The Sweet Cherry-Free Motion Quilt Tutorial

Good Morning, Quilters!

Do YOU prefer sweet or sour cherries?  My family is split…but one of our favorite places to visit is Door County, Wisconsin known for it’s sour cherries and delicious cherry pies, salsas, salad dressings, etc.  Since visiting The Door over the Fourth of July, I’ve had bushels of cherries in my Doodle Book.  Today’s tutorial is dedicated to cherry lovers everywhere.  (Next week will be dedicated to pie lovers…)THE SWEET CHERRY FREE MOTION QUILT TUTORIAL

You may like to begin with a rectangle to keep the spacing even.  Use whatever size fits your quilt.  In the tutorial below, the rectangles are 3 inches wide by 4 inches tall.

Stitch a horizontal leaf near the top of the rectangle.Stitch another leaf to the right of the first leaf.Stitch a diagonal line to create the first stem and add a small upward curve at the end of the stem.Stitch over the previous line of stitching, along the curve.  Add a right sided curve.  Stop here.

Stitch a counter clockwise circle – stitching right over the stem and around.  Stitch over the previous line of stitching and back to the stem.Stitch over the stem–creating a double-stitch on the stem and back to the pair of leaves.

Stitch down to create the next stem and the next cherry.

Two cherries look great together, or you may add a third cherry.

When you’ve completed three cherries, stitch back to the top and stitch a small triangle to create a stem above the leaves.
You may want to tie off after every cluster or simply add a loop-de-loop to begin the next cluster.This is a very cheery cherry--(Shoot! that’s what I should have called this tutorial!)–

Don’t limit yourself to using this only on quilts.  Wouldn’t this be perfect on the hem or pocket of an apron or on a tablecloth?  Be creative!

I’m off to bake  to stitch a pie for next week’s tutorial!  Way less calories!

Lori

PS…This tutorial was stitched on my BERNINA 770QE- A fabulous sewing machine with a gorgeous stitch, using Superior’s Magnifico Trilobal Polyester on top and Aurifil 50 wt cotton in the bobbin.  Aurifil has a lovely light sheen that I love on my backings and it always sews like a dream!  I stitched with a size 80 Topstitch needle 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 re-blog, pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt.  For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com.  Thanks!