Hey, you know I’m excited.
It’s another free motion quilting day at Man Sewing.
And today I’m going to teach you basically this really cool circle grid you can use for
all kinds of different motifs and background fills.
Let’s get started.
As you know, one of my favorite things to do at the major quilt shows, and this time
I was at Houston International Quilt Festival, is to go around and look at all the fabulous
quilts that come in from all around the world.
Well machine quilting is one of my favorite things to do in the world of quilting and
so I’m often studying what do folks do that I like.
And there was this artist and standing in front of her piece.
And it was fabulous.
And it was this basic quilting of this circle design that you see or kind of a gridded out
circle.
But what we started discussing was all of the different ways to use it as fills and
backgrounds and stuff.
And so let’s take this basic design and break it down for you so you can use it a
lot of different ways.
We have a free printable in the description below and this is what it looks like here.
And just to show you and I’ll show you on fabric in a second, using something that has
a grid to it is going to make at least learning this motif much easier.
So at any rate, what I want you to go ahead and do is follow this printable.
And you’ll notice this red line is kind of our starting zone.
So we’re going to come over and we’re going to basically bump down one approach.
And then when we come back up is when we go out and create the other leg of the circle.
And that will make a lot more sense as you see me sew it.
But that’s how you use this printable.
This is to show you the lines of sewing.
And we’re going to do a column and then we’re going to extend it.
And one of the things I’ve done here on my background already is I’ve just taken
my standard ruler and a chalk pencil and I’ve laid out two inch hash marks.
I found two inches were a really easy path to travel in my arcs and it gave me a great
place to practice and play with.
The more I practice on a grid the better I am when I’m trying to do it freestyle without
drawing the grid, ok?
So a couple of other things I want to talk about so that when we’re sitting at the
machine this will make a little bit more sense.
The ways we can do this and create fun extra loft is one: is to also come back in and fill
in these areas here where I have created the petals we’ll call them from this point on.
And/or you can also fill in the diamond shapes that fill in from the center.
And you can see here where I was using white thread so obviously we can all see it.
But this motif is traditionally done with the same color.
So here I hope you can see the texture but you don’t see the stitching so much.
I used the same shade of gray thread as the gray fabric.
And I free motion quilted those same techniques to create more of the quilting loft and that’s
where it’s used so beautifully in the background techniques.
And then it’s also really fun because it’s a fluid design.
It’s just the petal shapes that translate so nicely into swirls and arcs.
And so you can often come out of these style designs into larger free motion if you’re
a modern quilter and you like to play with traditional motifs and then flow into other
modern motifs.
And so hopefully that makes some sense.
Let’s get started at the machine.
I have my sew slip mat down on the bed of the machine and so that my fabric is going
to move with ease.
I’m putting on the Machinger’s gloves so I’ve got some traction.
I’m quilting with cotton threads today.
And if you’re brand new to free motion machine quilting we have a bunch of other tutorials
as well that maybe show you some more of the basic steps.
But I’ll just point out my feed dogs are down so I’m in control of all of the movement
in this particular design.
And what I’m going to do is let’s see, we’re going to start up here and we’re
going to build this grid starting right here at the top first.
Ok so what I’m going to do is I’m going to lower my presser foot, I’m going to take
one single stitch here.
And then I’m going to bring up my bobbin thread so that I have both bobbin and needle
thread on the top.
And I’m going to lock that stitch in.
And I’m going to create a basic arc that goes from one hash mark to the next like this.
Oop, that didn’t sound so good.
Let’s try that again.
We’re going to do another basic arc from one hash mark to the next.
Here we go.
Just like this.
So once I get that rhythm I can start to flow.
The more I stop actually the more difficult it is.
Ok so we’re going to get two hash marks at a time.
And I’ve got a big layout here for us just to show you how it works.
Ok so now I’ve come down to the bottom of whatever gridded out area I have.
I’m going to use that same arcing motion to travel over here to the next column.
So I’m going to arc up and over to this point.
And now I’m going to begin upward column.
But when I get to this point I’m going to arc over.
Hah, let’s stop and catch our breath.
And now we’re going to arc back up to that hash mark.
So up, over, back.
Up, stop, move your hands.
You want to make sure you’re using your director’s hands today.
We want to have a tight grip.
I shouldn’t say tight grip, excuse me, we want to have a good grip.
We don’t need to pulling it extra tight.
I want to make sure we’re clear with that.
So I’m going to go back over and back.
Up, over, oop and back.
Now what we really want to do is we want to make it to that other stitch point.
So we’re going to go up and we’re going to bring it all the way over and make sure
we park there.
And then come back over.
Ok so now I’m back at that other end and so what I can do is come back and arc over.
Now if I’m at the end of a column though I may need to follow that arc back.
So I want to try to stay on that line as I can.
Now let’s start running this back down and talking about some of the ways to use those
fill motifs.
I’m pretty sure you’ve got the rhythm down.
We’re going to go now down to make this column.
And I’m not going to go do that other arc back, we’re making that same column we did
on our first leg.
Try to tie in those stitch areas.
Now we’re going to fill in the other side of the design.
And I need to go ahead and at least box this in so we can discuss.
So at this point if I’m going to fill in that diamond shape then while I’m still
here, watch what I do.
I’m going to come down and I’m just going to do some micro stippling.
And what I’m doing is I’m leaving myself a path back to that same corner I just came
from.
So I’m going to micro stipple along the edges so to speak.
Or whatever kind of fill in motif you like.
To do circles or pebbles or squares or whatever.
But you see how I’ve given myself the opportunity to get right back where I’ve started from.
So I’ve filled in that area but I haven’t had to create anymore arcs.
Now I can finish out the arc.
I can come back up, come back over.
And I’m at that same spot again where I’m going to begin my micro stippling.
I’ll fill it in.
I’m filling it in really quick right now to make the concept clear.
Ok and then the same thing would be if I came up over here.
But if I want to do the petals, what I found in doing the petals, the easiest way to manage
the petals was to do my entire grid first.
So if all this grid was all done through here then what I’m going to do is I was doing
fun in this was a real easy design was I come in here and go back and forth to fill these
in.
But I found the shortest path of least resistance here was the same kind of concept was I would
come over here.
And now as I get down to the bottom and now I’m going to do the same fill in.
Now when you do this kind of a fill in though you’ll notice I’m no longer heading toward
the corner I came from.
So I’m going to have to do some sort of backtrack.
So you might want to account for that when you’re building in your fill.
We can backtrack here and then we keep on filling and then I’d leave that other leg
for the other side while I’m coming back up.
So I keep myself a nice rhythm and a nice motif going.
So I’m starting to feel that need to turn up the music here and let all of you enjoy
watching me sew us out today in the rhythm.
So let me work my way back over to this column.
And as I’m doing that I’m just going to point out, remember you can do this as accent.
You can do this as background.
You can do it with matching threads.
You can do it with contrasting threads.
It’s a really fun motif.
And really for me once I got that rhythm down it was really fun and easy to use.
You can even see very large scale on the wall behind me there.
So anyway thanks for being a Man Sewing fan.
Thanks for letting me show you all these fun techniques and free motion machine quilting.
Here goes the rock and roll.
We’ll see you next time at Man Sewing.
Thanks for being a Man Sewing fan.
It’s great to have you out there encouraging me to create fantastic new content.
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