Happy Blossoms-A Free Motion Quilt Tutorial
Good Morning, Quilters! Today is Tuesday!–Free Motion Quilt Tutorial Day! A Holiday in the middle of the week!
Today, we are working on a background filler–a stipple banishing–background filler. (Those who have followed for some time know that my goal is to BAN THE STIPPLE–it’s not pretty, it’s not easy, it’s not necessary…
To this end, I have been offering FREE free motion quilt tutorials every week for more than two years!
Today, we have a pretty little posy for you…The Happy Blossom. Don’t you think some flowers look HAPPY, while other flowers, like roses, seem rather serious? (Perhaps it’s part of my “pareidolia“???)
THE HAPPY BLOSSOM TUTORIAL
This motif could be stitched in a row–in a border, or stitched as a background, all-over, or “fill” pattern.
Because this is a fill pattern, we will not begin with any lines or “rails” as we do in most of the tutorials.
Begin by stitching a curved tail and an open circle.
Next, stitch a loopy petal. Stitch over two small stitches and begin the next petal.
Keep adding petals around the center.
Adding as many petals as necessary to surround the center– four, five or six…
The key to this flower is the small stitches between each petal.
Once the flower is complete, stitch across the stem, and sweep underneath the flower to begin the next flower…PERFECT!
For more interest, add a leaf anywhere along the stem.
Or add a leaf or two between the petals.
When stitching this motif as a background, there are several ways to travel to the next flower. (See above and below…)
It takes practice to stitch background patterns.
Take your time, stop frequently and plan. When you get trapped, simply knot off and start again–like any Happy Blossom would!
Signed,
NOTE-Today’s tutorial is stitched on Robert Kaufman Kona cotton, with Aurifil 28 cotton on top and Aurifil 50 wt in the bobbin using a Schmetz 90 Topstitch needle on my Bernina 150-Quilter’s Edition–(My Bernina 820 is in for a cleaning…) No stitch regulator…
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 share, Pin and tweet with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thank you!
Thanks so much for sharing. You are such an inspiration to us all!
Love this one! Will work well on the border of the quilt I will start quilting today!
I have been following your blog and saving them for about a year now. I agree that stippling is very difficult, especially for a beginner. A lot of sites start out teaching this for beginners – bah. I love how easy it is to follow your instruction and how pretty they always are, I also enjoy the silent Sundays – always learning. I think you are the best instructor on line. I like that you take the time to reply to comments. Other blogs don’t bother to answer questions. You’re the best!!
Thank you, Lori, for all your posts. They have been a great help to me.
Not a fan of stippling, either. Tried it only once. Much prefer your delightful motifs/patterns! Thanks for this one. It looks simple, fresh, and will be perfect
on the quilt I have just untaped from the floor.
I love your goal of banishing the stipple…I never could do that but all of these make it so much easier to quilt! Love this new one….can’t wait to see what else you’ve got up your sleeve…so to speak!
I can not begin to thank you enough for these tutorials! I look at a piece of fabric ad my mind goes totally blank! I keep your blog front and foremost on my computer for the help you give. Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!
Beautiful. Thank you so much.
LOVE!!!! This is my all time favorite! So pretty and fast and unstippley! I might need a little help with the size of my flowers being uniform..already had an idea…you’ll need a specialty template better known as a canning jar ring here! LOL! Thanks…this is my new go to. :)!
This is the one I’ve been waiting for! Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and your talent, truly inspiring. I will be using this for an all over design for a quilt for my sister. Thanks so much! Hugs!!
So appropriately titled!!!!! Lovely motif………………..
Love this — i have a pile of NICU blankets (about the size of your vase quilts) — was splicing batting for them yesterday — surely ONE of them could use this motif! LOL
Bea…if you don’t mind me asking what size are the blankets and are there other stipulations for the nicu blankets?
I think I’m going to use this on the chevron quilt I am working on for my granddaughter. Need to practice first.
Thanks for another great design! I don’t like stippling because it flattens your quilt. You are providing a wonderful alternative.
Thanks for sharing your talent!
Love it!
This is a lovely pattern. It could be stitched with in green thread, and limiting the leaves to three or four for a shamrock quilt, with no other modifications. Thank you for continuing to bring us great ideas for quilting!
makes me happy!!
Hi, my name is Leona and I hate, no, hate is too harsh, really dislike sounds better, stippling. There, I’ve finally admitted it as I never have for fear of offending those who do. Your motifs are lovely, easier than stippling, and so much more artistic than a bunch of scribbling on a beautifully made quilt. Thanks, your tutorials are so inspiring!
Music to my ears, Leona! I HATE stippling–there, I’ve said it for both of us!
Thanks Lori, I am using your design on a rather plain Warm Wishes and love how it is turning out, not perfect but then what is 🙂 http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a209/madchef_/My%20Quilt%20pics/Warm%20wishes%20from%20stash.jpg
Rosemary B here:
Well, I do not like stippling either. unless it is very large, I think it is not attractive
So if you do large stippling, you might as well make it cute and adorable with flowers and leaves and other happy designs
I like these flowers a lot!
I really want to use this on the quilt I’m working on but I need to print the pictures so I can follow at the machine. It appears to be impossible on this site. Lori, is there any way to do this?
Hi Beverly, I don’t know how to print the photos easily…I think the best way to learn the motifs is to copy the step-by-step with your pen…then repeat that several times so you can stitch it! If you can’t doodle it, you can’t stitch it!…That’s what I would recommend.
Thanks lori. I love your designs!
I just found your tutorials, and I can’t thank you enough! I’m fairly new to free-motion quilting and am a little afraid of it, but I really want to be able to quilt my own quilts. Your tutorials are the best I’ve seen, and I’m excited to give them a try. Thank you so much for putting them out on the web.
So happy that my Granddaughter Kaitlyn led me to your site. I always strippled and afraid of fancy free motion….but your tutorials are wonderful, opening an exciting New beginning for me. Sooooo practice,practice, practice. Thank you Lori. Lois
THANK YOU – I am so happy to find a pattern to use instead of the puzzle or loopty loo stitches on all my quilts, so boring. Thus I was searching for inspiration and landed on your gold mine. Thank you so much for these blessed tutorials! Oh happy sewing:)
Just found you the other day. I love your doodling and beautiful instructions. I’ve been sewing all my long life, though I have recently found FMQing. Im eager to learn.
Just found you – appreciate your lessons so much! Pictures of samples VERY easy to learn from.. Your clear tips (like, “the key to happy flowers is little stitches between petals”) – these details set apart the quality of your lessons!
For the first time (tho I’ve been sewing all my life) I believe I can achieve beginning FMQ on my quilts, and I can get past table runners stitched in ditch. Yay!
Wow, I have been sitting here for about 2 hours playing with your designs! Completely lost track of time. They are so sweet and I haven’t seen a lot of them anywhere else. Thank you very much.
Enjoy!!
I just came across this in my increasingly desperate search for an overall stitch that isn’t stipple. This is perfect. It should soften the angles of the disappearing nine-patch quilt I’m making for my granddaughter. Thank you so much!
So welcome!