Free Motion Quilting: Doodle on the Wall?

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I was doodling on my shop's bathroom walls. Yep, totally giving it a bit of free motion design to liven it up.


The walls are the same boring brown as the rest of the shop. Or at least the same as the other walls were. Most of the walls in the building were painted a cheery, but soft color of yellow. It turned out fabulously, but the brown was dark enough that it took several coats to cover it up and there just wasn't time to paint the bathroom as well.


Of course, now that we're open 6 days a week and I want to have some sort of life away from the shop, there isn't time to paint it now.



You may remember some of my painted window escapades at our shop's original location. That doodling was an absolute blast and was just calling out for me to doodle on the wall. What's the worst that could happen? I have to actually paint over it?!


There's a big difference between doodling on glass with window markers and drawing on an actual wall that's not part of some graffiti encrusted urban area. I knew I didn't want to use the window paint as it was rather difficult to manipulate and get an even line of paint. Let's face it, writing "Go Team!" takes a different line than a curvy, graceful feather.

Paint pens are pretty easy to come by these days, and I figured I'd use them, but I was nervous about making mistakes and I'm fairly sensitive to paint fumes. So I put it on the back burner of my mind and let the idea percolate a bit.


We installed a large chalk board in the foyer of the shop and decided against using chalk markers to write on it after seeing that some of my chalkboard labels on bins in the shop were 'ghosting' when I wanted to remove the so-called chalk.


Bingo! The perfect use of those chalk markers was on my wall! It does wash off to some extent, and is available at most craft stores. I got mine at Michael's.

So I began drawing with a fairly fine pointed marker. Meh. The fine line blended in and didn't give me the bold graphic line I wanted. So I got a wide pointed chisel tip marker. I was leery of it at first as it had a similar tip to the window marker that had given me trouble. It worked like a champ.

What about making mistakes? Well, I realized that the earlier attempts with the fine tipped marker looked pretty sad next to the thicker lines and I was happy to report that I was able to wash it off. Now, the wall is painted with a fairly slick paint, maybe a semi-gloss, so I don't know that this will work on all paints, nor after a bunch of time passes. Try this at your own risk, but I am so happy with the results.

Bonus, I get my free motion quilting practice in as I doodle my favorite designs. I absolutely think frequent doodling is a great way to improve your quilting skills.

 What do you think? Am I crazy for drawing on my walls? I did think of getting some plexiglass on the wall first, but then decided to go for it. I'm glad I did!

You can see more pics of these walls as I go on my Instagram account. I'm a little more active on there these days, snapping a picture when I can. I take forever to write up a blog post. Follow me there.

A Free Motion Quilting Finale

Look! I'm making binding, which means I must have finished quilting something. Yay me! Ombre Triangles is done. (I think I need a better name for this project.)

This poor quilt had so much start and stop quilting that I kept forgetting how I wanted to quilt it between sessions, so it lost its cohesive look. But I had fun playing around with these triangles and groups of triangles. Some were done as diamonds, others as hexagons, but all pretty different.

Most of it was ruler work, with the QP Edge (12") but I also used a QP Curve #8, and a free hand scroll-y, flower fill especially around the edges. Then I threw in a few other things just to keep it interesting.

This whole quilt was done in one fabric, V&Co Ombre, and I was able to trim up the extra backing for my binding, which left it mostly as the darker teal color.

I always struggle when it comes to stitching strips of binding together. I get distracted, sometime from others around me, other times from my ditzy brain. So I've taken to ironing one end of each strip (each strip oriented the same way) at a 45 degree angle. This helps me make the angled seam point the same way and makes sure I sew the strips together properly.

Don't you hate it when you pull the strip open and you've done it wrong? Maybe you've stitched right side to wrong side? Maybe I'm the only one whose botched it more times than I want to admit?

Then I open the crease and I've got something to follow for a good straight 45 degree seam.

Now, if I had turned my binding around so the bulk of it was lying to the right, I could have used these handy dandy markings on the needle plate (see red arrows below). Janome machines have a mess of helpful lines on the needle plate! Sometimes I forget they are there though....bad Janome dealer, shame on me!

Then I switched to a different foot 'sole' for my integrated walking foot, aka the Accufeed Flex System. Love these built in walking feet that are completely removable. This foot combination has a 1/4 inch guide on it.

Of course, by the time I got to the binding, I was beyond ready to do something else and didn't audition the binding around the quilt very well and ended up with this....

