This piece of sashiko is going to be the "Japan" part of my 2010 holiday set of journal quilts. I've done "Singapore" and "North Island, New Zealand" which you can see in progress by clicking on those two places. The project will also include the miniature "Storm at Sea" quilt that I started at the Timaru Quilters' Gathering. I stitched this using Susan Fletcher's method of applying the design with vilene on the back of the work, as we did with her "Dragonfly Over Diamond Waves" tutorial. The journal quilt is very much in the style of Sylvia Pippen, with the flowers appliqued onto the panel after fussy-cutting them from some Japanese fabric. I wanted to use flowers to represent the wonderful plants and colour we enjoyed in Tokyo (even though we missed the cherry blossom). Here is a picture of the azaleas in bloom at the Nezu shrine.
Here are all the photos from the Free Motion Quilting Project published so far!
If you’ll remember back a few days ago we were all challenged a bit by the Greek Key design. Now,...
My quilt guild has a program called Kitsap Cuddles. Members donate baby quilts that are given to at risk babies and toddlers at our local hospital.
Find a detailed quilting tutorial on Flowing Glass, a fun beginner level quilting desgin created by Leah Day. Find a video to guide you as well!
Improve your free motion quilting skills with these 3 key elements to successful FMQ! See what you have to practice most...
#1: A darning foot. The entry ticket into this quilting party is a darning foot, sometimes called a free motion foot. This is a darning fo...
I am delighted to have Patsy Thompson as our December FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge. Whe...
Free Motion Quilting Tips
Free motion quilting sampler block using quilt as you go technique. Post series include tutorials on how to free motion quilt and assembling quilt as you go
I love bump-bump feathers. I have practiced many different styles, but for traditional looking feathers these are my absolute favorite. I ...
Do you see what I just did there, breezily claiming that I'll be posting about FMQ once a week? I love establishing grandiose plans just to ...
Hey there! Are you ready for another Sunday Stitches tutorial? I thought it would be fun today to share how-to machine quilt this Spinning X quilt block. I had a lot of fun machine quilting a few of t
Get fun free motion quilting tips including how to write a word or phrase or even sign your next quilt using free motion quilting.
I was thinking about what I can do to help all the beginners who are just taking up free-motion quilting right now. I decided to share a design that I often get new quilters trying in their first clas
How to Free Motion Quilt Series. Basic motion and thread tensioning. With video
HOUSTON, TEXAS Isn’t this a beautiful convention center? We are fortunate to have such a lovely place to celebrate Quilting and the amazingly talented and creative folks that design and make the c…
Free motion quilting with rulers on domestic sewing machine. Week 3 in a series.
Its been awhile since I've shared client quilts, and I have quite a few for you to enjoy. Here are some of my favorites. - Bridget - It was so fun to take this basic pinwheel baby quilt and add lots of detail and textures. The fabrics are so soft and sweet. Love this! Inside the pinwheels I wanted to quilt some petal like designs, which are topped of by adding the line with the three dots. Inspired by another machine quilter. On the back those lines and dots form a chain on point. One of the great parts of quilting is seeing how the design comes together, especially on the back. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the back anymore. I used a cream thread and an 8020 batting on this quilt. I love how the light catches the textures. I finished it off with a free hand back and forth rope design in the inner border and a loose swirl on the outer border. - Jane - After I pinned on Jane's quilt on the machine canvas...before even starting to quilt, I posted a picture on instagram...it was instaloved instantly. Her fabric choices and colors were spot on. Jane's request was lots of detail. As I look at each quilt, I try to figure out something that will enhance the fabrics and blocks...the background was begging to have these oval uneven stone like pebbling everywhere. Yes, on a quilt this size it takes awhile, but it was so work it. The "Spin Cycle" blocks just pop! I also wanted to detail the points and add something to keep it cohesive throughout the quilt. And, it was sure fun to do. The finished result is...perfect...or at least I think so, this is why its one of my favorites. Love how the light enhances the fabrics and quilting. I used a tan perma core thread and an 8020 batting. - Jean - Isn't this quilt amazing?!?!?! I has specific instructions to add a ton of detail to this quilt. The wool batting that Jean provided allows the quilting to pop and prevents the quilt from being stiff. Love the wool!! The hours that this took to even decide what to do were long, and I'd show you my drawing but its not too great...so I'll stick with these pictures. Enjoy! Its quilted with a cream perma core 30 tex thread. Here is a close up of one of the blocks. Do you see the block inside the block?? Yeah, amazing! When figuring out a detailed pattern, I try to use some of the same quilting designs in different parts of the blocks to tie whole design together. You can see that here, with the two blocks together. Love this! The borders. Here are a couple pictures of the back...love to see all that detail together. - Jeanette - This was a fun little wall hanging to quilt. This was Jeanette's