What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

The trees are still barren, but the first signs of Spring are showing up. The hellebore plants are outdoing each other with their bright white flowers and a solitary crocus shows it’s purple petals. This winter has been very grey and I have been longing for some warmth and sunshine. Dappling sunlight through the canopy of a tree and a soft warm breeze rustling the leaves sounds really good at the moment.

This week’s free motion design is called Canopy because it consists of leaf shapes that move in all directions, just like that rustling canopy that I ...

Feeling connected to you is so important to me! 

I wouldn’t have gotten where I am today without you. Your inspiring quilts, your thoughtfulness in sharing your world and your support in the comments have a huge impart in my corner of the internet. Let’s make this chain of friendships even stronger in 2025! 

The freemotion design Chain Link works well for domestic machine quilters and longarmers. This grid design resembles a bicycle chain and chain links. The pattern is based on a simple loop that is repeated twice per row. This freemotion pattern will look great on ...

Don’t miss out on this one!

Next Tuesday I will launch the FREE Ribbon Candy workshop again. This workshop only opens up once a year, so don’t wait too long. Everything is online and prerecorded, so no waiting on a specific timezone!

The workshop is 3 days long. On Tuesday 14 January you will get access to the first module that will help you improve your basic Ribbon Candy border design. On Wednesday 15 January you will get access to module 2 that contains 3 videos with variations on Ribbon Candy. On Thursday 16 January the last module ...

Get your marking pen out, I have a nice grid pattern for you! The shapes that make up this design are pretty easy, but the stitch path can become confusing. Please mark the stitch path too! It takes less time to mark than to undo your work! So, take your time, and go slow!

I have selected this Busy Bee design on purpose for this week. I know that for many of us Monday is ‘ back-to-work-day’ and ‘busy-busy-busy-today’ and it may feel like you never even had those vacation days off. Maybe try this fun design to counterbalance that? You ...

Let’s end this year with a sprinkling of flowers! Spread joy and kindness wherever you go, see the beauty of the world and fill your hearts and quilts with love.

Happy 2025!

The design Ogee Flower is a playful allover freemotion design that is based on a combination of a spiral, hops and ogee shapes. The flower is echoed to continue on to the next flower and it fills your quilt pretty quickly.

Ogee is the name of an architectural shape often used in arches. It is composed of two s-curves that come together in a symmetrical point. It ...

Are you working on some last minute Christmas gifts or are you already piecing a Valentine’s Day quilt for next year? This week’s freemotion quilting design would work for both!

The design Curly Hearts is a dynamic allover or edge to edge design. It can be used on a whole quilt or to fill around a shape in panel if you like. I can see this also work as an imitation of Santa’s beard of the wool of a sheep.

Pattern Tutorial

This edge to edge design use backtracking /traveling over already stitched line, but it is ...

November and December to me are not only the months of sparkly and brightly colored decorations and get-togethers, but also the months that I associate with certain foods items. Chocolate milk, speculaas cookies, mandarin oranges and especially nuts! This week’s design is based on almonds, pecans and brazil nuts.

Pattern Tutorial

The freemotion design Pods is a dense background filler with thread build up around the edges of the pod shapes. The space between the pods is then filled with various small pebbles. The shape of the pods can be described as a football, almond shape or a lens ...

Do you want feathers on your quilt, but they have to be a bit whimsical and modern? I have a great design option for you!

This edge to edge freemotion design lets you indulge in single feather shapes and curve them to the left or to the right. The design can be used on a quilt with a theme like: birds, water, waterfall, splashes, flowers, plants, leaves and the jungle.

Pattern Tutorial

The Feather Fan design is based on a series of single feather shapes placed next to each other, like the feather crest on a cockatoo’s head or ...

How many pies is too many?

The Dutch province I live in is famous for its fruit pies (vlaai), so with every party we bring out an assortment of pies. Apple and apricot are my favorite, and I love a slice of cherry pie too!

This background Pies filler design will help you ‘fill the table’. This design is very versatile. It resembles pies, certain types of breads, sea creatures, beads and maybe even gemstones. I can see it being used in quilts about vehicles and anything with gears or wheels too.

Pattern Tutorial

The Pies design is basically a ...

Last year I shared a Spider Web design based on marked circles which was a lot of fun to quilt in a larger block. But did you know you can add a spider web in a border too?

