Monday, December 30, 2013

KISMIF #6--Flying Geese Ideas

It seems like Flying Geese blocks are in just about every quilt I finish up.  Because of that, I've collected quite a variety of ideas how to quilt these blocks.  And the more I quilt them...the more ideas come!  I hope you enjoy this post and remember when it comes to Free-Motion Quilting (FMQ)--Keep It Simple and Make It Fun (KISMIF)!  After all, your quilt is an expression of you!

Thanks to the photo editor PicMonkey for helping me crop these images down.  These photos were taken from quilts I've done for myself or customers and needed to be cropped to zero-in on the thread paths.

While this post is different as I decided to draw the arrows of thread-paths on the photos themselves, the same following and practicing techniques apply.  As with all of my pantographs, the starting point is marked with a red star and the exit is marked with a blue smaller star.  Trace the panto in the order of the numbers following the direction the arrows indicate.  To practice them for long-arm style machine quilting, trace the panto initially, then repeatedly sketch until you're comfortable on a dry-erase board.  If you use sit-down or domestic style machine quilting, have someone hold a dry-erase marker vertical and in the same spot for you.  Then move the dry-erase board around repeatedly until you feel comfortable with the motif.

Flying geese are usually part of larger blocks such as these.  This post will show you how to break down a basic thread-path.  For more information on continuous curve quilting with swirls, visit my older post KISMIF #3--QBOMS.


To quilt this thread-path, start at the corner star, continuous curve around the flying geese unit following the numbers, swirl in the diagonals shown in blue numbers 6 & &, then continuous curve back to number 8.  This one is easy, looks great, but really at a "beginner" level of complexity.

Here is another beginner level:

 

This is the over-all block.

 The next three pictures are from a post I did about the Underground Railroad Quilts for a local quilting group.  The underlined link will show you their quilts in full.

And another beginner:


The outside half-square triangle (HST) in the brown fabric is easy and fast.  Start by stitching in the ditch from the star until you meet the center point, swirl #2 and #3--really easy then ditch over to the second star.  Using the flying geese unit as your guide, simply loop the loop of varying sizes across the rows of HSTs.   When you reach the edge, stitch in the ditch over to the last HSTs.  It's fun, cute, easy and fast!   KISMIF!

Now...lets get "tricky"!  This one I would rate as "intermediate."


This thread-path is another variation on the continuous curve thread-paths, yet adds an extra arc as shown by numbers 2 & 3.  It repeats at the center of the block and continues around.  To get to the second star repeat, do your favorite meandering style in the back-ground of the flying geese block. A simple loop the loop was done in this example.

Now...lets add feather plumes!  This is also an intermediate level of intensity.  For this demo, I  assume the reader knows how to make a feather plume.  If not, I'll treat it in a future post--just let me know if it's something you're interested in!  :)


As always, start at the star, do feather plumes 1 & 2.  Stitch in the ditch over to the mini-star and follow the basic continuous curve pathways going through the numbers.  If you notice, this example's pathway is actually up-side down from the "beginner" ones listed above.  At number 7, ditch over to complete the plumes.  To repeat this motif in the next flying geese unit, ditch over to the next corner.  It will be done going in reverse order as initially, we started at the bottom and now are at the top.

And...for some advanced examples!  These "bump-back" feather motifs/traditional feather motifs are marked using a pounce-pad and then filled in using free-motion quilting.  However, I don't do the "bump-back" because I do not have a stitch regulated machine.  Instead, I meander out, do some FMQ and then jump back in to finish the motif.  To draw the thread-paths of these would take another entire post!  If you're interested, let me know!





I hope this gives you some fun ideas for your next quilting project!

Happy Quilting!  BTW, check out my quilt patterns!  They can be purchased from Craftsy, Etsy, Connecting Threads, PatternSpot or Farm Fresh Fabrics.  All of these shops are linked on my LHS side bar.  Also check out my RHS for great linky parties!  I share this post reguarly with Quilt Story, Free Motion by the River, WiP Wednesday & Crazy Mom Quilts blogs!

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Thursday, December 26, 2013

Holiday Surprise!

What a fun holiday surprise!  Without me knowing it, Craftsy featured one of my Stop 'N Go quilt pattern on their quilting blog.  Angela did a blog tutorial showing how to create the classic Snowball block and linked several of their online independent designer's patterns featuring the pattern.

