The Echo Star–A Free Motion Quilt Tutorial

Echo Stars, Free Motion Quilting

 

Good Morning, Quilters and Quilt Lovers!  Are you ready for some quilting?  Of course you are!  You have a least a dozen quilt sandwiches ready to go…Read more in BE READY

And you know what needle to use….Read more in The 80/50 Rule for Free Motion Quilting.

You have several choices for batting:  Read Open Line Friday (and all the comments) Batting

So let’s get started with today’s tutorial:  The Echo Star- The Echo Star is a beautiful background filler for any quilt.

It doesn’t need to be perfect to look great AND it’s a lot of fun to stitch.  It looks great on blue fabric, too–a starry night?

THE ECHO STAR TUTORIAL

Begin by stitching a small star.  Don’t worry if it’s not perfect…it will look great no matter how misshapen…

Echo Stars, Free Motion Quilting

 

Next, echo quilt around the star several times….

 

Echo Stars, Free Motion Quilting

 

Once the space is filled in, or the star is begin enough….begin another star.

 

Echo Stars, Free Motion Quilting

 

Echo stitch around the second star several times.

NOTE-Stitch around the star clockwise, then counter-clockwise, never crossing over the line that extends out of the previous star.  This gives the motif a neater look than if it crossed over those stitches.)

 

Echo Stars, Free Motion Quilting

 

Keep adding more stars.  As you can see, in some cases I was only able to add partial stars.  That’s okay, too.

 

Echo Stars, Free Motion Quilting

 

Add a few curls to give the motif a more festive “pop”…

Echo Stars, Free Motion Quilting

 

In no time, YOU’LL be “seeing stars”  or places for stars in all of YOUR quilts…

Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight…

(I wish the icy snow that hit Minnesota yesterday would melt away…is that too much to ask?)

Happy Starlight Stitching,

Lori

PS…Thank you to ALL of you who have sent photos of quilts using the motifs.  I LOVE to see the motifs in action!

NOTE-This tutorial was stitched on Robert Kaufman, Kona solids using Sulky 40wt Rayon on top and Aurifil cotton 50wt in the bobbin on my Bernina 150 (a standard, domestic sewing machine) without a stitch regulator.

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

 

 

 

22 responses to “The Echo Star–A Free Motion Quilt Tutorial”

  1. Your emails are now coming from source “wordpress” with NO notification from you of any change. I almost marked you spam. I do NOT like receiving unknown mail from wordpress – I did NOT subscribe to wordpress. Is there ANY way you can change your outgoing mail to reflect it from Lori?

    1. This is an on-going problem I am having with WordPress. I do not control it, but I will look into it. How long has this been happening? I wonder if it’s a temporary glitch?
      I am really sorry about the inconvenience.

      1. Just yesterday and today for me. Yesterday’s email got deleted (but I’m catching up now!), but today the subject line made sense. Is there a way to include “theinboxjaunt” in your subject line so we know who you are until it gets worked out?
        Best,
        Siobhan

      2. Hi Siobhan, I don’t know why the sudden change, I am looking into it through WordPress and my blog hosting company. I can’t control any of it right now…ARGH!

      5. Oh my gosh, I thought I was the only one…. “kicked out of the club” as my mom would say… Well. It did raise concerns. I wonder what wordpress is up to.

      6. I’m having the same problem. I love your stars. I will have to try it this week. As I was scrolling down, I was thinking “starlight, star bright, the first star I see tonight”. And but hold…. you quoted what I was thinking. :- )

  3. Hi Lori from icy Wyoming too! Brr….we moved cows Sunday…it was 60 degrees…it’s 0 this morning! Shock to the old system.
    I love these stars!! so cute and know I will use this one a lot! I like that the stars can be a little wonky…gives them a twinkly look.
    I’ve just noticed WordPress last couple days…just figured it was some kind of maintainence. No inconvenience :).
    Hope you get to stay indoors and sew today! 🙂

  4. Reminds me of one you posted a while back with stars that have swirls in the outside edges and curls shooting off, you called it Sweet Sunshine, but I don’t see it in your tutorials now? I just used it last night in a very large border and connected them all together using my new Sweet 16, no stitch regulator. (I actually have one, but have elected not to use it.) First time with a large quilt. It turned out great!
    Also having the WordPress problem and almost couldn’t find you for a few days.

    1. I also received your email for today’s tutorial thru Word Press and almost didn’t open because your tutorial wasn’t from In Box like I usually received from you. I also am hesitant to do that way either. Thank you though for such good tutorials

    1. Yikes! It has Always been up and running! It scares me to hear so many people say this! I have a call in to the technical support gurus! Hopefully it will b fixed soon!

  6. Oh, thanks, I found it. I modified it a little by using only 5 points to make it a star since my fabric had stars in it. Then stitched over and repeated it all along the border varying the size and making some a little wonky. Looks pretty good. I love all your designs and try my hand at most of them. I love how you make some of the most difficult designs to look at, actually easy to do.

  9. Rosemary B here:
    This star is sweeeet. I love the swirls. Very pretty. This would looks wonderful on RED kona, huh? yeah!

  10. just what I have been looking for. i have a table runner with poinsettia and id not know how or what to quilt the rest, so now I will put stars as it is xmassy! Thank you Lori!!

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