January Roundup: Beginners Guide to Free Motion Quilting - Roundup
February Lesson: Thread
February Lesson: Thread Roundup
March Lesson: Choosing Batting & Fabric for Free Motion Quilting
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I have never loved to practice at anything much (although I like to practice eating chocolate a lot!) When I discovered FMQ I found I could spend hours practicing various designs. This post came about because I wanted to make a group of samplers - based on 5 classic shapes which are used over and over again in free motion quilting.
This is not a how too post - I hope that this post encourages you to explore how many designs you can come up with with using 'just straight lines'. "Just straight lines' is a phrase I heard over and over again in the January Lesson. This sampler shows that using 'just straight lines' can make a lot of different quilting patterns. Some are simple - others are more complex and time consuming - but you should never say 'just straight lines' again.
I started thinking I would aim for 40+ different designs but it soon seemed obvious it would be very easy to hit 100. Warning - this is a long post. Many of these patterns are self explanatory. Where another quilter has given a tutorial or published the design I have provided a link.
The sampler was an amazing exercise for me and I feel like I have discovered many more possible designs to use in future quilts. I quilted many of these designs on the sampler for the first time. I would love to hear if you discover any ideas you don't see here. I would also encourage anyone who wanted to expand their FMQ horizons to do a similar sampler for themselves.
Always consider:
- Direction/angle of your quilting lines
- Width between lines
- Scale/size of design- changing the size of your design/width of lines can have a dramatic effect on the look of your quilt.
- Color of thread - use multiple colors to enhance the effect?
- Horizontal, vertical or diagonal/on point
- Mixing different sizes/scales of lines in the same quilt
- Fill in some areas - squares, triangles, diamonds – either with a consistent or random pattern
- Where does the line originate from and where does it stop
- Nest or echo your lines
- Finally - will you use your walking foot/ruler or go free motion?
‘Plain’ Lines
Never underestimate how great just plain straight lines can be. Remember it is not ‘just’ straight lines or ‘plain’ lines. Your quilting is adding movement and depth to your quilt.
1. 1” straight lines
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
2. ½” straight lines
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
3. ¼” straight lines
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
4. 1/8” lines (Matchstick Quilting)
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
5. Graded lines
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
6. Double Lined
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
7. Triple Lined
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
8. Horizontal & Vertical Lines Meeting
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
9. Different Widths all together
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
10. Different angles
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
11. Coming from one point
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
12. Coming from center
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
13. Coming from two directions
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
14. Mix it up - Diagonal chevron splitting horizontal & vertical lines
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
15. Stacked Corners
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
16. Square Baptist Fan
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
17. Corners (Center out)
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
18. Wooden Floor Boards
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
19. Meandering Straight Line (all over)
Longarm: FMQ
20. Meandering Straight Line (side to side)
Domestic: Lower feed dogs & use suitable foot for FMQ
Longarm: FMQ
21. Merging Lines (Free Motion Quilting w. Angela Walters)
Domestic: Use walking foot or drop your feed dogs and FMQ
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ or a mix
22. Lines all directions
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
23. Spiraling line from center
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
Squares (Crosshatching)
Taking your lines from side to side AND top to bottom you can take your quilting to the next level of complexity. There are A LOT of things you can do with squares. Whether you mark your lines to be exact or just go for it without worrying about exact measurements. The end result is guaranteed to please you and look more complicated than it is
I can’t emphasize enough the difference that the scale of your quilting can make. 4” squares vs. 1” squares vs. ½” squares. Experiment and find what you prefer.
Adding two lines instead of one to your squares or crosshatching can make negative space look beautiful. I think it can be used in both contemporary or traditional designs – it is an all over winner.
24. Squares
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
25. On Point Squares
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
26. ½”squares
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
27. 1/2" squares on point
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
28. On Point some filled (various fillers)
Longarm: Use a straight ruler but FMQ for filler
29. Squares with crosses
30. Squares with some crosses
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
31. Squares with fill (various filler ideas)
Domestic: Use walking foot but drop feed dogs & use suitable FMQ foot for filling
Longarm: Use a straight ruler but FMQ for filler
32. Double hatched
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
33. Triple hatched
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
34. ½” double hatched
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
35. On point double hatched & on point triple hatched
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
36. Criss crossing different widths/angles
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
37. Different Sized boxes
Domestic: Drop your feed-dogs and use suitable FMQ foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ
38. Meandering Squares
Longarm: FMQ
39. Stacked Frames (Free Motion Quilting w/ Angela Walters)
Domestic: You could use a walking foot but dropping your feed dogs & using suitable FMQ foot would be faster.
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ.
Diamonds
By changing the angle of your lines from crosshatched squares you can easily make diamonds. I think diamonds are called diamonds for a reason – they look expensive and classy. I personally associate them more with traditional style quilts but I’m sure someone will make diamonds modern soon!
40. Big
41. Small
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
42. Double hatched
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
43. Triple hatched
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
44. Stacked one line (right below)
45. Stacked both lines (left below)
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
Triangles
There are many different shapes of triangle. Equilateral (all sides measure the same), isosceles (two sides measure the same) or scalene (all sides are different lengths – essentially random or improvised triangles)
46. Triangles
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
47. Triangles some filled
Longarm: Use a straight ruler but FMQ for filler
48. Triangle meander
Longarm: FMQ
49. Stacked triangles from center
Domestic: You could use a walking foot but dropping your feed dogs & using suitable FMQ foot would be faster.
