What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

The Girl Gang quilt is finally on deck. This is the project I was looking for last week, and finally found it Monday morning. Yay!

While working on the recent baby quilt, I had a little epiphany about quilting; specifically, how to get it done with less angst, aggravation and still be happy about it. Y’all know I have been digitizing some edge-to-edge designs but I also want to make some block-specific background designs—think Kimberbell’s background quilting and Designs by Juju’s backdrops. Combine that idea with the Brother Luminaire’s ability to scan a design from ...

All babies are special, and the ones in my life get a quilt.

I know I have said this on multiple occasions, but my granddaughter Cheyanne told me via FaceTime that she was going to have another baby ON MY BIRTHDAY. I was just giddy! But a sequence of events has pushed the arrival to an earlier date. I finished piecing the baby quilt top in November, but had put off the quilting of it until we got a little closer to the April due date. But we also know that babies come when they tell you they are coming ...

It's a digitizing class exercise!

Oh, I was a happy girl last Sunday. I watched a couple of Lisa Shaw's videos about creating motif fills and decided I really didn't need to do it on this particular quilt. I wanted to, and I want to on other quilts, but this one will reside on the top of our dining table and it doesn't need the foo-foo. I managed to finish digitizing the center design as well as the edge-to-edge design. 

For background, four years ago I signed up for Sarah Vedeler’s Master Digitizing course. I ...

The freemotion design Paws is one of those designs that creates a lovely texture. You just want to pet the quilt!

This design works well for quilts with themes like animals, pets, water, sea, ocean, rain, weather, wind, flying, birds, and swimming. Is there anything else that this design reminds you of?

Pattern Tutorial

Create the dynamic design Paws by moving in all directions. The design sequence its pretty simple; curve round and add a teardrop or a paisley shape inside of the curve.

The teardrop is a symmetrical shape, while the paisley is not; it has a curve. Mix ...

This meandering freemotion design Mistletoe is open, airy and whimsical. It resembles a mistletoe plant but not exactly, making this design more versatile than just a Christmas quilting design.

The design consists of a series of two leaf shapes, two feathers and one or more small circles. The circles on sticks will help you travel to a new spot for the next sequence.

Pattern Tutorial

This design is built on a sequence with three design elements: leaf shapes, feathers and a circle on a stick.

Move into the area you want to fill with your design and try to use ...

You know me…

I love creating variations of the Ribbon Candy pattern. The design Sprout resembles sprouting seeds or maybe a small flame trying to grow. Or perhaps it resembles a swamp monster if you are in the Halloween mood.

This whimsical freemotion design can be used in a wider border but it can be stitched out in rows to too as an edge to edge. It looks great in quilts with themes like plants, horticulture, nature, flame, fire, growth.

Pattern Tutorial

This design has a series of decorative elements: a curl, a set of s-curves and a set of ...

The edge to edge design Cogs is based on a soft curl surrounded by a boxy echoes and hops.

This funky design would be lovely on a quilt for a person who likes to know the inner workings of a piece of machinery. On the other hand, this freemotion design would work well within a mix of various flower designs too. 

The elements within the sequence of Cogs are pretty simple. A soft curl, a series of boxy shapes as an echo around to the curl and then to complete the shape, add a series of hops around it all ...

Halloween is getting closer, and I have a few small quilty projects planned to get done before then. I have shared a few freemotion designs in the past that suit the scary season, and I will share them again below.

This weeks’ design is called Hair, maybe not specifically named after Cousin Itt from the Addams family, but if the shoe fits…! The random and free-flowing design Hair looks just like ghosts flying and tumbling through the air, don’t you think? Maybe it makes you think of flowing water or kelp too. The edge to edge design Hair is ...

Strut your feathers!

The design Peacock is composed of pretty standard shapes, the design just look complex because various shapes are all thrown in together into one sequence.

The Peacock design is an intricate allover that is elegant and elaborate. The denser edge to edge is suited for bags, placemats and maybe even a quilt coat.  It looks great on projects with themes like peacocks, birds, flowers, florals, nature, elegance, exuberance, exotic and mysterious gardens.

Pattern Tutorial

Don’t let the multi-step designs hold you back. You are probably very familiar with the separate design elements of this pattern; a ...

Before we delve into this week’s design, I wanted to let you know that there will be another Free Motion Quilting Summit in two weeks time! This multiple day free event focuses on all things freemotion. I think you would really enjoy taking part.

Maybe you spotted my face in amongst the teachers read more

Are you looking for an adventurous quilting pattern?

