I am sharing with you today how I quilted block 6 – The Seasons.

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler, a sew-along hosted by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell. I plan to share along the process with some tips and tutorial.

As usual, I have two blocks made for two quilts, one  with custom quilting and one with allover quilting. Both would be a great practice if you are looking towards improving your free-motion skill. I am still practicing myself, especially with the custom quilting. I am learning as I go too, so let’s do this together!

If you are new here, this post is a part of my quilt-as-you-go my Sewcial Bee Sampler which I plan to share along the process along with some tips and tutorial. Click here to  related Archive posts.

There are affiliate links in this post for your convenience. Please refer to my full disclosure here.

Before we go into the design for this block, here are some of my favorite must-have tools for Free Motion Quilting:

1. Superior Threads. I literally changed my minds about threads, when I started using this thread. And they come in big cones. which means they last longer before I have to change thread. I use an embroidery thread stand for it. You can get cheap thread stand like this one here.

2. Superior Threads Top Stitch Needles. I use this for all my sewing and FMQ. Really. In fact, I kind of find it a bit off when I have to use a needle that is not coloured gold as these needles are.

3. My trusty sticky Glove. Any brand works for me, but I personally love the one that is breathable cotton like this one.

4. Spray Baste. I am not a fan of taking off safety pins. This makes it so much quicker and allows me to cruise without fear of getting onto a pin. I personally love 505 Spray baste.

5.  My large throat Janome Horizon machine of course!

However, you won’t need all of these tools to start. Just a reminder, I started with the very basic sewing machine and just a regular free motion quilting foot. And still managed to quilt a queen-size quilt. Just upgrade as you feel more confident and want to ease a couple of things that bothers you.

Quilt as you go

Quilt as you go block-by-block, is one method you could opt for when you want to make quilting large quilts on your domestic machine feasible. It is one of my go-to methods especially if I want to skip the heavy work pushing through large quilts within my machine throat space.

Besides, I love the fact that I can easily finish blocks by blocks and even have a fancy backing like this one I made earlier. If you are interested to learn how I piece the block together, here is one way how to do it – using small sashing strips.

Allover Quilting Motif: Echoed Teardrop

For the allover quilting, I chose to another echo motif continuing from my last block, this time starting with a teardrop shape. I echo around the teardrop shape a couple of time before making the second teardrop shape with a different direction to add variety and randomness to the allover pattern.

You will need:

• Pen and Paper
• Free motion quilting foot. Read here for more detail info which foot is best.
• A good thread. I use Superior Threads for all of my quilting
• The right needle. I suggest using top stitch needle as it has a larger eye to avoid wearing off your thread.

I do suggest you try this pattern with pen and paper first. This will give you the idea on how the final look will be, how you are to navigate from one place to another, and how the motion is.

Echoing is a great filler motif in free motion quilting. Just determine a consistent spacing between each echo lines for a uniform look.

After having the confidence practicing on paper, you can move onto free motion quilting on scrap fabric basted with leftover battings. This is to ensure you have good tension and have a good sense of moving your quilt in the direction you want it to go. Then you can move onto quilting your block.

Here is the finished block with the echoed teardrop motif.  This is one of my favourite allover quilting motif, simply because it is easy and very therapeutic. Try it yourself, you’ll know what I mean.

make sure you pin this to try them later!

Custom free motion quilting on quilt as you go blocks

Some links provided here are affiliate links for your convenience. Please find my full disclosure here.

For the other quilt, each block is going to be custom quilted, which means each will be designed accordingly with the block pattern.

The benefit of using quilt-as-you-go block is that it is so much easy to maneuver with small blocks and custom quilting is made easier under the throat of a domestic machine. Plus, your shoulder should thank you too!

I planned the custom quilting using Sharon Holland’s colouring page which  Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell has available for download in the Intro section. I simply view them in magnified mode on my screen and crop each block into JPG on its own (You can use (shift+command+4 on Mac) or use snips in Microsoft.

Then, I printed the block individually and plan out the quilting with pencils. While doing it with the pencil I also plan how will I be moving the needle from one place to another.

Marking on the block for free motion quilting for quilt as you go blocks

On the quilt block, make sure custom quilting are done within the finished block size – which means, you have to mark a 1/4″  frame line from the block seams. This is to ensure that when joining the blocks together, the quilting does not get covered by the seams.

You can mark using a Hera marker or an erasable pen.

You can also do marking for the feather spine as this will be a great guidance to free motion quilting feathers. I have been pinning lots of feathers and all kinds of quilting lately over at pinterest. Join me along over at pinterest!

This time, I made a feather border with only one sided feathers. I started from the centre out to the corners. When I reach the corners, I simply trace back along the spine back to the centre and feather out to the other corner. Repeat this with all the sides.

Here is a video snippet of the free motion quilting done for the block. I have only recorded the part for the feather border, the centre part is a dense pebble and swirls which are hard to record with the white background. I have included tips along the way throughout the video, hopefully, that would be helpful!

Well, if you decide to join along or have any question, drop me a comment. I will be happy to help where I can! In the meantime, you can also check these free motion quilting tips!

Click here to related Archive posts.
until next time, have fun sewing and quilting!

Quilty Hugs,

Amira