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ
50. Random triangles stacked from center
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ
51. Stacked triangles from side
Domestic: This would depend on the scale of this design. Small scale: drop your feed dogs & using suitable FMQ foot would be faster. Large Scale: use a walking foot.
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ
52. Modern Weave by Leah Day
53. Triangle Greek key
Domestic: Drop feed dogs and use suitable FMQ foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ
Chevrons
54. Chevron (right below)
55. Double hatched (left below –bottom chevron)
56. Triple hatched (left below – top chevron)
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
57. Chevrons meeting
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
58. Long deep chevrons (right below)
59. Irregular depth chevrons equally spaced (left above)
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
60. Chevron with center line 1” deep (below)
61. Chevron center line 1/5” deep (above)
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
62. Center line 1” deep w/ 2 “ spacing
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
63. Center line double line
64. Center line triple line
Domestic: Use walking foot
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
65. 2” spaced lines crossing over (below right)
66. 2 & 1” spaces lines crossing over (below left)
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
67. Free motion chevrons
Longarm: FMQ
68. Wide chevrons (right)
69. Wide Chevrons meeting (left)
Domestic: Use walking footLongarm: Use a straight ruler
70. Traveling chevron
71. Repeating traveling chevrons
Longarm: Use a straight ruler
72. Matrix Maze by Leah Day
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ
Maze lines
These lines – still straight move around much more. They go in and out of each other. They are certainly more labor intensive but you could use them as an overall pattern (big or small) or as background fillers. Take a little time to practice these with pen & paper before doing them on a quilt.
73. Greek Key - same size
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ
74. Greek key different size
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ
75. Chain Squares by Angela Walters (Pg. 35 of Free-Motion Quilting w/ Angela Waters)
Domestic: Drop feed dogs and use suitable FMQ foot
Longarm: FMQ
76. Echoing Straight Lines
Domestic: Use walking foot or FMQ
Longarm: Use a straight ruler or FMQ
Free Motion Straight Lines
These lines are probably not going to be perfectly straight. These lines are not intentionally curved – you are still trying to make straight lines. For either your domestic or longarm you would probably tackle these designs freehand without rulers or a walking foot.
77. E’s & W’s
81. Basic Chevron (Leah Day)
82. Pine Needles (Leah Day)
85. Square flowers by Angela Walters (Pg. 38 of Free-Motion Quilting w/ Angela Waters)
88. line design snowflake
89. line designs squares
90. line design square w/ center line
91. line design square criss cross
92. line design diamond
93. line design diamond w/ snowflake
95. Straight Line Spider Web
GIVEAWAY: One Line at a Time by Charlotte Warr Andersen
96. Boxes
98. Rolling X
100. Double X
101. Intertwined Stars small (right below)
102. Intertwined stars big (left below)
103. Wonky Bow Ties
104. Twin Squares
105. Cartwheels
The book also includes many more clever straight line designs that I did not include in my sampler.
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Since finishing my sampler I have also noted the following straight line designs from these sources: Leah Day: Trippy Triangles, In Stitches, Cubing
Jumbled lines by Angela Walters in Shape by Shape
Tufts of Grass, Landscape, Earthquake, Shakes (Shingles), Bricks & Basket Weave in Darlene Epp's Freehand Guides
502 New Quilting Motifs by Quiltmaker Magazine – Gemstone, Bows & Borders, Sparkle, Roll of the Dice, Priscillas Star, Double Star
Creative Classics & Mindful Meandering by Laura Lee Fritz – various designs
I really like the double lined and squares with crosses designs. Thanks for showing all of these! :)
ReplyDeleteI loved the diamond plaid. Thank you for all the great examples.
ReplyDeleteI would love to try the double hatched squares. Yours are perfect! I am interested in using a ruler to try some of these, I've never down that. Great post Rachael!
ReplyDeleteThis is a brilliant post, Rachael. So many fabulous ideas. I love the snowflakes, but I'm more likely to try some of the cross hatch patterns. Baby steps...
ReplyDeleteThis is a brilliant post, Rachael. So many fabulous ideas. I love the snowflakes, but I'm more likely to try some of the cross hatch patterns. Baby steps...
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, when I think of practicing these for hours, I get dizzy ... even looking at all the design possibilities is overwhelming ... seems like skills way beyond my capabilities. Your sampler is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI love the double and triple hatched designs! Thanks for all the great ideas!
ReplyDeleteI like #11. I think I've accidentally tried some of these on my own, but would love to win this book to obtain better results. Thanks for the opportunity to win!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this wonderful post! I'm definitely going to bookmark it. I especially like the Modern Weave pattern. I do a lot of curvy free motion quilting on my domestic machine, but never realized all the possibilities of straight lines until I read this post. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWow! Thank you for showing these to us all! I definitely want to try Diamond Plaid. I think I've seen a design like this in a sashiko book.
ReplyDeleteWow! What a post! Thank you so much for taking the time to show us all your designs and thanks for your explanations. There are quite a few ideas there that I like and must try next time. Thanks again for sharing!
ReplyDeletethis is what I've been searching for...two days...thank you!
ReplyDeletethese designs are fabulous... my search is over!Thanks for being
sooo kind to share this post!!!
I like the all the greek key designs (slypignc@gmail.com) Thanks for posting this ... there are some great ideas here. It's interesting how different a crosshatch looks with double and triple lines
ReplyDeleteI am a beginner on a long arm machine. This is a wonderful reference to the designs I would like to try.Would love the book to have it next to me when I do the designs.Thank You!
ReplyDelete