first quilt, and she did an awesome job! I wanted to crackle the background to give it some texture, because there is so much wide open space. Then, I added a swirl and feather design to the tree to give it a fancy look. One of my most favorite parts though is this wood grain trunk. I used coordinating thread colors and 8020 batting. -Jeanne- This was another instahit on instagram. By pebbling the background it made the circles and how they are quilted pop. A side view. I used 8020 batting and a white perma core thread throughout. - Jen - Jen made this quilt for her lucky son! To keep it masculine I wanted to add all the lines. The lines in the grey add extra dimension to the chevron. And, who doesn't love this color combo! I used an 8020 batting, grey and cream perma core thread. - Karen - This quilt is made up of a simple quilt block, and was begging for some detail. Thankfully the block allowed this orange peel design to dress it up. I used a 8020 batting, and a cream perma core thread. - LaReen - LaReen made this gorgeous table topper out of one of my favorites fabric lines. She gave it to her mom for Christmas lucky, huh! I wanted to do something simple in the background that would enhance the star. Also, something fancy in the red border to dress up all that space. It turned out lovely. When a client gets their quilt or topper back and says now they need to make one for themselves, its quite a compliment. Thanks, LaReen! I used a 8020 batting and coordinating threads. - Lisa - This was another instahit! Can you believe all of these 1" squares...its king size and there is no border, which means there are 10,368 squares. This is an amazing one! Lisa asked for simple cross hatching, and I love it! 8020 batting and a cream perma core thread was used. This gorgeous spool quilt is one that I think Lisa made with a guild. I saw a few other of my clients names signed next to their spool. I wanted to add some detail to the spool to make them stand out, so I just did a simple echo line outside of each spool in the background. Look at all of that amazing hand embroidered wool work. Lisa, you are amazing! I wanted to add something that would make the wool pop and would dress up the background and open space, this all over swirl feather design does that. 8020 batting was used, with a cream perma core thread. Lisa made this for one of her lucky friends, for her birthday. The colors and fabric choices, make this one of my favorites. Because this quilt has minky on the back I needed to do a loose all over design in the center. This one is super fun to do, and I can add just about anything to it. I thought crackle quilting would enhance the appliques that Lisa did. Love those stems and flowers. 8020 batting was used and coordinating threads. - Maho - Maho always makes amazing quilts and does a fabulous job each time. This is a perfect example, normally I cringe inside when someone brings a quilt with really large borders (because they grow and ripple out of control) , especially when the inside is pieced on the bias...but not Maho! She is excellent at cutting and sewing exactly! Thanks, Maho! This is a quilt that she made for her daughter. She wanted some detail...So, I did an all over pattern in the background...which was the easiest way to get around the ric rac. I thought the lines and feathers would add great texture to the chickens. This quilt is amazing!!! The light catching all the details. Maho's husband came with her to pick this quilt up and was in awe...I've heard he raves about it to some people that we both know. 8020 batting used and a cream perma core thread. - Sandy - These are called the "Shinning Star", and my mom made these three in a long weekend sewing getaway we had last year. Even though the fabrics are the same for two of them, I'm showing them to you because the quilting is a little different in the backgrounds. This is quilting example number 1. This is one she made for my grandma. A close up of the feathers. This has feathers all over it! This is quilting example number 2. She made this one for my aunt Kris. I quilted a very tiny cross hatch in the inside of the feathered circles. Feathered swirls in the star and feathers in the border. Close up view. This is quilting example number 3. This one my mom made for my sister in-law, Brooke. She is the classiest person that I know, so I wanted to keep it as simple and classy as possible. The background has lines, the star is a feather swirl and the border is also feathered, with a back and forth rope design in the inner border. These soft golds went well with Brooke's Christmas décor. Love the light catching the details. Another view. All three stars I used 8020 batting and coordinating threads. - Wendy - I'm sad I didn't keep more pictures of this quilt! This is the first quilt that Wendy has made, and she gave it to her mom. It turned out gorgeous! Love love love, this fabric line. I do want to show you the quilting though. We talked about adding some details to this border to show off all the piecing that she did while sewing...I love how this one turned out! It even awesome on the back, look below. The quilting on the center of the quilt. This quilting on the backside of the border. Fun to see how the pattern comes together. I used an 8020 batting a cream perma core thread from A&E. Lots of beautiful quilts, huh?!?! Which one is your favorite??? Hopefully I can do this more often, its inspiring for everyone to see all these different unique patterns. Hope you enjoyed this, and happy sewing! ~ leisha
Textile mixed media workshops with British Textile artist Ellie Hipkin, based in Brighton, UK for in-person workshops or online.
