Nikki’s Jigsaw Puzzle-A FMQ Tutorial

January 14, 2014
Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Good Morning, Quilters!  Today I have an extremely fast and fun Free Motion Quilting (or Long Arm Quilting) tutorial for you–Nikki’s Puzzle.  As you might recall, last month I spent some time assisting  Mrs. Schellinger’s Creative Quilting Class at Forest Lake, MN High School.  The girls were indeed very creative–Read more HERE.  One of the students used her new free motion skills to stitch a jigsaw pattern.  I adapted her idea to create this continuous line free motion quilting pattern.  Thanks, Nikki!

Some patterns look easy and are challenging to quilt–like Circles (see tutorial HERE).   Other patterns, like Nikki’s Jigsaw Puzzle, look complicated, but are simple to stitch.  This is a Beginner Free Motion Quilt pattern.  It would look fabulous on any child’s quilt and I think it would look very contemporary on any Modern Quilt.

Nikki’s Jigsaw Puzzle Tutorial

This pattern requires a little quilt marking.  Begin by drawing a grid.  In the samples below, I used one inch spacing between my grid lines.  I used Stencil SCL-457-10 from The Stencil Company.  (Available HERE)  (Note–The Stencil Company is generously offering a giveaway on The Inbox Jaunt–details next week!)

If you don’t have a stencil, simply use your ruler to mark several lines equidistant apart.

Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Turn the stencil, and draw another set of lines perpendicular to the first set of lines.

You now have a grid to follow.  We will be stitching directly ON the grid lines.

Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Begin stitching in one corner.  Stitch along the grid line.  In the middle of each square, stitch a petal shape.  Stitch a few “up” petals and a few “down” petals.  Do this randomly.  It is preferable to avoid a regular pattern of “up and down” petals.

Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Continue stitching the entire row.  Then begin the next row.

Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Stitch all of the parallel rows first.  Then begin the perpendicular columns.

Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

When you get to the end of each row or column, you have a choice:  either knot off at the beginning and end or trace directly over your previous stitching to reach the next column.  Either way looks nice.  Decide which you prefer–lots of knots or double stitching lines.

Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

In the sample below, you can see that some of the edge pieces are a bit darker from double stitching.  If you don’t mind this look, it is much faster than knotting.

Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Give this a quick whirl today… I don’t think you need to doodle this one!  Just go right to your machine! Please let Nikki and me know what you think!

Jigsaw Puzzle Free Motion Quilting TutorialNote:  The above samples were stitched with Aurifil 28/2 (gray spool) in both the bobbin and on top-using a Schmetz Topstitch 80 needle on my Bernina 820.

I would love to see what you create with this pattern!   Please post your photos to Flickr (See sidebar link.)

Pleasantly Puzzled,

Lori

PS…All tutorials, information and images are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only.  Please feel free (in fact, encouraged) to re-blog and Pin with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt.  Please contact me for any other use at lckennedy@hotmail.com.

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