Now, if this had been an actual solid fabric, I could have easily adjusted that last binding seam that joined the ends. But that ombre was making its move to another color where I wanted to do it. In the end (ha!), I worked it out as far away as I could without having a noticeable change of color between the two strips. (Totally should have done the "No Tails Binding" by Linda Hungerford.)

I like using Roxanne's Glue Baste It for putting ends of binding together. I pressed my 45 degree angle, added a smidge of glue in what would be the seam allowance, hit it with the iron for instant drying, then opened it up and stitched along the crease. Once I stitched, I popped the seam allowance open, trimmed it to 1/4 inch, pressed it open, and stitched it the rest of the way.

Next, I'm machine stitching this guy down by stitching in the ditch. Then I'm off to one of many things on my to-do list. So many things I want to make. I want to make a little girl's dress to show off a new fabric line in the shop, there's a bag I want to make from another line, I want to make a sloth pillow.... the list goes on and on!

Plus, there's moving to do! We're coming up on our one year anniversary of owning Sew Simple and to celebrate, we're packing everything up and moving down the road almost one mile to a better, bigger location. I'm so excited!

Goodness! Look how dark my hair is. I need some highlight, stat.

One of the things I'm loving about this move is that the new location has no overhead tenants. So many videos have gotten ruined by thumping feet. I think they must be little gymnasts. Also, we will have a separate classroom space from the rest of the sales floor, which will give me a better chance to work on projects. Finally, I think we're just about ready to take another giant leap of faith and look for our first employee or two. I just can't do it all, even with my wonderful husband's help.

How to Choose Quilting Designs

Whether you use a walking foot, free motion, free motion quilting with rulers, hand quilting, or a combination of more than one of these techniques when you quilt your quilt, there are a lot of factors that can come into play when choosing designs. This is why "How do I Quilt This?" type classes are so popular and why this question can cause even the most experienced quilter to cringe (especially if asked in an email without any photos!).

I divide quilting designs into 4 major types:

Overall Designs- These are designs that do not pay attention to the piecing. Similar to a pantograph used by a longarmer, these are great designs for utility, bed and comfort quilts.

Block and piecing designs- These are designs that are based on the piecing. Designs for blocks, squares, triangles, borders and sashing.

The piecing here determined the quilting.

Fills- These smaller designs are for filling in spaces between other types of quilting, adding texture and interest along the way, sometimes they are even used as larger design elements in the quilting.

The Celtic Square design used here is both a motif and a block and piecing design and is surrounded by dense fills to make it pop.

Motif Designs- These are the ones we love to see in fancier quilts; the scrolls, feathers, floral motifs and more that are major parts of the design of a quilt in of themselves.

Don't confuse the types of designs with the type of quilting. There are designs in any of these four categories that can be done with a variety of methods of quilting. Tiny fills are usually free motion, much of what I do with rulers could be classified as block and piecing designs, and large swaths of straight line quilting all the way across a quilt could be done several different ways, but would still be considered an overall design no matter the method used.

Sometimes the design chosen decides the method of quilting. For example, a tiny, curvy, dense design is not likely a good candidate for walking foot quilting.

There are other times that the type of quilting (hand quilting, walking foot, free motion) the quilter wants to do, will help the quilter choose designs that work better for those methods.

Sometimes a design works well for several types of quilting and the quilter will determine which method to use. I could do straight line square spiral design with a walking foot, but since I love using my rulers, and especially if it's a big quilt, I'd choose to use free motion ruler work. You might choose differently.

Someone might choose big stitch quilting to add interest to a quilt and do it by hand, while another quilter, maybe with less time to spare, would set her machine up with some monofilament thread in the top of the machine and use a "hand-look quilting" stitch. Can you guess which method I'd choose? Leave your guess in the comments below.

The four types are not overly segregated and mix and mingle quite often. While overall designs are usually loners, typically, motif and fill designs work together and are pretty much mutually necessary. Block and piecing designs are good mixers in a quilt, and I think are the unsung heroes of quilting.

Overall Designs- Also called edge-to-edge designs. These are some of the easiest designs to begin with, but not all overall designs are simple. They can be large stippling, other larger meandering designs, or even feathers  as an overall design. You can get ideas for these types of designs by looking at quilts done by longarmers with pantographs. Some can even be quite complex, featuring horses, bears, flowers, stars, etc.

This design could be a filler , fit into a block, or made large as an overall design. You choose!

Block and Piecing Designs- This includes the tedious but many times necessary "Stitch in the Ditch" which can also be done with a walking foot without using FMQ. Once you have a good grasp of FMQ, doing stitch in  the ditch with the darning or free motion foot means no turning of the quilt as you stitch. Block and piecing designs can really enhance the piecing in a quilt.

