Tuesday Tutorial: The Fleur-de-lis
Today is Tuesday and it is time for another free motion quilting tutorial! Today we will be working on the classic Fleur-de-lis (or lily flower) motif. We have two motifs today: The Basic Fleur-de-lis and The Deluxe Fleur-de-lis.
Let’s start with The Basic Fleur-de-lis.
I always begin with two drawn lines or “rails“. They can be any size that fits your quilt. For this tutorial, the rails were 1 inch apart. Begin in the center of the rails and stitch a right Downward Curl. (Find that tutorial here.) When stitching the curls, make your first curl (the inner curl) small and the outer curl larger:
After you complete the right downward curl, stitch a left downward curl–Use the rails and try to keep your curls within the marked lines—“Stay in the lines. The lines are your friends…”
Next, stitch a “Flame Stitch”. I haven’t posted a tutorial on the Flame Stitch, if anyone would like one, please let me know…
The basic Flame Stitch looks like this:
For The Basic Fleur-de-lis, add a curvy line through the center of the Flame which will allow you to begin at the base of the next fleur-de-lis.
TIP-The Downward Curls and the Flame Stitch all meet near the middle of this motif. Be careful to offset them so that you do not overlap your stitches. When stitches overlap, the quilting gets “thready” which is messy looking.
The Basic Fleur-de-lis:
For The Deluxe Fleur-de-lis, replace the curvy line in The Flame Stitch with two One-Pass Circles. (See the tutorial here.)
After you complete the entire row of this motif, echo-stitch on both sides of the pattern.
The Deluxe Fleur-de-lis:
Tomorrow: It has been raining cats and dogs for the past two days, so tomorrow’s Work in Progress is a small Umbrella quilt.
Next Week’s Tuesday Tutorial: Umbrellas for you!
Thank you to all who continue to pin on Pinterest and re-blog. Our sewing circle gets wider every day–and this week we met hundreds of new readers including many from the Russian Federation. Thank you to http://www.darievna.ru who re-blogged the Easter Egg Tutorial. (I have to find a translator program to read it, but thank you!)
Note: All the photos and tutorials are for personal use only. No commercial use…(I hope to publish a book some day…)
That looks fantastic. It’s nice to see it broken down in steps. Thank you for sharing.
Love your tutorials, can’t wait to try this one!
You always make it look sew easy, Lori! Thank you for this pretty one…it looks much more difficult.
I’m off to make up ANOTHER quilt sandwich so I can practice it. I’ve filled at least 3 & even started using a different colored thread to repeat the motifs in a different area. As I improve, I’m going to bind them & use them as hot mats in the kitchen.
With grateful hugs,
Rett
What a great idea! I just throw mine in a box (and rarely bind them). Any ideas for quick bindings?
Oh, wow!!! Really, REALLY love these motifs!
Thanks, Lynette! Have you stitched any of them onto quilts?
without a video tutorial on this particular shape, it is too difficult for beginners. I understand the curls, but the flame shape in the middle is extremely difficult. I tried sketching it, I can’t even duplicate it on paper. If I can’t do it on paper, I won’t be able to do it on a sewing machine. Can you elaborate about how the flame shape is done?
I will do a formal tutorial on the Flame Stitch –hopefully by next week. (I’m sorry but I’m not set up to do videos–yet).
I agree that you have to be able to draw it on paper before you can do it on the sewing machine. Don’t be discouraged, just doodle it whenever you have five minutes…I like to doodle and practice the designs while I’m watching TV with my family.
More awesome quilting and fabulous tutorial. Thanks for sharing.
Your welcome, Pat!
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You’re welcome! Who doesn’t love the fleur de lis motif?
Thank you so much for your guide. I’ll follow you from now on.
You may have addressed this in another post, so I apologize for asking, you can just send me the link if you want! After you sew the connected design, do you go back to the beginning to do the echo (sewing bottom up) or do you just go back ‘down’ the design? I am concerned about the fabric distortion of 2 different directions.
I do either way depending on which works on the quilt. I really don’t have problems with distortion.