Here's the link to view the article:  http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/12/snowball-quilt-block-tutorial/.

Thanks Craftsy!



Tuesday, December 24, 2013

KISMIF #5--Holly Leaves & Poinsettia


All right...it' s Christmas Eve!  Woo-hoo!  Okay, I pre-wrote this post and scheduled it for my Tuesday KIMIF Post! 

Merry Christmas!

When it comes to free-motion quilting (FMQ), let's KISMIF--keep it simple and make it fun!  As with all of my pantographs, the starting point is marked with a red star and the exit is marked with a blue smaller star.  Trace the panto in the order of the numbers following the direction the orange arrows indicate.  To practice them for long-arm style machine quilting, trace the panto initially, then repeatedly sketch until you're comfortable on a dry-erase board.  If you use sit-down or domestic style machine quilting, have someone hold a dry-erase marker vertical and in the same spot for you.  Then move the dry-erase board around repeatedly until you feel comfortable with the motif.

 To create a holly leaf vine start with the vine turning into the stem and back-track out.  Then arc 3 points on the right and left sides.  As a fun option, sometimes I create a loop prior to entering the holly vine motif so there is an extra berry on the vine...and sometimes I don't.  KISMIF!  No, I do not mark the spacing for these vines, they fill in the space naturally.  If you need a "goal" to space your quilt, look for patchwork lines to divide up your space.  After practice, no divisions are needed.



All of the recent photos I have of this vine were done on print fabrics and don't show the holly leaf vine very well.  However, these two photos show a regular leaf vine and an oak leaf vine variation that demonstrate the placing well.  The holly leaf can even be driven over the diagonal seams as shown in the bottom photo to create a cute motif.





To create a poinsettia, I like to use a swirl center, but you could do a loop and back-fill with pebbles if you want.  For beginners, the swirl center works best and will be a cleaner diagram.  The nice thing is that the poinsettia has so many leaves, that the loose of some "wonky" leaves actually makes it look more real.  I would add that you also don't have to be specific with the number leaves that you use to get around the center, it doesn't matter that much.  Just KISMIF!

Simple Poinsettia With a Swirl Center

Poinsettia With a Pebble Center back-fill.

Poinsettia quilted out as a close-up.

Simple Poinsettias done without a back-fill.


The complexity of this poinsettia is made by extra echo-passes.  It is rather stunning to quilt out yet easy to execute.
This variation shows quilted veins in the poinsettia petals to mimic the fussy-cut applique flowers.

I hope you like this tutorial!

Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Moda Bake Shop: Candy Squares Table Runner

I am so excited!  I'm honored to be the guest blogger on Moda Bake Shop today.  The post tells how to make this cute table runner from pre-cut 2 1/2 inch squares called Moda Candy Squares.





Go check it out!


Also, for those of you visiting from Moda Bake Shop--a hearty WELCOME!  I'd love to have your comments and even join as a follower.  I have written several patterns which can be viewed and downloaded (some are even FREE) on my left-hand side bar.  Also, I write a weekly post about free-motion quilting thread-paths called KISMIF (Keep it simple, make it fun)!  Feel free to browse around a while!  :)

Since it's so close to the big Christmas day, and I've got too much stuff to finish, this tutorial will have to count as my post for the week (since it really was quite a bit of work).  I'll be sharing this post with :http://conniekresin.com/, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, and Needle & Thread Thursday's Linky Partys.  These blogs all have buttons on my RHS button bar.

Happy Quilting!--Shannon

BTW, Diana at Sew Crafty Chick just made this table runner following my Moda post.  Check her verion out here:  http://sewcraftychick.blogspot.com/2013/12/something-to-share.html!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

KISMIF#4--Star Border

Well, it's Tuesday again and time to share another free-motion quilting thread-path.  I'll try to "Keep It Simple & Make It Fun".  (KISMIF)

Since Christmas is fast approaching, I thought it would be useful to show a 5-pointed star.  While a lot of us doodle these little cuties all of the time, we may not have thought to do it on a quilt.

As with all of my pantographs, the starting point is marked with a red star and the exit is marked with a blue smaller star.  Trace the panto in the order of the numbers following the direction the orange arrows indicate.  To practice them for long-arm style machine quilting, trace the panto initially, then repeatedly sketch until you're comfortable on a dry-erase board.  If you use sit-down or domestic style machine quilting, have someone hold a dry-erase marker vertical and in the same spot for you.  Then move the dry-erase board around repeatedly until you feel comfortable with the motif.