Here's an easy sashing design.

Fills- Pebbles, smaller stipples, even closely spaced lines of stitching are in this category. Leah Day's site does a great job of categorizing and teaching many, many fills at the Free Motion Quilting Project. She's also produced three books of designs, one of which is From Daisy to Paisley: 50 Beginner Level Free Motion Quilting Designs. Keep in  mind that because of the scope of the project and the stitched samples, these designs are shown quite small. At the small size these are great for filling in around larger motif designs or in conjunction with block and piecing designs. It is up to you to decide at what size you want to quilt these for your quilt! Make them bigger and many can even be overall designs.

Motif Designs- Many of these designs benefit from good planning and marking. There's the classic feather wreath and all of its variations, feathered swags and borders. Some motifs are suitable for block and piecing designs too. Traditional whole cloth quilts are fabulous examples of motif designs coupled with fills. Two wonderful books by Karen McTavish (I have most of her books; they're great) The Secrets of Elemental Quilting  and Whitework Quilting: Creative Techniques for Designing Wholecloth and Adding Trapunto to Your Quilts give great examples of using motifs in quilts along with some great tips.

Some general tips for choosing designs:

Quilt Density: the denser the quilting, the stiffer the quilt. And of course, dense quilting takes longer and uses more thread. Save really dense quilting for wall quilts, fancy quilts, and yes, show quilts. No one wants to snuggle down with a stiff quilt, so for comfy quilts, choose an overall design or fairly simple block and piecing designs.

Abbie is happy I didn't quilt her quilt to death.

One of the big differences between what we can quilt with our domestic sewing machines versus those of the longarm machines has to do with our range of motion. We can only quilt in the space between our hands before we have to reposition our hands and quilt. Those using longarm machines, have a range of motion for stitching that is pretty much the range of their upper body motion. This means the designs we choose either have smaller shapes, well-planned changes of direction, or we have to be really good with our stops and starts when repositioning our hands. Usually, it's a mix of all three factors.

Many quilts benefit from "Stitch in the Ditch", stitching along piecing lines to stabilize the seams, keep things square and subdivide the quilt to keep shifting of batting and backing to a minimum. For the most part this type of quilting is done first and many choose to use a walking foot with the feed dogs up. But, again, once you become proficient at FMQ, doing it in free motion can be a lot faster with little or no rotation of the quilt needed.

Applique quilts can also benefit from stitching around the applique shapes. Ann Fahl's book, Dancing With Thread: Your Guide to Free-Motion Quilting, describes this type of quilting and regular stitch in the ditch quilting as stabilizing the quilt and recommends using clear monofilament for this type of stitching in case the stitches wiggle from one side of the seam or applique to the other.

This applique was carefully SID'd to make it pop.

Large motif designs with inadequate fills around them lose their impact. When properly surrounded with fills, motifs can really pop, making a faux trapunto effect. Couple motifs and small fills with a lofty batting and you've got some great dimension and texture. Larger areas of "white space" are prime real estate for motifs.

Much of this article came from a post I did years ago on "How to Free Motion Quilt: the Designs." You may want to see the line drawings there I did to show examples of various types of designs.

Ombre Triangles Continues

I nearly titled this post "Ombre Triangles Drags On..." but that would sound pretty awful, wouldn't it? Well, it feels pretty awful! The quilt isn't to blame and I'm not going to blame myself, but sometimes you just aren't feeling a project and you can either give up or slog through. I want to make like Elsa and "Let it go...."

Third times the charm. Finished this block up after stopping two other times about 3 inches away from being done.

But it still is fun to sit and come up with a new design with rulers to use on these triangles. I just haven't gotten enough time to get the flow of quilting going when I do get to stitch. Because when you get into the flow, it is wonderful.

I've been doing some painting in the shop and trying to improve my studio area of the shop so it works better for me.

Much like a quilter who uses the family dining room table for their sewing and quilting, the one the family actually uses, I am in total flux for my sewing area. At home my studio has reverted back to the family room and the remainder of my home studio is tucked into a small back room. At the shop....well, it's the shop.

I'm not complaining, mind you. It's been pretty incredibly wonderful! We've owned Sew Simple for over 9 months now, so maybe it's fitting that I feel like I've finished gestating the business and am nurturing this baby along.

Until next time.....quilt on!

Quilt that Window!

Yes, you read that title correctly.

I've quilted up one of my shop's windows.

