Free-Motion Quilting with Freezer Paper

Free-motion quilting can be tricky to get the hang of when you are just starting out. One thing that can make it easier and less intimidating is drawing or transferring the quilting design or motif onto the quilt top or project.

Ashley Hough shows you how to do this using freezer paper, which eliminates the need to draw directly on the fabric.

Using Freezer Paper

Ashley begins by talking about the type of paper to use. You can use a standard freezer paper or any other kind of wax-backed paper. The idea is that when the paper is ‘fused’ to the fabric using a dry iron on medium heat, the paper temporarily sticks to the fabric. The paper can then be easily removed, moved, and reused as many times as the paper will still stick to the fabric.

Ashley then shows how to easily trace a design onto the freezer paper. Because freezer paper is easy to see through, any design or motif can be traced without the need for a lightbox.

Ashley then shows how to cut out the design and fuse it into place on the fabric.

You can then use the design as a way to free-motion quilt and trace the outer edges and quilt that shape onto your project, or do simple free motion quilting fill stitches around the design and leave that area un-stitched. While you can always stitch though the paper when quilting as a way to use it as a template, however, if you do so, you will need to rip the paper in order to remove it, making it non-reusable.