What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Does this design look like tin ceiling tiles to you or maybe vintage kitchen tiles?

The freemotion design Orange Peel Greek is a grid design based on the classic Orange Peel. A series of curls are added as a decorative element to fill parts the negative space within the pattern.

This design looks great on projects like bags and table runners. It goes well with themes like tin tiles for ceilings, Greece, classical art, citrus fruit like oranges, flowers and butterflies.

The name Orange Peel Greek specifically refers to the curls, which reminded me of the tops of columns from ...

Last week’s design was a floral one, a bit dense, and pretty intricate. Maybe you prefer a more simple grid design, one that works in narrow borders or sashings or that could even transition into an edge to edge.

Meet Trim!

The sample is stitched out on a 2 inch high strip of fabric and it requires a square grid. You may think that you can go grid-less for this design, but I strongly advise you to use at least reference points.

Your quilting will look its best when the lines are parallel and the shapes are neatly ordered ...

Add a field of flowers to your quilt!

Joyful, elegant and full of details, these off set flowers are connected by a loopy line making them more whimsical.

The freemotion design Garland is based on a square grid, with the flowers placed offset from the previous rows. The flowers are connected by a ‘horizontal’ continuous line, making them look like an actual garland. This FMQ pattern would work great on quilts with themes like nature, flowers, plants, weddings, elegance.

The black sample below is from 2017 when I stitched out the design in a 1 inch grid.

The design is ...

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 ...

Marking a grid on your fabric gives you so many options for cool freemotion designs. A grid gives you just the right amount of guidance while keeping the hand-guided look.

In many of my designs I use a 1 inch grid, just because my samples aren’t normally big. In a lot of cases you can enlarge the grid to whatever size that works for you. There are only two limitations I can think off. Firstly, some sewing machines will block your view of the fabric behind the needle. You can only enlarge the design as far as you can ...

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 ...

The Cross my Heart design is a sister pattern to the Hearts Wreath design that I shared two months ago. Both these freemotion wreaths are filled with hearts, but the construction of the hearts is pretty different. The hearts in Cross my Heart are based on big loops that cross over at the intersections of the circular grid. In this design there are 4 big hearts and 4 small hearts.

The Hearts Wreath is more suitable for bigger circles, while the Cross my Heart design fits within a smaller circle, no bigger than 8 inches.

The red fabric is a ...

Are you looking for something new to try that is simple and super elegant at the same time? Give this border design a try!

The freemotion design Jewel Loops is a border design constructed out of loops and echoes. The FMQ design is based on simple shapes placed in a grid. It looks great on quilt coats, bags, jelly roll quilts or quilts with a lot of borders or quilts with a theme like jewelry and ribbons.

Jewel Loops is technically a grid design, because it looks its best when executed as evenly as possible. So help yourself out by ...

Walk the blocks, discover the lovely corners of your streets and have a great little hike.

The freemotion design Paths is a simple horizontal meander that looks great on quilted items like zipper pouches, bags and placemats. The design is not too complex, believe me! There is a lot of randomness, that you can use to your advantage. Plus some horizontal guidelines will help you keep it all straight.

The design fits themes like hiking, traveling, geocaching, puzzles, a greek meander and geometry. This angular FMQ design can be executed freehand or with a ruler if you prefer more straight ...

The youngest member of our family clan is really into animals, especially if they make a lot of noise. The lions and bears have been recently joined by dinosaurs. Whhraaahhh!

The last three designs I shared were either dense background designs or grid patterns. It is time for an edge to edge, don’t you think? Meet the design Dino Eggs. (Dinosaurs’ eggs wouldn’t have made a lot of noise, so I think we are safe to use them on our quilts! read more

You know how much I like using slightly different thread colors in my quilts, but for this FMQ design I absolutely recommend using a thread that blends with the fabric as much as possible. It is all about the texture!

The design Knitwear doesn’t really mimic any type of knitwear of knitting specifically, but it borrows the rhythmic sequence of arches. If you wanted the quilting to resemble knitting, the arches / ogee shapes would need to line up, instead of jumping up and down.

This design will look great on quilts with themes like winter, autumn, ‘sweater weather’, snow ...

I love me some dense pebbles, but they can become a bit repetitive. Often I use small pebbles to fill in between other bigger shapes, but pebble variations can be stunning by themselves.

This weeks’s design is a background filler design made out of circles in various sizes. The largest circle is about as big as the circle you can make with your fingers, when your index finger touches your thumb. Smaller circles are used to fill in the spaces in between.

This freemotion pattern will look great on quilts with themes like soap, soap bubbles, washing, cleaning, bathtub ...

Do you have enough options for freemotion designs with hearts? Or would you like to see one more?

The grid design Hearts Lattice resembles a balcony railing.  Haven’t we all looked at the various designs of the metal railings and tried to figure out how to use the designs on a quilt?

This pattern is based on curls (each other’s mirror images) that create heart shapes when placed next to each other. This freemotion pattern will look great on quilts with themes like love, Valentine’s Day, friendship, sweethearts, wedding, engagement and off course Romeo & Juliet by Shakespeare ...

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 ...