How to Ruin a Quilt with Stippling

77 responses to “How to Ruin a Quilt with Stippling”

1. Hi Lori, I’m a day behind, but I wanted to chime in on this. My first FMQ experience was all meandering and with lots of practice I became in expert in that, then I learned FMQ feathers, then discovered your blog with its rich array of FMQ designs. I still love meandering for overall quilting on busy prints when I need to get something done fast or where all my time and efforts won’t really show. But for solid (or mostly solid) fabrics and negative space, your tutorials have opened a new world of options for my FMQ work and have inspired some really fun quilting for me. What I really love is when you show how you tie designs together to create a piece of FMQ artwork, like your mystery quilt-a-longs, or table-topper/vase quilts, or even the “Meander No More” piece pictured on today’s blog. So, all this to say meandering does have a place in my FMQ skills but continuing to add all sorts of pictorial, linear, and fill designs helps keep me excited about quilting and gives me more options as I improve my skills. Thanks for the daily dose of inspiration!

2. I have used stippling and meandering for many years, usually in combination with other motifs. It is, as others have said, a fast all over pattern and great for busy fabrics or where a quilt will be heavily used. It was the first free motion design I learnt and I never has a problem doing it.. After hearing other quilters describing their frustrations learning stippling I thought about why it is easy for me. I realised it is the same design sometimes used in cake decorating, known as cornelli work, which I often used when I decorated cakes a long time ago. The pattern was already in my brain. Shows the importance of doodling and practice.

   1. Perhaps we should all take up cake decorating!

3. I definately agree with you that non-meandering motifs enhances the quilt. I think many people default to meandering because you don’t have to think about what you are going to do in each square or border and it is relatively quick. I’ve been following you for about 2 yrs now and even with the doodling and tutorials I find it hard on my own what to decide on. If I am duplicating exactly I am fine, but coming up with something myself, I am very indecisive or it just doesn’t come to me. I’ve resorted to pinning everything I like for FMQ in Pininterest!!!

   1. It is hard to make that leap–and I think it only comes by doing many quilts. Everyone is indecisive–until they are forced to be decisive. Sometimes a deadline is helpful. I love Pinterest, too!

4. I’m in the “stippling/meandering has it’s place and is a good tool in our box camp”. I will continue to happily use it when and where I think it’s appropriate on a quilt. When done properly, it can be the perfect quilting to complement a quilt top. That said, I have see it used when something more custom would have been a much better choice. It’s not right for every quilt. The thing that I am disliking the most, and getting tired of seeing is over quilting something. So many pretty quilts are just quilted to death and I think that “ruins” a quilt just as much as some think stippling does. Just because you can put quilting stitching in every little space of fabric in a quilt doesn’t mean you should. Just my opinion. 🙂 But, if that is what someone else likes, and that is how they want their quilt, then they should do that regardless of how those of us that don’t like that style think. Just because I personally don’t care for over quilting doesn’t make it wrong for everyone. As long as the quilting is nicely done, it all comes down to personal preference and there’s plenty of room in the quilting world for all types and styles of quilting. 🙂

   1. I agree with you wholeheartedly! Many of the quilts I see, I also think are overquilted. I agree with Lori that the quilting should complement the design.

5. I thought for a long time before I finally decided to comment. I had plenty of time to think as I meandered away on my current quilt. 🙂
   I decided in January 2015 that I was going o make all 5 of my grandkids a quilt for Christmas. I had not made a quilt in at least 15 years, and I had never machine quilted. I was searching for tutorials on FMQ and stumbled upon your blog. Your beautiful FMQ designs just amazed me! They gave me the courage to attempt something besides straight line quilting. I finished my 5 Queen sized quilts – three of them had no stippling. Then I made a chevron with every other row done in stippling and all the other rows had straight line stitching. The last quilt was a Dr Who quilt. I didn’t want the quilting to stand out. I had spent so much time on the blocks and I wanted them to be the focal point not the quilting. So I stipple quilted the entire quilt. It was perfect for that quilt.
   This year I have learned to quilt feathers. I quilted feathers on the blocks made with solid fabric and stippled the printed fabric sections. Thats how I’m quilting my current quilt. The feathered quilting is the focus – the stippling gives the printed fabric some texture without taking focus off the feathers.
   I worry every time I quilt that I will ruin my quilt top – but I have never worried about the stippling ruining it. I guess my point is that stippling has its place in my quilting. I love your quilting designs, and if I ever make a quilt out of all solid fabrics you can bet I’ll be doodling away some of your beautiful designs. But I am mostly making queen or king sized quilts and all of them have more printed fabric than solid. For me a mix of custom quilting and stippling is an easy, beautiful way to add texture without taking the focus off the custom quilting.
   I’m still a fan – I purchased and loved both of your craftsy classes. Just a little disappointed at the bash on stippling.

   1. It sounds like you have a plan for how and when you use your stippling-you mix it with other motifs and that sounds lovely! I agree that there is a place for stippling when it is thoughtfully used. Thank you for writing- I am sure your quilts are beautiful and well-loved! I’m not trying to be a bully–just trying to encourage quilters to be thoughtful in their quilt choice.

6. I think it is beyond rude to suggest that meandering and stippling ruin a quilt. It is ALL a matter of personal taste and to suggest your personal taste is more valid than mine by having a whole tirade against meandering is inexcusable. Just because I detest the look of featherquilting doesn’t give me any license to suggest that it isn’t appropriate to finish a quilt that way.

   1. Wow… this comes across as so defensive. It’s lori’s blog, and as such I believe she is entitled to her opinion. That’s it, an opinion. No one held a gun to your head and made you read it, right? I love to quilt, but seriously dial it back a bit. It’s not like anyone said you couldn’t stipple! Stipple, meander, whatever. Quilting is supposed to be a happy place.

      1. Thanks!

   2. Please read the entire post!