Good Morning, Quilters! Welcome to another addition of Tuesday Tutorials. For more than one year–The Inbox Jaunt has been offering free-free motion quilt tutorials. You can access all the tutorials by clicking the Red Apple on my sidebar or in the “Quilts” tab above. My goal is to get everyone free motion quilting on their domestic sewing machines–it can be done!
There is one thing YOU can do for Me— TELL YOUR QUILTY FRIENDS about us! The more, the merrier.
Last week, I posted a photo of this pattern along with a Free Motion Quilting Dexterity Exercise, and several readers asked for a tutorial. So here it is: Flower Power!
FLOWER POWER TUTORIAL
This pattern is a filler or all-over pattern. Use it to fill in large spaces on your next quilt. Or use it as an all over pattern in place of meandering or stippling.
Because this is a fill pattern, there are no “rails“. Start anywhere that is convenient-the middle of the quilt or the corner of the quilt.
Begin by stitching a tail and a 3/4 circle.
Next, stitch petals around the circle…
and more petals down the tail.
Stitch another layer of of petals around the first layer.
Continue adding more layers of petals and then start a new flower by adding a tail and semi-circle and begin the process again.
It does not matter where in the flower you veer off to add the next flower. It can be at the base of your flower–as above, or it can be in the middle of one of the layers-and will depend on where you need to travel as you are stitching. Also, it looks nice if some of the flowers have more layers than others–just like in nature!
It is easy to change the scale of this pattern. If your quilt is large and you are using this as an all-over pattern, scale up the flowers. If your quilt is smaller (like a table runner) or if you want to use the pattern to fill a small section of your quilt, you can make the flowers smaller. Determining the scale of the free motion quilting pattern is both the art and the challenge of free motion quilting.
NOTE-The above quilt was stitched on Kona cotton using Aurifil 50 wt in the bobbin and Robison-Anton Rayon on top, using a Schmetz 90 Topstitch needle on my Bernina 820 (domestic sewing machine–without a BSR)—My most frequently asked questions….
When Mother Nature gives you cold, snow, white, wind…we have to make our own #flowersinwinter!
From my green thumb (on blue skies) to yours,
Lori
PS…If you like these motifs and tips, be sure to check out my book, Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3 or any of my Craftsy Videos!
PPS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!
