Yetta I love her designs. Using a longarm is definitely something that takes hours to master and there are definitely tips and tricks. My biggest trick is that I create a little drag by putting a folded batting strip under the bar to make it a little harder to push. This gives me so much more control and is how I am able to make feathers and little fussy designs.

I'll keep practicing but I began thinking stitch in the ditch would be simple....NOT!  Wish I had begun with meandering instead.  My saving grace is that the backing is a nice, close paisley print and hides a multitude of sins....

SITD is the hardest thing to do with a longarm! The Idea sounds easy but it is not....much easier to do on a domestic. Allover designs where you can be consistently inconsistent are the easiest. Do not aim for perfection just fill the space with a pleasing design and enjoy the process.  Often when I have a bobble and try to find it later I can't.  The thing about using a lingarm is that it is MUCH faster.

Some of those motifs are quite complex.  Even when you break it down into smaller unit, it's still a lot of time to do.   They are pretty, but I'm not sure I'd do some of them.

YDritch said:

Wish I had begun with meandering instead.

For the next time you do a meander (which I personally think is the most terminally boring design in the world), turn it into a ribbon meander.    It's so easy, any one can do it. 

You do a regular, standard meander.  You know, the boring path that looks like a jigsaw puzzle.   You create the meander in one, long, continuous path.   

BUT THEN!!!  When you reach the end, don't stop!  FOLLOW your meander back up itself by zig-zagging from side to side until you reach your starting point.  Where you start is the final stopping point.  When you are done, your boring meander now looks like a twisted ribbon! 

Sure, it takes twice as long to do because you are going back over the same path, but the final design is SO much more interesting than a meander.  Which is boring.  :-)

Here is what the final result looks like;


Looks complicated, right?  WRONG.   *One* of those lines is you basic meander.  The other line is just criss-crossing the meander line back to the staring point.

This is an excellent 53 second video that shows how it is done.  In this video, the basic meander has already been done.  Now comes how she criss-crosses the meander to create the twisted ribbon:   https://youtu.be/AARHHKQ_tmo      This is exactly how I do it.   

The most difficult part for me is getting the basic meander to look right because it's random and I don't do random so well.  :-)

Yes, I love the ribbon. Have used it a couple of times on baby quilts. 

tell me more - which bar?

One of my favorite quilting books the author mentions that any time you go over something twice it looks better (or something like that) and she is definitely right.  One line looks like a kindergartner drew it (crooked, goofy, whatever) the 2nd line somehow makes it look artistic.  I've gone with that theory many times while quilting.

Pirate (PIRATE_SR) said:

For the next time ....

Being a little presumptuous, are we?

Oh, I really like those!!  My go to is meander-LOL- but could slip some of those in!!