No worries, I haven't gone bonkers, nor did any glass get broken. See, I have four big windows at the front of my shop and two of them have gone all foggy between the panes. I've been eyeing them for quite some time to do something to make them look better.

Replacing them is out of question as we rent the space and it would have to be done at my expense. Since we hope to outgrow this spot within the next few years, I can't see paying for it. Both windows typically have a car or minivan parked in front of them, so it's not too much of an eyesore. The other two windows are more visible and have my signage in them with adhesive vinyl (done by yours truly on the Artistic Edge cutter).

 I thought about putting some of those perforated vinyl window signs in them. These are the kind that you can see right through from the inside but can print images or signage on the outside and they are solid looking from the outside. Again, kinda pricey and I don't know what I'd have done on the outside of them.

Enter beautiful images on Pinterest of hand drawn shop window lettering. Combine that with my penchant for doodling quilt designs and I took up my (removable) paint pen.

I did want to say something on this window, so I first wrote the word "Create" on it. Since I was drawing on the inside of the window, I first wrote the word on the outside using a dry erase marker. Then I traced the lines from the inside with the paint pen.

The paint pen is the type you can pick up at an office supply store commonly used for writing "Go Team!" or "Just Married" on your car windows. It washes off with water and some elbow grease.

I'm not sure it's the best thing to use. The tip is very thick and blocky. It was a little hard to control. I plan on doing this on the second window soon and then after a while I will redo both windows. Gotta change it up and keep it interesting. I may find a different pen next time.

I made a video of most of the process. I have got to work on finding the right speed setting on this set up. I felt like this video could have been faster and the last quilting video I did could have been slower.

The only thing I don't like about this process is that when the shop is closed and the shades are lowered, you can't really see it.

So, do you think I've gone too far? It was a lot of fun, though a bit stressful to put my quilting on display for the neighborhood. I had to fight the urge to make it perfect or post a sign that says, "I quilt better than I draw."

Quilting with Rulers: Celtic Flower

I am so happy that I was able to get more quilting done on this fun practice piece. I put a circle in the middle of the design and tried to McTavish inside of it.

I haven't finished the McTavishing inside the flower petal areas around the Celtic Knot, but it felt like I was losing the Impact of these shapes with the narrow 1/4 inch echo. So I went around the outside at a 1/2 inch.

I marked the line at each inner turn so I could turn the corner more evenly. With the way that the CK and these petal shapes line up, it was easy and fast to come back in and mark.

 Here's what I've got so far. I'm not liking the dense stitching in the petals. I wish I had stuck to my original plan of using a 1/2 inch crosshatch in them. But the fills were a good place to see how this thread showed up on the fabric.

This is WonderFil's Mirage, a 30 wt. thread and it's stitching up so very nice. No tension or shredding issues at all. I'm using a 90/14 needle with it. The only thing I don't like is the unexpected appearance of the black color in between the blue and green colors in the variegation.

Gotta run! I hope you've been doing some free motion quilting fun, hopefully with a ruler.

Quilting with Rulers: Rack Them Up

I've been meaning to show you the gorgeous ruler rack that the talented and generous Patsy Thompson sent me. It's so pretty! Especially with all my sparkly rulers stacked and looking like giant jewels.

Let me point out the beautiful inlay work that Patsy's husband Ernie put into this rack. It sits perfectly on one of my cube storage units and is nice and heavy so I know it's not going to get knocked off.

Yes, I loved my son's pointer he got from his school so much I bought myself one. Actually I got 3 in different colors. I was hoping to find a small one that would fit on the end of a pencil so I could use it easier in my videos. (Or break it out in a Craftsy taping! I'm pretty sure they wouldn't keep it in the footage, but it would make a great blooper.) I wasn't feeling brave enough to use it in my recent talk to a local quilt guild.


I didn't get my ruler work sampler done in time for the guild talk. I've been filling in at my Janome dealer's shop while he recovers from some surgery. It's put a crimp in my schedule for sure, but I love helping the customers.


I did some partial crosshatching into one of the setting triangles the other day....

Then I decided to fill in every other square with a back and forth line fill. I'm not sure I like it. What do you think? I probably need to heed my own advice and step away from the quilt before looking at it and deciding it's not good enough. If I hadn't already done the fill below the crosshatching, I would have put another two lines in so the filled spaces worked out to fill the corners of the design, not just the top and bottom diamond.

Don't forget the upcoming Ruler Work Link Party on January 26th. Get your ruler work projects ready to share, inspire, and educate other quilters and we'll pop around the links and visit.