This is fun to center in a block and fill with various back-ground fillers such as stippling, loop the loops, ribbons or even leaves!  In fact, this FMQ motif could be added to any back-ground filler and add some sparkle to any quilt project!



So...you probably have noticed that the enter and exit points of the star patterned pantograph are the same.  Is it possible to do a continuous 5-pointed star border all the way across a border?

Yes!  And I'll show you how!  This requires two passes, or one forward and one reverse pass.

Here are some sketches I made one year while attending a Kimmy Brunner class at HMQS.  While the 6-pointed star sketch is the thread-path she taught us, the 5-pointed star I came up with while sketching in her class.

First, I use a quilt pounce to create evenly spaced markings along the border.  These space the stars evenly.



Pass One

Pass Two completes the star.  It can be done either forward or reverse.

I use a leftover scrap of batting to "erase" the quilt pounce markings.  Now I'm left with a cute, evenly balanced 5-pointed star border.

Do you have a thread-path you would like to share?  Is there something you would like to see me do?  Leave me a comment!  I'd love to accommodate and help out!

I'm sharing this post with Free Motion By The River, Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story,   WiP Wednesday,  and Needle & Thread Thursday.  Until next time, Happy Quilting!--Shannon

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

KISMIF # 3-QBOMS

Whoa!  Looking at the title of this post, it looks like we're at  NASA or some other engineering thing.  Way too many acronyms!  I'm tempted to fill this post with acronyms!  Since I'm being a goofy acromaniac (is that even a real word?) at the moment, we'll just play a second.  BTW  which stand for "by the way", NASA stands for the National Aeronautical & Space Administration.   But...you already knew that!  What new quilters may not know is that QBOMS stand for "quit block of the month" and KISMIF is my nick-name acronym for my weekly thread-path machine quilting post.

  • Keep
  • It
  • Simple
  • Make
  • It
  • Fun
Since it is December, many of my clients are finishing up their quilt block of the month (QBOMS) tops that they have dutifully pieced all year.  A lot of machine quilters do not know how to custom quilt around those.  I would like to share my pathways.


I love to do continuous curve quilting with swirls on the diagonals.  First off, what is continuous curve quilting?  It is a series of arcs done to mimic the traditional hand-quilted 1/4 inch seam.  When I was new at it, I used a circular quilt ruler to create nice rounded arcs and ensure I hit the center pieced corner.  Due to years of practice, I rarely use the arc anymore, but here is a picture of it all the same!  Before I had a quilting machine, I was able to do this using my domestic machine.  However, it was not possible to use the machine quilting arc ruler shown to get the curves needed.  While someone new to it may want to consider drawing on the arcs, I did not.  With quilt being so close to you as you push it through the machine sitting down, I found it easy to get enough accuracy.

This is a machine quilting arc ruler.  When you quilt, your hand holds the circle in place as you trace the arc using the presser foot of your quilting machine.  At first, I was really afraid I was going to hit my fingers under the hopping foot of the machine and sew myself into the quilt!  Whew!  It never happened.

This blue block is a close-up with continuous curve quilting with a swirl done over the diagonal portion of the half-square triangle.  The swirls just adds so much flare!  Initially, I started doing it as I found some of my bias edges would fray in the laundry and needed to quilt it down.  Now I do it for artistic reasons!  It just ups the "cute" factor.




This is a sample diagram of thread-paths that I sent to a past customer.  As all the pantographs are that I share here, start at the star icon and follow the numbers across for completion. 


This photo shows the saw-tooth border quilted out.


While the thread-path diagram in basic form may look like this, here are some photos of my completed work on various blocks using this style.  I really enjoy doing  QBOMS--in fact I think it's my "specialty."  As you can see, this technique works on a variety of blocks.












A special thank-you goes out to Free-Motion Tuesday.  I appreciate Connie hosting her weekly linky party.  To view more, visit her here:http://conniekresin.com/ or click on the link in my RHS bar.   I also appreciate Needle & Thread Thursday's Linky Party and  sharing it with them.  They're also on my RHS button bar.  I hope you've enjoyed this post.  Until next time, Happy Quilting!  photo BlogButton_zps6185a816.jpg