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This interesting and simple grid design is based on wide wishbone designs placed on top of each other. It can be used as an allover, or just in a block or border. 

The design will look great on projects with a theme like farm yard animals. Don’t you think it looks like two layers of chicken wire, but then placed at right angles of each other? I can also see this pattern being used on clutch bags with a metallic thread. The grid is so beautiful!

This wishbone-based grid is pretty simple to execute once you have marked a ...

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 ...

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 ...

Are these ducks in a row, safety pins or tulips?

When I first shared this free motion border design in 2020 on Instagram, lots of people responded with what different things they saw in the design. I had originally intended it to look like the head of a duck, but many of you mentioned the shape resembled a safety pin. Some even thought it looked like a tulip.

Is there anybody who recognizes this shape as something different altogether?

This design is a variation on the Wishbone border design. The basic Wishbone is created by a series of loops that ...

Behind the scenes I have been working on something epic! I have created an online free motion quilting course about the designs Ribbon Candy and Wishbone. The course is called Basic to Epic because it explains the classic sashing designs and then lifts them up to something even more decorative and complex.

Even though these two design may be considered basic, they are anything but. Learning the core structure of these designs will help you identify the cause of your wonky lines. You will learn how to tweak the structures to create any other variation.

Even experienced quilters see their ...

This design is a bit of a challenge!

The Wishbone variation Hearts Dance adds a bounce after each second teardrop / loop. This creates a row of dancing hearts. This design is more challenging because you have to ‘count and bounce’ and also because you have to keep the design upright.

This patterns is stitched out pretty narrow in this sample, but in the narrow red sample below, you can see that it looks gorgeous too in a less high border.

The teardrops don’t really have to touch to form a heart, you can space them wider apart.

Play around ...

YAY!

It is finally time to tackle the Ribbon Candy pattern variations!

For those of you who are a bit unsure of what the differences are between a Wishbone and a Ribbon Candy pattern, please bear with me… I will explain!

Ribbon Candy:

• Resembles a type of candy that is ‘gently folded’ like a ribbon. (wikipedia). To me its resembles a ruff in seventeenth century clothing, in Dutch called a ‘Molensteenkraag’ (wikipedia)
• The pattern moves from one direction to another by curving up and down with elegant swooshes.
• The pattern doesn’t need to cross over itself to do so ...

Welcome back for another round of freemotion tutorials! This is the last of the posts dedicated to the WISHBONE pattern variations, but there will be more tutorials, do not worry! I have a whole set of ideas planned out concerning the RIBBON CANDY pattern. Endless possibilities!

Some of you may have noticed that somewhere in the blogposts, I skipped tutorial number 18.  Oops!  So…. here is then; an elegant curl variation. You backtrack a little bit in this variation to add the little curl inside of the loop. Click on this LINK to be directed to YouTube for the animated ...

Hello again to you all!

This is 6th installment of this series of Freemotion pattern ideas based on the Wishbone pattern. In this blogpost I am focusing on changing the shape the loops of the Wishbone.

First up for today is this triangular design. The regular round loops are now turned into triangles. I did spruce it up a bit by changing heights. Click on this LINK to be directed to YouTube.

Animated tutorial Wishbone – 019 Egyptian.

While scrolling through Pinterest I encountered an image of a tutorial created by Lori Kennedy based on a the exact same idea of ...

Hello again!

Are you ready for some more wishbone variations?

The last two tutorials (in part 4 of this series) may have been a bit complex for some quilters with all of that mirroring going on. These next two new tutorials will have hearts as well, but not the complexity of the previous patterns.

Two regular wishbone loops and one heart… ready, get set, GO!

Animated tutorial Wishbone Variations 013 – Loving Hearts

You have the option to create the heart shapes as you like them. For me, it really depends on the rhythm of a pattern to do one heart-shape ...

Hello dear quilty friends,

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my previous posts on the series of wishbone variations! It is truly heartwarming to see so many people being enthusiastic about this project of mine. There have been quilters on Facebook who have shared their work inspired by the tutorials… it is just wonderful! If any of you too have tried to create wishbones with one of these tutorials,  please let me know. I would LOVE to see your work!!!

I would like like to share one specific FaceBook group with you that wholeheartedly welcomes quilters who use ...

Happy New Year to you all!

Let’s start these ‘Roaring Twenties’ with some new tutorials based on the Wishbone Quilting pattern with some Ribbon Candy thrown in too.

In the previous post I shared two options of alternating a large and small wishbone. But there are more options, of course!

The first one is really dense and consists of a large, medium and small wishbone being repeated from large to small and back. It may look more structured if you widen the loops. Is there anybody willing to try ?

Tutorial Wishbone Sequence A.

For my taste it is a ...

Hello freemotion quilting friends!

It is time for the second post on the Wishbone and Ribbon Candy pattern variations. Before I give you some more basic options, let’s look at the big difference between Ribbon Candy and Wishbone.

The top drawing is a sketch of Ribbon Candy. The continuous line propels itself without needing to cross over itself.

The bottom drawing is a sketch of Wishbone. The continuous line propels itself by crossing over itself.

Tutorial Ribbon Candy and Wishbone 1

Even though there is no need for crossing itself in the Ribbon Candy pattern, of course you are ...

The most recent freemotion quilting challenge by Angela Walters of Quilting is my Therapy has inspired me to create some new tutorials for you and also design some new freemotion patterns.

In the Facebook Group for Angela’s challenge, many quilters commented they had trouble with the Ribbon Candy pattern and the Wishbone pattern. I saw this as an opportunity to help my fellow quilters out with my concept on how to learn to do these patterns. I am now sharing the tutorials with you too.

In the first tutorial below you can see how I learned to grasp the ...