The Snowflake-A Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

January 7, 2014
The Snowflake Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

The Snowflake Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

It’s Tuesday and time for our first Tuesday Tutorial of 2014!  As I mentioned yesterday, Minnesota (like most of the country) is in a deep freeze.  The thermometer is stubbornly stuck at -15 F.  (Which is a heat wave compared to yesterday’s temp of -42F.)  In weather like this, it is impossible to quilt daisies and tulips…Today I offer–The Snowflake, (and a few snowballs) for your free motion quilting tutorial of the week.

This pattern can be stitched in long rows.  Add a few snowballs (see Spiral tutorial HERE) and you have a gorgeous pattern than can fill a border or a very large space.

The Snowflake Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

In this pattern, I began by drawing lines one inch apart.  You may draw your lines farther or closer apart as fits your project.

Begin stitching ON your drawn line.  Stitch down a short distance, then stitch at an upward angle and back to the center line.

The Snowflake Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Next, stitch perpendicular to your drawn line and back to the center.  (NOTE- do not stitch over any previous stitches and leave a gap in the center of your snowflake. )

The Snowflake Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Stitch out from the center and a downward angle and STOP here.

The Snowflake Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

For this part of the snowflake, instead of stitching back to the center…stitch past the center (drawn) line and up to the right of your snowflake.

The Snowflake Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Return to the center line, and stitch another line to the right and perpendicular to the drawn line.

The Snowflake Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

Finish the last “spoke” of the snowflake and stitch down the center line to begin another snowflake.

The Snowflake Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

The key to this pattern is to never cross over any other line with your stitching.

By staggering the adjacent rows, the snowflakes create a beautiful fill pattern.  But, you know me…when quilting gets too regular, I have to start changing things up–hence the snowballs….

The Snowflake Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

FYI–The Snowflake mini quilt above was stitched on my Bernina 820 with Sulky 40 wt on top and Aurifil 40 wt in the Bobbin.

We will be doing more with this lovely snowflake pattern in the future…so I hope you will take the time to learn it now!

Tomorrow–I have another style of Snowflake I am working on...

Warm wishes,

Lori

PS…All photos and tutorials are for personal use only.  Feel free to Pin and re-blog with attribution to yours truly at The Inbox Jaunt.

No commercial use permitted.

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