In other news, the USPS is raising their postage rates this weekend and I'm sorry to tell you that we'll have to raise shipping rates in the shop. Anything ordered after Sunday (1/17) will have the new shipping rates added.

I enjoyed all the wonderful feedback I got from my last post on the Sew Slip mat and its alternatives. While the commentors didn't all agree on what they used for a good slick surface, all agreed that something extra was needed beyond just the table and machine surface.

Edited to add: I almost forgot! Craftsy is having a sale on its new classes this weekend. New year, new class specials. They don't often put the newest classes on sale, so take advantage of this one by clicking my affiliate link.

Quilting Holly and Swirls

Here's a blast from the Christmas past. A custom quilt for a local quilter from 2 years ago.


Here's a video of stitching holly leaves and swirls in the pieced portion of the embroidered blocks.

I wasn't sure if it would be visible via the video, since usually I stick to contrasting thread and fabric for videos. I'm so glad to be able to kill two birds with one stone, so to say!

A still pic of the quilting above and remember this guy, below? He and his friends have been all stitched up.

The puckers around the embroidery disappeared easily as I quilted around these cool cats. I used monopoly to stitch around the embroidery so I could stitch right over the whiskers and little claws.

I'm stitching a little floor for each kitty, using a few different designs. I do hope this first time customer likes what I've done!

 Are you in need of a little gag gift for your quilt guild's Christmas meeting? I saw this up at my local Janome dealer's shop! Embroidered toilet paper! I wonder if I could quilt some toilet paper with the same method? It involves several layers of TP plus some good tear-away stabilizer.

The count down to Christmas has begun! I hope I can get everything done that really needs to be done on my list without becoming too busy to enjoy the meaning behind Christmas.

Free Motion Quilting: Whirly Star

I'm still plugging away at my ruler work sampler quilt. I'm pleased to have finished this block, let's call it a 4 point whirly star. I'm open to other names- leave a comment if you've got a better one. It was made by marking a square in the center of the block and quilting from the corners of the block to the corners of the inner marked square.

I echoed the lines of the star, but brought the lines to the corners for continuous stitching. Note the lines marked faintly at those inner points, they help me turn the ruler at the right point. I free hand drew the pebbles before I stitched them. Marking was needed to help keep it uniform on all four sides.

Then I did a paisley fill. I LOVE the texture of this block! I need to take a break from this project and finally make a baby quilt for my adorable niece. I'm headed to Tennessee to meet her this weekend. Poor baby probably won't have a finished quilt when I get there, but I'm going to try!

I'm excited to finally work on her quilt! I've had the fabric for a few months now and it's beyond time to get it made.

Anybody notice that I'm not too good with finishing? Even if it is my 'word of the year'? Maybe it will be my word of the decade!

Free Motion Quilting Video: Continuous L's

I finished up the loopy L fill around my diamond sashing from my previous post and shot a video while I did it.

It turned out nicely I think. Made the diamonds pop without being horribly dense or time consuming.

You can still see some of the markings above. The lines help keep things straight and keep me from forgetting to change the design when I get to the small squares.

Have you been like me and gotten so 'in the flow' that you quilt something you shouldn't? Happens to me more often than I like so I use my handy purple pen.

Now I'm working on the interior of the block around the 4 pointed twisted star. Pebbles, paisleys, and rulered lines are involved.

Craftsy is doing a flash sale this weekend! Use my discount link to get up to 50% off on all classes! My class, Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine is reduced to $24.99 with the general sale, but use this link: My Class at 50% off!  and it will give it to you at 50%.

Craftsy sales usually have a theme, and this one does too. They're talking about the fun of using crafts and creativity together as we gather during this time leading up to the holidays. I couldn't bring myself to use their beautifully done pictures of strangers (to me) when I had this sweet girl's pic available from when we were actually using a Craftsy class together.

There are some really great free motion quilting classes on Craftsy right now. Besides my class, there's a class from Lori Kennedy of the Inbox Jaunt. I haven't taken Divide and Conquer: Creative Quilting for Any Space yet, but I keep up with her blog and she's so stinkin' talented and creative with her designs. There are several more from Leah Day, Patsy Thompson, Angela Walters, and more. Patsy's talked about my work with rulers being an inspiration to her, so let me point out that she's got a new class on feathers with Craftsy.

There are two great classes to take that could be utilized with ruler work: Angela Walters' Dot to Dot Quilting and Kim Brunner's Machine Quilting with Templates.

Have a great weekend!