The Doodle Heart-A Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

February 10, 2015
Free Motion Quilting, Love, Hearts

Free Motion Quilted HeartGood Morning, Quilters!

Just days to go before St. Valentine’s Day…chocolates, roses, love letters, hearts….

This tutorial is called “The Doodle Heart”  because I have been doodling this motif forever..long before I tried quilting!

Doodles make great quilt motifs because they are already hard-wired into our brain…

THE DOODLE HEART TUTORIAL

The Rails

When first learning this motif, you may want to draw a few lines to get the proportions right.

The Doodle Heart is a square motif.  Start with any size square that fits YOUR quilt and then divide it into quadrants.

The full squares in this tutorial are 2 inches by 2 inches and then subdivided into 1 inch quadrants.

Begin stitching on the lower middle line.  Stitch out toward (but not quite touching the outer  right edge.  (The widest part of the heart should be near the midline.) Spiral in-keeping the curve inside the upper right quadrant.

Free Motion Quilted HeartContinue to spiral inward.  If your square is larger than 2″, you may have more spirals…

Free Motion Quilted HeartStop at the center and spiral out again.  Taper to the bottom starting point.

Free Motion Quilted HeartCreate the left side of the heart the same way.  Spiral in and stop.

Free Motion Quilted HeartSpiral out and taper down to the bottom point.  (If you want to add an inner embellishment…stitch it now.)

Free Motion Quilted HeartFrom the bottom point, echo stitch the outer edge of the entire heart.

Free Motion Quilted HeartThe heart should look like this:

NOTE-Add more than one row of echo stitching around the heart to increase the size.

Free Motion Quilted HeartYou may add inner embellishments–a small heart, your initials…

Free Motion Quilted HeartTie off to begin the next heart as I did below or add a connecting loop-de-loop to begin the next heart.

Free Motion Quilted HeartThis motif can be combined in many ways and looks great as a border as well as a full block motif.  Vary The Doodle Heart by changing the proportions–elongate the lower quadrants, or widen the square.

Have fun with this–or Stitch YOUR OWN DOODLE!  We’d love to see it!

Later this week:  My 2015 Valentine Mini Quilt with lots of Doodle Hearts…

Tomorrow:  The MYSTERY…The Picture is Coming Together…

Thursday— “Tension Troubleshooting” article…I hope to have this ready by Thursday???

Happy Stitching,

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, share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt.  For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com.  Thanks!

 

Share:

31 comments

  • Kellie

    Fun! Thanks for the lesson!

  • I saw this featured on Sulky’s facebook page and just had to come check it out. Thanks so much for this tutorial. I’m just learning to fmq so I do appreciate when it’s explained so clearly how to do a particular design.

    • WordPress.com Support

      So glad you came! You might also like “the extra-sweetheart border”. Look for it on the tutorial page. Or put the name in the search bar

  • Beverly

    Love your designs! This was a fun one for Valentines. Tried to save a copy in printfriendly & it came up with a cognitive psychology report instead. Interesting!

  • Rosemarazzle

    Rosemary B here
    Awww Lori. This is so sweet. I absolutely adore this.
    I read every day, but not always comment. The twins (92 year olds) have been keeping me very busy. I have been enjoying your daily lessons and advise
    Thank you for that.

  • Jeannette

    I really love this, Lori! Thanks for another beautiful and well written FMQ tutorial!
    Jeannette

  • donna

    Love your heart tutorial as well as your sense of humor,brightens up my mornings!

  • Thank you very much, lovely hearts ♥

  • Kirsty Boyd

    I love it! Lori you are amazing, thank you

    • Judy Buzby

      I’m waiting till tomorrow to quilt my spool, in the meantime I have been quilting them for fun on my practice pieces…

      • Terry Sheldon

        So where will it be quilted, did it not tell us somewhere?

  • Terry Sheldon

    Thanks for the heart tutorial, I actually figured it out pretty close by DOODLING!!! About the Mystery, I could have sworn that SOMEWHERE (???) it said to go ahead and stitch a spool in P50 or C50. Am I nuts?

    • WordPress.com Support

      You are supposed to quilt a spool. I don’t know you well enough to answer your question. What does your family say?

      • Terry Sheldon

        Who ARE you, anyway?

      • Terry Sheldon

        What do you mean??? Why are you asking about my family? Boy, you’ve got me stumped, aren’t we all part of this group?

        • A

          Sorry–no offense meant…You asked I could have sworn that SOMEWHERE (???) it said to go ahead and stitch a spool in P50 or C50. Am I nuts?–I responded: yes, stitch the spool in the center square. I don’t know you well enough to answer your question…. It’s an old joke that didn’t translate well via internet. ARgh!
          Yes, add the spool C50 if you have cotton thread of 50 weight. That spool goes right in the middle of the grid.

  • Margarita Mackay

    I love a lot your work!!!
    I am very happy when I recive beautiful new designs from you!!!
    Thank you!!!!

  • What a sweet heart. Thanks for the great tutorial.

    QuiltShopGal
    http://www.quiltshopgal.com

  • Laura W

    Your tutorials are inspiring. I’m going to try it as an allover-varying the size of the hearts and adding spirals to travel. I’ll try doodling it first.

  • Judy Buzby

    Would make just the best quilted post cards… will definitely do and send!!! Also Flickr it for all to see! My new Juki 2010Q is being delivered today… Can’t wait to try that baby out! Some of the Top free motion work is being done on a Juki (Leah Day, and Cindy Needham) Picture me so excited!!!!

  • Wow to have my notebooks back from highschool…heehee! I did a lot of doodling then! LOL! I have some Valentines to make this week so will give this a shot! 🙂 Really cute!

  • paula

    Lori – you are amazing. Everyday you confirm that for me. You are a great teacher.

  • Tavette

    It’s always so exciting to see a new design in my in-box from you. IMMEDIATELY I follow your stitching with my cursor. By doing that it makes perfect sense why you start at the middle line vs. the outer line. My 1st thought before doing this was to start at the outside, but no…… Now I see why.

    The little squares you drew make it easier to keep thing in proportion until we get the “hang of it”. You know how to start my day off right by sending your stitch-by-stitch demos.

    Tavette – S. Fla.

    • Kathy

      What a great idea to follow with the cursor, wonderful tip. Thanks.

  • Very cute, I will definitely give it a try. Thanks!

Comments are closed.

Discover more from Lori Kennedy Quilts

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading