adventures of a quilting diva

Today’s tip is simple, but important: stitch, breathe, repeat.

I’ll be the first to admit that I often hold my breath when I’m machine appliqueing or quilting a tricky section.

Take my bunny’s cottontail at left for example. I thought that breathing might somehow disrupt the smooth curves of the cottontails, so I tried to hold my breath while machine stitching around them. But holding my breath only made me rush around the circles to reach the other side before I passed out.

Turns out that slow, even breathing makes for the smoothest circles of all. Check out that yellow bunny for yourself. It was my first cottontail sewn while breathing. It beat my very best non-breathing cottontail hands down.

Try it yourself and see. About 9-10 steady, even breaths per minute works best for me for both slow and quick machine stitching.

Be patient, it might take a little bit of practice to get it right. In the beginning I sometimes found myself concentrating too hard on breathing and not enough on sewing. Keep it up and you’ll find just the right balance. With good breathing techniques I can now say that making quilts is truly relaxing after a stressful day.