(Photo above shows Echoed Swirls. There is only a tiny bit of backtracking found in this design.)

For the last several weeks, we've been answering questions submitted anonymously in our weekly email newsletter. Here is one question we received:

 

"I just stepped into the computerized long arm world. Waiting for the table extension pieces to show up. However, I hear long armers say, I didn't want backtracking on this quilt. So--why are the long arm patterns created with backtracking--and why would/wouldn't you want backtracking."

If you've ever browsed our design shop and noticed the words “no backtracking” on a listing, you might have wondered the same thing! Backtracking? Is that a bad thing? Should I be worried about it?

Backtracking itself isn't so bad. It's a tool used to accomplish designs that otherwise wouldn't be possible in a continuous format, without multiple starts and stops.


I've recorded a video at the top of this blog post that walks through five different designs, s...

This is not a drill. I was able to work on a quilt top I started making for myself back in 2017.

About a month ago, I was invited to a quilting retreat at Stitch Supply Co. in Altoona, Wisconsin. I had the best time! It really supercharged my desire for patchwork again. Now I want to finish WIPs and start new projects with the fabulous fabric I bought there.

For this project, the quilt pattern I used is called Mini Modern Heart. It's actually a foundation paper piecing block I designed to use up small scraps of fabric. It certainly is a good pattern for doing just that!

My original intention was to make one block per day for a year—but, you know—life happened and I came up WAYYYY short of my goal.

At the retreat, I decided to wrap-up the project once and for all. I abandoned my original plan (365 blocks) when I realized that I had enough blocks to make a nicely sized lap quilt.

And guess what?! I ended up with 11 columns of 13 blocks each, which is drumrolllllllll... 143 ...