During my lectures and workshops, I've had several people ask me how I accomplished curved crosshatching. You can't imagine how very simple it really is. Get ya an arched template and curve away. Right? Right! So, to show you how easy peasy it is, I'm posting pictures of Linda's gorgeous Borders quilt where I did a curved crosshatch in the cream border, and showing you step-by-step how I did this. Linda LaBrot's beautiful Borders Quilt. Pattern is from Winnie Fleming's Borders Class I first wanted to create arches throughout the cream border. Using my favorite purple disappearing ink marker, I used an arch template to mark the double lines to create even arches through the border. I sewed these lines creating the arches. You could easily make this step straight lines as well. I like using double lines because it defines the arches. Now it was time to mark the curved crosshatched lines. Using that fabulous disappearing marker again and the same arch template, I marked the lines following the curve across the arch. Then turned the arch template over and marked the other way. Since the arched template I was using does not have any marked lines, I used a piece of painters tape on the template to mark the width of the crosshatches. Time to sew...Using the same arch template, I quilted the lines. I retraced the original arches and the stitch in the ditch at the bottom so I would not have so many starts and stops within such a small space. And so I put the curve into crosshatching. It really is Easy Peasy! And for your enjoyment, the rest of Linda's stunning Border Quilt. I had a hard time letting this one go back to her. I wanted to keep it.
Today’s filler design is inspired by the very old, very well know Greek Key design so often used in architecture,...
Here are all the photos from the Free Motion Quilting Project published so far!
Free Motion Monday Quilting Adventure: Scroll Flower #1
Villa - Pantograph / E2E © 2014 Patricia E. Ritter and Leisha Farnsworth PAPER: A single row is 14 inches - printed with one row - 144 inches long DIGITAL (computerized quilting systems): Zip file includes: BQM, CQP, DXF, HQF, IQP, PAT, QLI, SSD, TXT, WMF and 4QB or PLT. Most designs also include a DWG, GPF, PDF, PNG and SVG. SELF PRINT: A single row is 10.5 inches - printed with one row - AVAILABLE BY REQUEST ONLY
After talking about the all-over starburst I tried to file it in with my other quilting designs, and it just didn't seem to fit anywhere. T...
All about free-motion machine quilting
Yesterday I shot a video demo for the folks at TopAnchor Quilting Tools. They make these incredible rotating specialty templates for quilting with a long arm. Since I started using and teaching about
Bumpity PAPER longarm quilting pantograph design by Barbara Becker More Details Bumpity longarm quilting pantograph paper roll pattern by Barbara Becker - Four Paws. A single row is 9” wide – printed with one row – 144” long. Click here to go to our main Panto Directory Page. Click here to see more items of interest to machine quilters. Don't know what a "panto" is? Click here to find out what the heck a "panto" is.
Free quilting patterns and designs for you to trace and use for your quilting projects. Ideal for Quilting for Beginners
During my lectures and workshops, I've had several people ask me how I accomplished curved crosshatching. You can't imagine how very simple it really is. Get ya an arched template and curve away. Right? Right! So, to show you how easy peasy it is, I'm posting pictures of Linda's gorgeous Borders quilt where I did a curved crosshatch in the cream border, and showing you step-by-step how I did this. Linda LaBrot's beautiful Borders Quilt. Pattern is from Winnie Fleming's Borders Class I first wanted to create arches throughout the cream border. Using my favorite purple disappearing ink marker, I used an arch template to mark the double lines to create even arches through the border. I sewed these lines creating the arches. You could easily make this step straight lines as well. I like using double lines because it defines the arches. Now it was time to mark the curved crosshatched lines. Using that fabulous disappearing marker again and the same arch template, I marked the lines following the curve across the arch. Then turned the arch template over and marked the other way. Since the arched template I was using does not have any marked lines, I used a piece of painters tape on the template to mark the width of the crosshatches. Time to sew...Using the same arch template, I quilted the lines. I retraced the original arches and the stitch in the ditch at the bottom so I would not have so many starts and stops within such a small space. And so I put the curve into crosshatching. It really is Easy Peasy! And for your enjoyment, the rest of Linda's stunning Border Quilt. I had a hard time letting this one go back to her. I wanted to keep it.
