Wave Quilting Tutorial and February ALYOF

Today I would like to share a little tutorial about the quilting I have done on the Shoo Fly Pie quilt.  Because the fabrics I used in the quilt were nautical, with boats and waves, I decided to try to do some simple wave quilting and it was so fast, easy, and fun I wanted to share it with you today.

I am guessing that I am not the first to quilt this pattern, but I have not seen anywhere so I thought that I would share some instructions and tips.

The quilting is done in rows, from left to right.  This means that when you start each line you are going to have the entire width of the quilt between the needle and the machine so if your machine has a smaller throat size I would limit using this quilting pattern to smaller quilts.

It also is the easiest to quilt on quilts having the rows already marked with block or piece seams so that you do not have to mark the quilt top.  I practiced some on a practice quilt sandwich and I found that it was most comfortable for me to quilt the waves about 2-4 inches high.

To quilt simply follow the drawing above with curve ending with a little hook.  When I needed to stop to reposition the quilt I found that for me the best place to stop was the tip of hook part of the wave.

For this quilt which was 45" x 45", I finished the quilting in less than 25 minutes (and it would have been quicker if my bobbin had not run out halfway through the last row :)

Here are pictures of quilt top and quilt back (I tried to boost the contrast a little to try to show the quilting a little more).

I hope that this little tutorial has inspired you to try out this pattern, let me know if you have any questions.  I'm off to bind the quilt now :)

Also, I figured I would use this post for my February "A Lovely Year of Finishes" party link up.  My goal is to have my improve quilt finished by the end of the month.  Currently, the quilt top is finished and the quilt is basted.  I am going to try out some spiral quilting on this one.

I'm Linking up to WIP at Freshly Pieced, Blossom Heart Quilts, Quilt Story Fabric Tuesday, A Lovely Year of Finishes, and Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts.