A New Leaf-A Machine Quilting Tutorial

May 9, 2018
Lori Kennedy, Machine quilting,

New Leaf, Quilt Tutorial, Lori KennedyGood Morning, Quilters!

Where does the time go?  Is it already Wednesday?  Did I sleep through Tuesday?

I just ran out of hours!

(or more likely, out of energy…sigh…)

This week our “Tuesday Tutorial is a “Wednesday Tutorial”!

I think you will find it worth the wait!

But one more thing before we get started…

Have YOU heard of Craftsy Unlimited!?  It’s a subscription to Craftsy…

They are offereing  UNLIMITED CRAFTSY FOR FREE!  

Seven days of UNLIMITED watching for FREE!  Use my affiliate link to take advantage of this great deal!

This is a great opportunity to check out all three of my videos and try something you might not otherwise…

Who needs to sleep????

The Basic Leaf Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

A NEW LEAF MACHINE QUILTING TUTORIAL

The New Leaf gets its name because it is a variation of an old favorite, The Basic Leaf.

I was stitching the Basic Leaf recently and discovered a simpler way to create this beautiful motif.

To mix it up a bit, we will overlap the leaves as a background fill motif, though you could use as a border motif as well.

Begin by stitching a tapered scallop.  (One of the Six Essential Doodles found in my new book!)New Leaf, Quilt Tutorial, Lori Kennedy

Add a mirror-image tapered scallop, leaving a small opening at the bottom.

New Leaf, Quilt Tutorial, Lori Kennedy

Next stitch a line through the center of the leaf.

New Leaf, Quilt Tutorial, Lori Kennedy

Now here is where we change it up…In the Basic Leaf, we stitched the veins on the right side of the leaf then the left side.  I discovered it was much easier to to bounce back and forth from right to left.

Begin by stitching from the centerline to the right side of the leaf, then back to the centerline.

Stitch from the centerline to the left side and back…

The New Leaf, Machine Quilting Tutorial, Lori Kennedy

 

Continue to alternate-right and left to fill the leaf.

New Leaf, Machine Quilting, Lori KennedyStitch through the gap at the bottom.

New Leaf, Machine Quilting, Lori Kennedy

Echo stitch the leaf to begin a new leaf anywhere on the edge to create a NEW LEAF!

Lori Kennedy, Machine quilting,

Lori Kennedy, Machine quilting,

Lovely!

What about YOU?

Have YOU found a faster or better way to do something lately?

Have YOU turned over a New Leaf?

Do YOU ever feel like you’ve slept through a day? (or a year?)

We’d LOVE to hear!

YOUR Friend,

Rip-van-Kennedy

zzzzz

PS…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!

 

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25 comments

  • Philippa Naylor does her feathers this way lots of times, too – so much easier than backtracking! Love it. Thanks, Lori!

    • A

      Backtracking doesn’t look nice when you are using heavy threads…the double stitching looks messy!

  • To me life is not a box of chocolates; it is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end the faster it goes. Yes, I seem to have missed days sometimes. I have to recall what I did yesterday and the day before to get re-aligned.

    • A

      LOLOL! I can relate!

      • Arvilla Trag

        The other part about the toilet paper analogy – as you get closer to the end, you accept less crap.

  • Arvilla Trag

    Great leaves, and I have the perfect quilt in the queue for them. As far as a way to do things faster – quilt clips. I find when I am matching seams the clips give me better accuracy than pins (the insertion of which can cause fabric shift). Better accuracy = less ripping out = getting things done quicker. The packages of 10 or 12 clips are super expensive, but you can get perfectly good ones on Amazon, 100 to a box for about $12. There is even a large size available.

    For quilt backing, I use jumbo binder clips to stretch my backing and keep it in place on the table. When the backing is a directional pattern, I put chalk reference marks on it and the quilt top to make sure I line it up straight.

    • A

      Arvilla, thanks for the tip. Heading over to Amazon right now to search for those clips!

      • Arvilla Trag

        MumCraft Multipurpose Sewing Clips with Tin Box Package, Assorted Colors, Pack of 100. $8.99. one and a half boxes holds the binding on a queen size quilt for the price of 12 Clover clips.

  • dezertsuz

    I really like the way these come together in a bunch. I suspect it would take me a lot of practice, but it would be worth it.

  • Sheri Lewis

    Thank you Lori, you are such an inspiration!

  • Beautiful leaf motif. Great tutorial. Thank you. Makes me think of Hawaii.

  • Wilma

    Beautifully done!!! Thank you for sharing your technique.

  • Elizabeth

    How beautiful! I love how easily the line travels. Saving this one for sure! Thank you

  • Rosemaryflower

    Cute!! I love bouncing???? I am gonna try it

  • When I first looked at this leaf, I thought to myself, look at how perfect her backtracking is along the vein…. But when you explained the method I thought now everyone will think my backtracking is perfect too!

  • Rita Long

    I love this design.

  • boe77

    I think this design would work well as a background when you need micro quilting in an area.

  • Lorraine Doyno Evans

    Love the leaf! For 7 day Unlimited Craftsy free, do you have to give credit card and then cancel before they bill you for the month or year?

  • Becky Shaffer

    Ooo! I really like the look of this new method! Can’t wait ti try it! I can easily lose a day playing with a design like this. Thanks, Lori, for another motif to play with.

  • Donna Belisle

    Aa veritable “Sheath of a leaf”. Love that first one.

  • Kelly Ashton

    Love your New Leaf! Time, in general, seems to be passing so very quickly!! Blink! A day gone! Blink! A week…month…year! ????

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