This Spring is my first as a home-and-garden-owner. In my previous houses I only had a balcony and now I have a decently sized garden with flowering plants. The gorgeous blooms inspired this pattern which I have called FANTASY.
The red sample above shows the elaborated version of the pattern shown in the tutorial in blue pen. The blue variation is stitched out the same on the first pass (from left to right). I have added a little leaf-like shape in the tip of the flower petal while hopping back on the second pass to the beginning of the pattern (from right to left).
This next pattern is also inspired by my garden. There is no real leaf or flower that looks like this, but I like how the pattern conveys the movement of leaves in the wind. It is also not too girly and can be used an a quilt for nature-loving guy. The pattern is called WILD.
The main trick to get this pattern right is to keep curving back to the spine of the leaf. This curving-back motion is a bit different from other Freemotion patterns, so practice this pattern on paper first. The sample (black, above) was stitched out on a 2 inch grid and I remarked it with 4 circles. Sometimes I encounter a picture /drawing of a pantograph that I really like. Sometimes I try them out as a freemotion pattern, like this one. The original design is from Anita Shakleford. (link, non-affiliated). For this sample I used a 1 inch grid and I added in some reference lines. I found this pattern pretty hard to do freehand. The pattern moves upwards and you can’t really tell if you are doing it well. My sewing machine was blocking the view actually. Maybe I need to try this pattern again, but turn the quilt 90 degrees so I will stitch from left to right and vise versa. My machine really doesn’t like this motion as is does sometimes skip stitches. That might be the reason to stitch this vertically on a domestic machine. If you are using a longarm or midarm, would that be something to consider too??? I think that you would stitch this out horizontally (90 degrees turned) on a longarm so you wouldn’t have to advance the quilt in the middel of a pattern, right? You would just add a new row of flames, correct?
After stitching out this flame-like sample I opted for a pattern with a bit less spiky and curvy lines. This basketweave pattern was pretty easy to stitch, but please don’t create too curvy lines. Mine are even too curvy. I believe that a less curvy line would be better. So less curve is better for a basketweave. I found a lovely example on Cindy Needham’s Pinterest board (link)
Have a lovely week everybody!
Esther
Thank you you are a total inspiration
Thanks for the great tutorial and inspiration!
I haven’t commented at all on this series, but I love it!! I find myself bookmarking almost every tutorial to come back and look at. Thank you!
Hello Amanda.
Thank you very much for your kind words. It is a joy to see that other enjoy this project as much as I do.
Have a lovely wekkend!
Esther.
I love the Wild pattern 🙂
Me too! It was fun to create something not-girly!
Hugs
Esther
Esther, I love all your examples of the orange peel! So much inspiration.
Did I tell you already I tried a real leave Peal for the first time and I’m happy with it. The rest will follow, I’m sure.
Many thanks 😘
Hello Betty!
Thank you for your lovely comment. I don’t know what a real leave Peal is, but I assume you meant an Orange Peel. I am so glad you are having fun with the grid quilting techniques!
Hugs
Esther
You are so right
My iPhone is only starting to learn English 😂
I find them all attractive, but the leaves one stands out as something I really must try.
I would love to see your leaves!
Hugs
Esther
Reblogged this on Clever Chameleon Quilting and commented:
Esther from ipatchandquilt blog shares a brilliant tutorial on two orange-peel based free-motion quilting designs. Now, the only question is, what to try them on?!! Enjoy this post!
Hi Esther, just found your blog. Really love your FMQ designs, especially the WILD design. Would be fantastic on a teenage quilt. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas! Dione.