September 16, 2010

Free Motion Quilting Designs: Lines and Angles

Beyond the basic zig zag, lines can do a lot.



My absolute favorite way to use lines in free motion quilting is to create a "beads on a string" effect, adding shapes or drawings on a vertical line. It is so simple and fun!


You can string lots of shapes on your lines.The design on the right was inspired by some 50's theme fabric, and I used this design on the background of this quilt.




The design below on the left reminds me of a kite tail. The one on the right was inspired by some fabric in my stash.



Kathy taught us how to make a line of stars with one continuous line. This is so fun in borders!


Much like wiggles, doubling up a zig zag can be fun.


And how about intersecting zig zags?



There are plenty more quilting designs using lines and angles! Try drawing some yourself.

See more Free Motion Quilting designs and tips on the Free Motion Quilting page.

16 comments:

Megan said...

Fan-freakin-tastic!

Jill said...

Love it Christina! I can't wait to get started with this!! Can someone come over and take my kids away for a few hours??

Rebecca Merry said...

Thanks for such awesome inspiration!

Elsa said...

oh this is great! I got brave and did free motion quilting on my d-i-l's nephews quilt ... little cars, buses, scooters, trains, etc! it turned out cuter than I expected and hope he likes it!

Graciela said...

Hi Crhis!!!! thanks for your job, kisses for you

Suzanne said...

Photo by photo you have opened my eyes!

Diana said...

Thanks for sharing all these fun designs! I need to practice and more practice:)

Leah said...

Thanks for these ideas. I did get my samples done - just need to work on even stitch lengths!

My Handmadehappiness said...

morning Christina, i am going to enjoy this practice as i said in my post circles and loops evade me!!
http://misstracianderson.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-1st-free-motion.html

Gene Black said...

Ooooh.. I am loving the beads on a string idea. I can see that as being very useful.

Weatherbee ;) said...

Thanks for all of the great idea! I can't wait to try some of these. (Although I think I"m really liking the curved designs). :)

Sherry Hogan said...

I did my first pracice pad and it went well until I tried it on practice quilt I sure don't know what happened but it was a mess I only did 1 of the strips and will do the other today. I can't wait to see the next installment.

Stray Stitches (Linda G) said...

I had done the stars before but will be trying the others. Thanks again for the tutorial.

Dana Gaffney said...

Keep these coming, I can see them on some of my works in progress, or better yet, I see a little difference that works. I'm always thinking about how I'm going to do the quilting while I'm piecing a quilt, a lot of the time the fabric talks, so I really like the fabric that you mimicked.

Helen in the UK said...

Great ideas! Particularly like the spiral on the line and the stars :)

Anneri said...

Thanks for all these great ideas! i have just started machine quilting and you have the best range of ideas I have seen so far :-) I am going to start practising now!

Post a Comment

I love reading your comments, thank you for coming by!