Doodle Lesson-Large Scale Motifs

November 28, 2018


Lori Kennedy, Quilting Doodles  

Good Morning, Quilters and Doodlers!

One of my goals for 2019 is to work larger.  Now that I have a sit-down long arm, the  BERNINA Q20 (more on that later this week), I want to see how my motifs translate to large-scale patterns.

MOVE OVER MOOD BOARD

I have two large framed corkboards in my sewing room.  The boards double as design walls and vision boards.  

In other words, when I am not designing a quilt, they are filled with photos, magazine clippings, fabric swatches, and other inspirations.

Lori Kennedy, Vision Board

This week, I replaced the clippings with a sheet of brown kraft paper.

Lori Kennedy, Quilting Doodles

DOODLING LARGE

To doodle the large version of The Honeycomb, begin with vertical pencil lines two inches apart.

Lori Kennedy, Quilting Doodles

Add the design with a marker.  Stand back from the wall and get your entire arm moving–(that way we can call this exercise!?)

Lori Kennedy, Quilting Doodles

THE SET UP

You don’t need a bulletin board to doodle large–any wall and a little tape will work!

Wrapping paper is a great substitute for kraft paper.  Many rolls have a grid on the back–even better!

A GREAT QUILTING EXERCISE! (My kind of workout!)

Doodling large does two things: 

it helps plan quilt designs and

develop the muscle memory for quilting large-scale motifs.

LET’S GET QUILTING!

I’m going straight to my sewing machine!

What about YOU?

Are YOU ready to doodle?

Are YOU ready to quilt?

We’d LOVE to hear!

Your Quilt Exercise Coach,

Lori LaLane

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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16 comments

  • Gayla Lane

    Hey, youngster! How do you even know about Jack LaLane? Thank you for a nice chuckle. 😊

    • Lynne

      My thoughts exactly. I watched him in my early 20’s and I’m late 70’s now.

  • Bridget Roberts

    Will have to try this I find quilting large very difficult everything goes wonky and my stitches get larger.

  • Cheri

    Gosh, I’m exhausted after so much exercise! Thanks Coach Lori !

  • This was a great post for me. FMG on my domestic machine just doesn’t look good enough for me but I have found that FMQ on a longarm with stitch regulation looks really nice. I tend to quilt large motifs because the quilts are large but I have not tried the honeycomb. I tend to doodle a lot and sometimes I just go for it without practicing on the domestic before renting the longarm. I try to increase the complexity of the quilt design every time I rent and I’ll add this design to my list. Thank you.

  • Carolyn S

    No worries Lori, they transfer quite well to larger sizes on the sitdown machines. Loving the combo designs.

  • Glenda Reece

    Hi Lori,

    I have a quick question, can coat and clark 30 wt thread work for fmq in the top and bobbin? or would you prefer to use Isacord. just wondering. thanks

    • Debbie Wren

      Glenda, I recently quilted a top with coats and Clark 30 wt, used the same in the bobbin. It worked out great. My machine is a Janome 6600. Hope this helps. Debbie

      • Glenda Reece

        my problem is I have a JUKI 2010 (3 yrs) still have problems when moving (larger quilts) when pulling the material towards me, my thread shreds and breaks every time even w/Isacord, so frustrated. just purchased a Janome 8200 QCP, it will arrive next week hope that solves all my problems (2000.00 later) thanks Debbie

  • Lu Ann Hornbeck

    I love this idea! I also really love the random flowers and petal motifs you added. Really spices things up! Thanks for the inspiration!

  • Deborah Gallett

    The large paper is a good idea. I want to quilt larger motifs on my quilts and this will help.

  • Arvilla Trag

    I get giant post-it notes – 2′ x 3′ – from Amazon for work. I also use them for large doodling, too. Nice thing about them is they will stick to the wall without damaging it (unlike some types of tape), and the aspect ratio is close enough to a quilt that I can lay out an entire design on one sheet, at a much larger scale than a notepad. Not terribly expensive, either.

  • Marta

    I misunderstood at first glance. Going “large” seemed to mean a leaf would be 8 or
    12 or even 16 inches big or whatever !! I kept reading and see what you meant.
    Our butcher uses lots of white paper to wrap meat after he has used another thin type paper that wraps the meat. I wash the big paper and iron it and love it to draw on.

  • mommaquilts

    This is quite timely for me. I have a customer quilt to do where she has provided me with a photo of the quilting she wants done! The motifs are ones I’ve done separately but I need to practice the transition areas! I have a roll of newsprint and it will fit the bill wonderfully for my “doodle pad”! I had thought to use my white board to practice but the newsprint will work much better.

  • Joan Mills

    congratulations on your new machine!!! I had a sit down for several years, but found that I am just not strong enough to quilt a king sized quilt on it……! So I have upgraded to a new long arm…… now my goal is to quilt all those large ufos in my cabinet…..but practice for a while will come first. If you did not already, get the extensions for the table, and enjoy that machine. that larger space just makes life so easy……!

  • Chris B.

    I have a pad of graph paper for a flipchart. We use it on a annual quilt retreats and I wanted to hang it to keep it neat. I put two cup hooks on the back of a door. I’m going to try your doodles today. Great idea!
    My friend and I bought a sitdown longarm together. I still FMQ on my regular sewing machine, but it is a lot easier on the big one. I can see how big doodles would translate easily.

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