Instead of Stippling….Try This!

June 15, 2017
Blue Flowers, FMQ

Blue Flowers, FMQGood Morning, Quilters!

Are you tired of stippling or meandering?

Or–are you like me–and find stippling difficult to motor plan?

Try stitching straight line fills between motifs!

In this little quilt, I used the same thread (40 wt Sulky Rayon) to stitch the flowers and the background fill.   You could stitch the background using a finer weight thread like Sulky’s Poly Deco or Superior MicroQuilter.

Blue Flowers, FMQ

Make a quick sample to see which effect you prefer!

I’m gardening this week–have to soak up all the summer I can!

#MinnesotaSummerstooshort

Hope YOU are in YOUR garden today!

Lori

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!Dandelion Quilt

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20 comments

  • Thank you for this great idea, I’ll adopt it and apply them to my borders with flower, heart, leaf…, etc., whatever come to my mind. Thanks again.

  • Phyllis

    Love how those straight lines really make the flowers pop! Will use that on the one I’m free motion now since I was puzzled what to do next.

  • Pat Evans

    Well I just have to come to the defense of stippling and meandering. It also takes practice, but once you “get” it, you just do it without too much thought. I love your motifs and have your book and have expanded my repetoire with your designs, but some of them take a lot of thinking. When quilting actual projects with busy prints and designs, a gentle meander can be the right solution. Intricate design elements would be lost. I have incorporated many of your motifs in areas where they will show, but I’ll keep meandering, too.
    Thanks for all your inspiration.

    • WordPress.com Support

      I think it is good to have options. Meander on!

  • Very nice! Love the inspiration.

  • That is such a pretty motif- I love how the heavy quilting makes the flowers pop!
    Happy summer!

  • Marilyn

    Love the idea. It looks great with the flowers. Trying to work in my garden but here in northern Ontario all I am doing is donating blood to the blackflies!

  • Marta

    Love this technique.. thanks for alternate pretty effect.!

  • Thanks for keeping on, “keeping on”, inspiring us daily with new “I can do it” ideas.

  • MARJORIE

    Thank you, I greatly enjoy your blog, books, and classes. You have greatly inspired me in FMQ and I just love the challenges. Please keep on with all those great ideas and tips.

  • Lesley M.

    Love your little stitchouts, such great instruction and ideas. I have difficulty with my stitch length and was just wondering how to get such even length. Do you have a stitch regulator on your machine or does this come from years of practise?

    • WordPress.com Support

      Stitch regulators are great but I have never used one. Just hours of practice!

  • I like to stipple sometimes. I find it quite meditative. However, I also love lots of other quilting textures, and I think your straight line stitching is absolutely brilliant against the curved flower motif. The contrast is fascinating and effective – I’m definitely adding this to my list of quilting to try. Thanks for yet another great idea!

  • Vivian Bringslimark

    I like this look and think I could stitch these lines. I like how there is visually somewhere to go and it has boundaries for me to stay within the lines. The trouble opi have with stipling is that l don’t know where to go next. This adaptation makes it pretty organized but still leaves some room for creativity. Thank you for sharing! Your work is so nice. It inspires me to continue with my thousand hours of FMQ practice.

    • Marta

      You said it ! Where to go next? I learned years ago I didn’t like stippling for that reason and because it distracted my eyes from main features of the design.
      A lady told me I was “overthinking it”…to just sew away…HA! Nope, that will grab a finger or so. I did that only once. Husband had to come raise the presser foot out of my finger. Thank you, Lord, it was only flesh and not the bone as some have suffered. I saw a line in a newspaper article about texting and driving.. Author said, “Safety has always been in style.”

      • Phyllis

        Overthinking can do damage can’t it. Oh that hurt my finger also to read it!! “Safety has always been in style.” is a good one if only everyone would take heed!

  • I hadn’t thought of straight lines before. That looks nice. I am still practicing my doodles on the fabulous flower. I don’t have enough confidence yet to actually put it on my table runner. LOL

    • WordPress.com Support

      You can do it! Doodle it for awhile then try stitching it. Then back to doodling.

  • I LUV to micro stipple!!! Having said that, your thoughts on something a tad different for the background is a good one. FMQ is a texture study in contrasts……..a principle that must be in place or the focus design/piecing will not stand out; so any stitch pattern that’s in contrast to the adjoining one will make one, or the other, “pop”. Excellent post!

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