The design Flight Tracker is a fun design with lots of angular shapes, making it a relatively easy allover design. This fun design looks great on projects with themes like travel, geography, airplanes, adventure, and discovery. 

Each airplane is just a little bit bigger than 1 inch, but you can go as big as you like! The design elements make it easy to fill awkward spots and the changes in direction allow enough time to think through your next step. 

Pattern Tutorial

You don’t need a ruler for this design. The ...

Only 20 years in a Bin!

Last week was a euphoria-filled week. I quilted every day—and tried a couple of new-to-me techniques. But first, look at this label:

Obs, it was not finished in 2018, but that was the original intent. That’s also the year I went back to college and my quilting took a hiatus. After 3 semesters, my health let me know that maybe I didn’t need to further my primary career and by that time, and my workload had increased due to some staffing issues. Now that I’ve retired I would like to ...

Go get your poofy batting out!

The elegant and random design Flutter looks SOOOO GOOD with a poofy batting, I promise!

The allover looks great on projects with themes like butterflies, nature, the sea and ocean, water and waterfalls, birds and feathers. What does this design remind you off? To me, these are fluttering shapes, not specifically a butterfly or water droplets in a waterfall.

Each feather is about 2 inches long in this sample, but you could easily enlarge that measurement. The design is especially suitable for use on a machine where you can see your fabric really well ...

Have you counted your lucky stars lately?

I hope you have your loved ones close and that they are happy and healthy. Sending out all the healing thoughts to those who need them.

The wonky diamonds in this stitch out design Lucky Stars are about 1 inch in length, but I can imagine them being at least 3 inches long too.  It looks great on projects with themes like Christmas, universe, stars, plants, vegetation, nature, jewels, jewellery.

This meandering design uses arched lines to connect the sets of 3 wonky diamonds. These arched lines make it possible to fill those ...

Sometimes simple is best!

Today’s freemotion design is variation of the classic Stipple. The Comb design gives a bit more structure as there is a sequence of movements, but you are free to change up to rules to suit your needs!

The FMQ design is based on two shorter ‘fingers’ and one longer one. This longer one moves over the two shorter ones to ‘encapsulate’ them. If there is no room to do the actual ‘comb over’, let that longer shape move wherever it needs to go to fill your space.

Because of the ‘two short, one long’ sequence ...

Wallflowers, vintage tiles or star bursts? What does this quilting design look like to you?

The freemotion design Wallflower is a simple grid based quilting design that goes well with themes like flowers, tiling, kitchen, bathroom, vintage, retro, stars and the universe. Depending on your grid size, you may apply it as an edge to edge or as a background filler.

I lost the video footage of me quilting out this design and I had to redo it. You may spot the difference in fabric and thread colors in the photos. Redoing this design wasn’t a problem at all ...

Let’s go fly a kite!

This freemotion quilting design looks like a series of kites strung like beads on a necklace. Or maybe you see a squadron of manta rays soaring through the ocean?

This dynamic design looks great on projects with themes like flying a kite, outdoor activities, children, childhood, manta rays, ocean, sea creatures, wind, Mary Poppins.

Why Mary Poppins?

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One of the joys of Springtime is going for a sunny walk in nature, discovering new paths, different vistas and beautiful plants. The design Trail resembles such a walk, the lines look like a wandering path through a landscape, moving away from and moving back towards your path.

The allover design Trail is mix between a curl and Stipple. I have written about stippling before and expressed my amazement that a lot of quilters learned the Stipple pattern as one of their first freemotion designs. I understand the appeal of a good stipple, but this freemotion design really isn’t ...

Floating in a stream, moving with the current, just relaxing! That just sounds wonderful.

The edge to edge design Drift is an allover freemotion design that is based on a continuous line with curvy bends. The design looks like kelp drifting in a stream, don’t you think? This FMQ pattern would work great on quilts with themes like nature, water, ocean, sea, river, fishing and meditation.

Pattern Tutorial

The designs based on feather shapes on the inside of a deep curve. The combination of the two feathers looks a bit look an oven mitt too. Depending on the way ...

Edge to edge quilting designs are a great way to a finish a quilt, but they can be a bit confusing. Some freemotion quilters fear getting stuck in a corner and having to break thread.

Well first of all, breaking thread is not the end of the world! Just do it, and continue somewhere else!

Secondly, knowing the structure of the design and its ‘escape possibilities’ are really helpful to prevent ending up with those awkward spots where you have gotten yourself stuck.

And let’s not forget, you are ALLOWED to cross of your already stitched line. There is ...