Butterfly Wings Quilting Design Tutorial

This past Friday I shared a quilt and pattern I made for the latest issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited called Flutter.  I created a special quilting design in the drunkard's path curved blocks and I promised a tutorial on how I did it, so here it is :)

This design is easy to do on a domestic (or longarm) sewing machine and requires very little marking.  For this design, I used my Bernina ruler foot on my domestic machine and set up my machine and ruler according to my 5 tips for successful domestic ruler work post here.

The ruler I used was the Quick Curved Longarm Ruler (affiliate link) I got off of Amazon, but you could make this work with any gentle curved ruler.  Before I used the ruler for the first time, I added a couple of Handi Grip Adhesive squares to the back of the ruler, which I find helps a tremendous keeping the ruler from slipping on the fabric.

To start, here is my drunkards path "block", drawn in Sharpie on a piece of fabric.

For the first part of the design, you only need to mark the center and quarters on the curve of the block (using a removable marking method).  Because I had a lot of blocks to mark, I put marks right on my template so I could mark all of my blocks quickly and consistently.

Starting in at one edge of the curve and using your ruler, quilt a curved line down to the lower corner.

Next, travel from the bottom corner up to the quarter marked line on the curve edge.  Continue going up and back to each mark on the edge of the curve until you reach the other side of the block.  

You can stop here and have a very nice quilting design that has a petal-like quality to it.  This was my original design, but when I quilted Flutter, I felt that the space between the quilting lines was a little too large compared to the other quilting on the quilt so I added a second layer of quilting.

To add the second layer of quilting, mark (I just approximated the positioning) between the first set of marks on the curve and between the where the quilting lines intersected in the middle of the block.  These marks are shown as gray dots on the block below.

Quilt this second layer of quilting just like the first.  This extra quilting really makes the design look complicated and gives movement to the quilting.

I hope that my tutorial was clear and helpful, happy quilting!!

WIP Wednesday 10/9/13

Hi and welcome to my first ever WIP Wednesday post.  When I first found the online quilting community one of the first link parties I found was the WIP Wednesday linkup.  That is how I found most of the wonderful blogs I follow today and I am so excited to join in.

To start I have a baby quilt that is basted and ready to quilt. It is a modern log cabin quilt pattern using the Oh Deer line by Momo for Moda.  I had never made a log cabin quilt before but loved the pattern, so when I had a whole bunch of leftover jelly roll strips from the On a "Jelly" Roll quilt I knew they should go into making some log cabin blocks.  I simply kept sewing strips on (and sewing all of the scraps into more strips) until I had 4 approximately 15" blocks. 

I gave them some white sashing to set them apart from one other and a multicolored border.  I was able to get a great print (organic even) from Pink Castle during their last sale for the back.  I think that I am going to quilt this quilt using a serpentine stitch which I have never done. (sorry about the pics, I had to take these at night after the kiddos went to bed)

My second quilt that I am ready to quilt is a charity quilt.  As part of the Foothills Piecemakers Quilt Guild members make blocks, make quilt tops, and/or quilt the quilt.  I did not make the quilt top but offered to quilt and bind it.  I am going to use this quilt to try out and practice some new FMQ patterns. 

Thank you so much for visiting my new little blog, I hope you visit again soon or subscribe :)

Cheryl

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!