Take a look at this new Halloween Web border design!

I quilted this FMQ design in a 3.5 inch high border. You can choose any size border you like, just make sure you can still see where you are supposed to line up in the centre of the spider web. On my domestic machine the maximum border height is about 4 ...

Are you going to be spending more time on our sewing machines now that the weather is getting colder? I know I am! That means we have some time for a bit more in-depth learning with this week’s pattern. The pattern Twist will probably be familiar as it has been around for a while. It is basically an orange peel variation, but instead of an arch shape we are using a shape that resembles a gentle wave or a hill / slope.

The asymmetry in that shape adds so much movement in your quilt! I know that the design is ...

Fall weather has made its entrance and I have already grabbed my enormous fleece hoody to cocoon in in the evenings. I have started work on a Halloween quilt project which I will share in a separate blog post later this month and have taken the cinnamon tea out of the storage cupboard. Here comes sweater weather!

The Comtesse edge to edge design is airy and soft, like leaves falling off the trees in a gentle Autumn breeze. The word comtesse is French for countess, a female of a certain rank in nobility. The Comtesse design reminds me of gentle ...

Tumbleweed is a bully! This invasive species is classified as a noxious weed because of its detrimental effects to nature. Each plant has thousands of seeds that get spread due to the wind pushing the plant to tumble.

A tumbling spiky ball of sticks, now that is an inspiration for any free motion quilter, right?! read more

The Stipple design is a free motion staple! Such a versatile pattern: great as a chunky allover design, and gorgeous as a background filler.

For many of us this design is one of the first we have ever tried to learn, which has actually puzzled me over the years. Why would a beginner quilter be guided to a pattern that has no safe place to stop and start so they can think where to go next?

Stippling requires multiple skills; going in all directions and flipping the design (the inside shape can become the outside of the next shape), keeping ...

Before we delve into this week’s design, I would like to welcome the new subscribers! Some of you have joined through the Free Motion Quilting Summit that was held last week and some other quilters have found this blog through the links in YouTube. Could you please leave a comment and share, I would love to know how you have found this blog. Thank you!

It is time for an angular edge to edge design! The Mountain edge to edge is a random and dynamic design that would work well in any scale. You can use it as a ...

This design is named after a person I know who travels the world to discover its beauty and who creates meaningful connections where she goes. It flows from spot to spot with curved lines and adds sets of three loopy triangles.

This edge to edge pattern would work well on a coat or bag and table runners too. Think about projects with a theme like travelling, propellors / airplanes, connections, friendships and nature. Maybe this design looks more like a flower to you.

Pattern tutorial

This design is most dynamic when using curved lines to move around instead of straight lines ...

Get out your bright threads, especially the neon colors. I suspect you don’t use those very often. Here is your chance! This grid design Diamante is a fabulous one tot stitch out with a thread that really shows up on your fabric. Its whole purpose is to create a dazzling design.

Pattern Tutorial

The pattern is based on a diamond or triangular grid . You can use square grid instead. In general, they give the same result. The diamond grid is visually easier because you can’t get confused by the lines on your fabric.

The design is stitched out ...

To all the free motion lovers out there, have you already signed up for the Free Motion Quilting Summit that starts in 9 days? I am one of the 16 teachers who have created videos for this three days event. You can sign up for FREE, HERE. If you would like longer access to the videos and also get all the goodies, like my extra mini course, you can sign up for the All Access Pass. The Summit totally focusses on free motion which makes it unique in the quilting world. Don’t miss out!

On this blistering hot day ...

I see fireworks! The kind that are positioned on a pole and twirl around, throwing off sparks in all directions. You know the kind?

This pointy and dynamic edge to edge design would quickly fill your quilt. This is a beginner-friendly pattern because there are so many places where you can stop and think where you want to go next.  I wouldn’t recommend this for an absolute beginner. Creating even curls and echoes can be tricky. But if you have those down, try it out! 

Lines can be quilted closely together as in the sample, but you can quilt ...

Free motion quilting is like doing a puzzle where you have to create your own puzzle pieces to complete the image, don’t you agree? You work yourself into a corner or you end up with a weird empty spot. In many cases, traveling along already stitched lines is a great solution to get to the area you need to be at. But travelling isn’t a skill that comes easily. This week’s design will get you some more ‘training in traveling’. I will also explain my vision on how large your designs can be when using a domestic ...