Today’s Topic: How to Quilt a Medallion Whole Cloth Quilt
Welcome to Week Twenty of The Better Machine Quilt-a-long based on my book 25 Days to Better Machine Quilting.
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Good Morning, Quilters!
Today, we are going to create a basic medallion whole cloth quilt. A medallion quilt has a central motif-in this case a filled square–surrounded by several borders.
This project allows us to practice using a stencil as well as travel techniques-as well as other techniques we’ve learned so far such as marking, starching the backing, creating a quilt sandwich.
Create a Quilt Sandwich
Begin with your favorite color solid fabric on top.
Layer it with a batting you’ve never tried before.
Add a backing fabric.
Baste the layers by pressing, or try spray or pin basting.
Spray starch and press the backing fabric, if you found it helped the quilt glide better while stitching.
Mark the Quilt Top
Mark a square in the center of the fabric. I recommend marking an 8 inch square, but smaller or larger will work. (Use any square ruler you have to make it easy!)
Fill the square with a one inch grid. Use a stencil if available, or a ruler.
(When drawing straight lines, I love the Clover Chalk Wheel-white only.)
Add a 1/2 inch border around the center square and a 5 inch border around the small border.
Set Up Your Machine
Gentle reminder (as in, note to self)–when is the last time you cleaned your machine and/or changed the needle?
Prepare your machine for free motion quilting with a heavy weight thread on top and a lightweight thread in the bobbin.
Quilt the Grid
Fill the grid with your favorite grid motif. Some of my favorites are
Orange Peel (Woven Cross Hatch)
Stitch the Borders
NOTE-In the purple quilt above, I used a machine guided technique (feed dogs engaged, regular stitching foot) to stitch the borders. In the blue quilt below, I free motion stitched a double zig zag to create the borders. Choose your favorite option.
Stitch a slightly wavy line around the border surrounding the grid. Closely echo stitch this line.
Knot off to travel.
Stitch the line 1/2 inch away. Stitch a wavy line and closely echo stitch the line.
Knot off to travel.
Stitch a wavy line around the outer border and add echostitching.
Knot off to travel.
Fill the Large Border
Fill the large border with your favorite fill design.
Flower Power and Starry Night are two of my favorites.
Travel While Stitching
This small area will probably afford several “opportunities” for travel stitching. (Review Travel Stitching for Machine Quilters HERE).
Try echo stitching, retracing and adding a loopy line, but force yourself to avoid knotting off.
Work in Series
After you create the first medallion quilt, create a second and a third quilt. Replace the grid motif with another grid pattern and fill the wide border with a new motif. Try a new thread or batting.
Or add a wide border to a pieced block in your collection and stitch a grid over it with a Flower Power border.
Of course, the options are endless!
What About YOU?
Were YOU able to travel without knotting off?
How does echo stitching effect the overall look of your quilting?
Did you try retracing? Do you think thread weight affects the look of retracing?
We’d LOVE to hear!
YOUR Travel Agent of Quilting,
Lori
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy Quilts and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to LKQ. For all other purposes, please contact me at Lori@LoriKennedyQuilts.com. Thank you!
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