Block #84 in the Machine Quilting Challenge

Good Morning All,

Great news.......I've been asked (and I've accepted!) to write an article on machine quilting for each of the six issues of Quilting Arts Magazine for the year 2011! I will present it as a learning challenge just as I have done here on my blog. I'm so excited!

Here is another new motif, designed for wide, outer borders. It features multiple designs including, a five petal flower with a swirled center, stems, leaves and veins as well as tall grasses and background filigree. If any of these motif elements are new to you, doodle it out first. I used three different thread colors. To show you two different ideas, on the right hand side of the strip I quilted the flowers farther apart and on the left side, they are closer together and overlap some.

Load your machine with the thread you want to use for the flowers and beginning at one end of the rectangle, stitch across the bottom about 1 1/2" with a wavy line then stitch up to about the half way point to form a stem, again with a wavy line. Stitch a small swirl, about the size of a nickle then stitch back out again and form your first petal. Continue making petals until you have circled the center of the flower then stitch back down the stem. Stitch over along the bottom edge about 2" then stitch up to form the second stem, then second flower and so on. Continue stitching flowers until the border section is filled, trying to keep them all an equal distance apart.

Load up your machine with a thread color for the long grasses and leaves. Beginning at one end of the strip, start stitching the long grasses. Stitch a long wavy line up about 2" then stitch back down again forming a long, sharp point and keeping the distance along the base of the grass blade no wider than 1/4", stitch back up again, either longer or shorter than the first blade and form the second blade. Keep forming long blades of grass of various heights from as tall as the flowers to as shot as 1". When you reach a stem, travel up it and form a leaf on one side of it then a leaf on the other side of it and travel back down it again. Keep forming grasses and leaves until the border section is filled.

Load your machine with the thread color for the flower accents and filigree. Travel along the bottom of the strip with a wavy line until you reach the first stem. Travel up the stem to the leaves and stitch a long, wavy vein in each of the leaves. Stitch up to the flower and stitch a curvy vein in each of the petals. Stitch out of the petals and fill in the area above the flower with thin, curling, filigrees. Stitch back down and between two petals of the flower, back down the stem and over to the next flower and do it all again. Strive to fill any background space with a filigree so that all of the space in the rectangle is equally filled with stitching.

Hope you enjoy this new design,
Till next time,
Heather