Flower Variations–The Free Motion Quilting Tutorial
Good Morning, Quilters! Thank you to all of you who solved the “Bushel and a Peck” mystery (see more in A Valentine for my Mother…the song is from Guys and Dolls. Also, I really enjoyed last Friday’s discussion about Quilt Labels. I will be changing how I stitch my labels now–into the FMQ and into the bindings. Sad to think we have to be so theft-aware with our quilts!
The Flower Variation Tutorial
A frequent request from readers is more explanation on using the motifs and tutorials in quilts. In today’s tutorial we begin with The Square Flower Tutorial and try stitching it in several variations to fit different quilt shapes.
Many quilts employ The Half Square Triangle. One way to use our Flower design in a Half Square Triangle is to stitch the center of the flower in one of the corners.
The other half of the square could be left with minimal quilting…
Or…another Half Square Flower could be added in the opposite corner…
We can also stitch the center of the flower ON the middle line…
Leave the other half of the square with minimal stitching to emphasize the flower design.
Another common quilt shape is the Quarter Square Triangle…
Our flower could be adapted to fill this pattern as well. Again, a simple outline of the other triangles looks great and emphasizes the Flower Motif.
We can vary the look of The Square Flower by changing the position of the center…
Each flower has a different look.
This adds another dimension to any square.
The next time you have a shape to fill, try the very Variable Flower on your quilt!
NOTE–This tutorial was stitched on my Bernina 820 (without a BSR) using Robison-Anton rayon thread on top and Aurifil 50 wt cotton in the bobbin using a Schmetz 90 Topstitch needle. The squares are 4-1/2inches.
Happy Stitching,
Lori
PS…All tutorials, information and images are property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog and Pin with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For any other purpose please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com….Thanks!
Very cool! Thanks Lori!
AND THAT my friends is why I find myself wishing for more than one Tues. in my week. I would have never moved the center on my own…that is just too cute and very awesome. Thanks for rocking my little square box…how do you come up with this stuff..what inspires you? It’s working whatever it is. 🙂
You are so great to show the designs that you are quilting, I love these square flowers, will have to try them soon, love your blog, thanks for all you do!
Thankyou for that tute Lori, I will post it around! I would love some ideas for filling circle shapes, if you feel like posting some more inspiration!
Circles sound fun! Not something we’ve done before. I’ll do some doodling and try a tutorial…
Brilliant adaptations Lori.
Hi Lori, I’m looking for a fairly simple design to use for a very busy 7″ blocks log cabin quilt that has 144 blocks. I think since there are so many seams that I don’t want it to get stiff with stitching.I bet you have an idea 😉
Hi Theresa, Check out the log cabin I did–it’s the first quilt in my Trunk Show (Top Header under quilts) That pattern worked very well for crossing the seams. If you need help figuring it out, let me know…
Thank you for that idea! I should mention that this is a wedding quilt for my daughter and son-in-law who live and work in West Africa half the year and northern Colorado the other half. So it reflects their life at the ocean, forest and mountains going from blues to greens to browns to blue again for the water. So the wavy motif would be nice. Do you think I should keep it simple because of all the color changes and such?
Simple is always best. Also, look for continuous line designs that go across the seams, so your stitching doesn’t “fall in” the seams.
How about a snowflake filler for hexagons? I’m still stuck in winter for another 2 or more….
Thank you Lori, for these ideas.
How big are the hexagons?
The hexagons are 6-1/2″ from flat side to flat side. Some of the hexagons will be expanded into stars.
Here’s the project.
Let’s try that again… This should be the navy hexagons
Hi Pat, Your Moonshadow quilt is gorgeous. I think the snowflake would look great in the patterned hexagons–it mimics their pattern. In the dark hexes–the stars you might try something like this http://lorikennedyquilts.com/2013/12/06/christmas-giveaway-for-quilters-and-non-quilters/ It is a more elaborate snowflake. (No tutorial, though) If you need help let me know. Your quilt is fabulous and doesn’t need a lot of machine quilting.
Wow! Just brilliantly simple and strong design. Thanks.
You are the best! Thank you for helping us with your fantastic solutions.
Loved this square flower! And what timing. Just finished a quilt and was trying to think up a flower design for the small squares and voila! Thank you so much. Sue
Another awesome quilt motif. And done without the BSR, now I’m really jealous! wow. Love this.
Love the square flower and all the ways you show to do it. Thank you sooooo much for your tutorials.
Great idea and so clever… thanks…
Hugz
Wonderful design. Now I know what to put in those half square triangles! Thanks, Lori.
Amazing quilting. Thanks for sharing, I’ve yet to master the art of FMQ, but will give these a try.
Once again, your lovely stitching has inspired us. Thanks so much!! I learn so much from your blog!!!!
This is really lovely, and looks doable. It’ll be fun to try!
Your work is so beautiful – it inspires me to keep working at fmq! Thanks so much for sharing Lori!
Great design, and it really helps me when you show the quilting in various settings. Thanks.
I like this design , thank you Lori
This is so inventive. One of my favorites of all time.