struggle to make the cables as free and twisty as I wish to see them.

Here's to embracing truly Free Motion.