Tag: Free Motion Quilting

Add some sweetness with Ribbon Candy

I thought long and hard about what to quilt in the larger triangles on my Orange and Green Charity Quilt.

In the end, I decided that curves…..specifically “Ribbon Candy” curves were the way to go……

And, in the end, they were perfect…..

…and did a magnificent job of drawing your eye to the “Square Spiral” design….

I am also excited about the secondary design that is formed when the corners meet….

We’re getting close to finishing the Orange and Green Charity quilt! Who knew that it would provide so much fun with machine quilting?

Come back next Friday as we tackle the borders!!

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For Free-Motion Quilting ideas, be sure to check out my YouTube channel…… https://www.youtube.com/c/francesquilts/videos

FIVE DOTS!!

Last Friday we laid down 21 dots and quilted this fun design…..

Today we are going to make it even easier….. FIVE dots, and great design!!

I do like how this design fits into the 4-inch squares and will definitely plan to use it again…..

Now the question is… “What else can we do with this charity quilt??”

Come back next week to find out!!

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If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..

Click HERE for more information

Quilting an Irish Chain

Ever since I quilted my “Windmill Chain”….

I have been on the lookout for other quilting designs for Irish Chain Blocks.

I saw this version on Facebook and HAD to know more…..

The quilter is Carla Wilson-Neff and her Irish Chain quilt is called “Skittles”…

“Skittles” by Carla Wilson-Neff

Isn’t that the PERFECT name!!

When I asked about her quilting journey, she said…..

I am fairly new to quilting.

I ordered in a sewing machine in late 2020 to make masks for my husband and me (and a few friends). My seams were pretty horrible as I had never used a sewing machine before, so I decided to make a quilt to practice.

Turns out that I LOVE quilting!

We invested in a longarm in February of 2022. I have arthritis in my hands so it can be quite painful for me to quilt on a domestic machine. The longarm allows me to continue exploring the world of quilting.

I have taken some online quilting classes with Bethanne Nemish… love her teaching style and her amazing quilting!

I am learning to slow down my process when it comes to quilting. I used to just start. Now I think a bit about how I want the quilt to look when it is finished… what I am confident about stitching and what needs practice…. how do I want to break up the space on a quilt?… what will be the final use for the quilt.

The quilt tells me what it needs.

And yes… trying out cool patterns I find as I scroll social media. Some things click for me and some don’t.

Talking about quilting “Skittles”….

For this quilt, I wanted the Irish Chain pattern to pop… so I quilted close set lines in the white squares of the 9 patch block to flatten those areas.

In the neutral block, I wanted to practice a flower from the online botanical quilting class I just finished in December. It was time consuming because I broke thread to stitch the inner square in each block…. a fairly simple flower inside the square.

I stitched “C” curls for the inner white border, simple 1/4 inch lines to quilt the piano key border- to pop them up.

My longarm is a 20 inch Amara. I do ruler work and free motion quilting. I do not have a ProStitcher.

The only thing I can say here is WOW!!

One thing really stuck out to me…..

…slow down the process of quilting!! Take time to figure out what I want the quilt to look like BEFORE I start!!

Thank you, Carla for sharing your thoughts, your process and THIS AMAZING QUILT!!

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