Flourish on the Vine by Kathy Wylie, quilted by Judi Madsen
A simple feather design quilted on soft, washed muslin with wool batt takes on an entirely different look when a metallic thread suddenly makes a surprise appearance! After reading "Mastering Metallics" by Ann Fahl I decided to try out a few threads I had in my thread drawer. Here I used Superior's "Glitter" thread, a flat type very sparkly metallic, and a #80 Jersey needle. I know it is not the type of needle recommended, but it worked so well for me with my YLI Sparkle thread, a silk and metallic blend, that I wanted to see if it would work on something more challenging. I much prefer it to the horribly big spear-like #80 Topstitch needle. It worked beautifully in my machine, a Bernina 730 with a rotary hook. I used #100 silk thread in the bobbin, but could have used a fine cotton like Aurifil #50. Top tension was reduced from default #4 to #2. The thread was on the vertical spindle to keep it nice and taut and flat. There was no looping or twisting or skipping stitches. I used a fairly small stitch, quilted a bit slower than usual, and it worked well. The larger the stitch the more sparkle/glitter you get. But, the larger the stitch, the less puff in the batt, and the design loses its oomph. The background quilting was done with pale yellow #100 YLI silk thread and really sets off the metallic nicely. I think this thread combo has possibilities! Next I am trying YLI Sparkle for a feather design on ecru silk fabric instead of muslin. I'm using a #70 Jersey needle. I'll post my findings later. Below, another photo of the design. The sparkle of the thread is very apparent in real life, not so much in the photos. Sorry about that. What I didn't like about this thread is the lack of smoothness for smaller designs or close echo quilting. Curves were not smooth, and the stitches tended to go off a bit from a straight line. On the back, the silk stitches looked perfect. I think it is an anomaly of this type of flat thread but I didn't like that it made my quilting suffer just a bit. I didn't wobble, the thread did! I would not use this thread for tiny designs or micro fills, froth, or baby pearls. Sometimes it's fun to go off your normal path, and try a new road. I am having some fun making these samples and will keep them around to remind me of possibilities for future projects. I took notes with a Sharpie pen on the back so I can refer to what was used to create each sample. Oliver loved this thread; he let it run through his teeth as I quilted. Yikes. You must know your tools and materials to have success in your quilting. Taming a thread is always a good thing, and knowledge is power. Try something new today, just for fun. Keep quilting! Your work gets better everyday. Diane Happy Halloween from a sleepy Oliver, still in his nightcap.....!
Free motion quilting is still something I get asked about the most. It's so simple, and also so daunting at the same time! I'm DEFINITELY not an expert, and don't look too close at my stitches, but good news....it doesn't have to be perfect, AND it's a great stress reliever! ;) While I was quilting...Read More
Here is a new design I've stitched. People seem drawn to it. It's very simple and gives a nice organic effect. So you start wi...
Here's the front of the wholecloth quilt. Not surprisingly, it's practically the same as the back; just with more colour! I love the texture created in this quilt with all the different quilting patterns, and by leaving just a few acrs deliberately unquilted. Some of the patterns are definite fillers, while others were specifically designed for their space. I tried to use as many patterns as possible, and I remember there are over fifty. I did end up repeating some designs, and others I modified ever-so-slightly, such as changing the direction of the lines. A few of the designs didn't quite go as planned, as almost designed themselves as I quilted. A few of the blocks have segments separated by narrow (about 1/4in) strips (as in the block above) and I enjoyed coming up with different fillers for these, too. This quilt was an amazing was to practice filler patterns! A lot of them I came up with myself, but I also used some from Leah Day's project, and others I adapted from existing designs. Oddly enough, in my doodlings earlier in the year, I'd come up with some designs almost identical to some Leah later showed, such as the coffee beans! It was also a good test (mostly successful) of shrinking designs I'd only before stitched on a larger scale. I'm really pleased with how the feathered corners tie the whole thing together. They were all stitched completely freehand, without any marking. Each 'block' finished at about 7.5in square - not surprisingly, the quilting resulted in a lot of shrinkage in this small quilt! It was challenging to photograph this quilt and get the zing of colour to really show. So on a whim, I took a few photos using the Pop-Art setting on my camera. While it made the orange, in particular, rather flourescent, these photos are in many ways a better representation of what the quilt actually looks like! Just indulge me through the last few photos, trying to show as many designs as possible in a small space... I had been concerned when I started planning this quilt that the colour wouldn't be enough, but I'm very pleased with how it come out. I quilted "EBDQS4" into one section of the border; unless you know it's there, it blends into the rest of the quilting pattern: I'm already planning more wholecloth quilts like this. I do take commissions, so please contact me if you are interested.
Simple and useful tips and tricks from Dara Tomasson for free-motion quilting on your home sewing machine, plus design inspiration and patterns.
sitting with my parents and uncle steve in the kitchen an hour before we leave for the party and i’ve been going through pinterest while we chat. it’s led to this little compilation of …
Explore gfquilts' 1883 photos on Flickr!
