Well, you just finished your quilt top and now you are anxious to quilt it. Your quilting will bring your quilt top to life so you have to choose what to quilt on your precious top.
If you are a beginning quilter and are overwhelmed by too many ideas (or you don’t have any idea – it happens to all of us!), here are a few guidelines to help you make an easier choice; I follow them when I quilt my own quilts.
When choosing the quilting motifs, you have to take into account these things : the design and the technique of the quilt top, the pattern of the fabric, and the purpose of the quilt. If it seems too much, do not worry: there is not a “right choice” or “wrong choice”.
1. Quilting with the walking foot
Straight line quilting
This is the first quilting technique any beginner quilter learns.
It works beautifully on patchwork quilts; you could use the edge of the blocks/patches as your guide and stitch in the ditch or 1/4” away from the edges or straight through the center or diagonally.
You could sew a beautiful grid (vertical and horizontal parallel stitching lines) and the space between the lines is up to you.
I don’t have enough patience to sew a grid on a big quilt, but I think this is a great option for any quilt and especially for quilts with complex patterns.
I enjoy quilting “crazy” grids on small pieces!
You could sew grids on curved pieces too – just follow the desired edge with your presser foot. Some nice designs are born at the intersection of the lines.
Some applique designs could be easily echoed with the walking foot too. Follow the design with the edge of your presser foot. The quilting has a simple and modern look.
Really helpful- for wide grids
Do you have this accessory for your machine? It allows you to stitch at the desired distance from a previous stitching (great for wide grids- it’s adjustable!).
It’s great for echo quilting too. I have a Pfaff machine and this is called edge/quilting guide.
Point up or point down, it works like magic!
Wavy quilting
It can be done with the walking foot or the free motion quilting foot; the space between the lines is up to you.
It’s one of my favorite ways to quilt the pieces for my quilted bags.
Free motion quilting
All over machine quilting designs
If your quilt is scrappy, or it is made out of fabric with busy prints, stippling is a great idea; I still ADORE stippling after 15 years of quilting!
Especially great for bed quilts, table runners, pillows, and for any quilt that will be used and washed over and over again.
This loop design is beautiful too and it is easy to stitch it all over the surface of the quilt.
Highlight the design of a block
If you want to highlight the design of a block, sew stippling on the background and just outline the main design – this will make the design pop.
You could leave the design unquilted too, but it is not recommended if the blocks are big (you don’t want too much space left unquilted).
And this is the back of my block.
For outlining, you could use one of the motifs below (some of them take more time than others, the first one is great!).
I always like to sew “fancy” quilting on solid (or almost solid) fabric and on light color fabric (it’s more visible).
I don’t sew fancy quilting on busy prints.
You could easily quilt a wavy grid with the free motion foot too. The key to enjoy it? Don’t try to make it perfect!
This grid is continuous!
On many blocks you could sew spirals – they don’t necessarily have to be round! Start from the center and follow the edges of the block.
A wavy quilting that follows the edge of the patches of a block always works! The space between the lines is up to you.
I free motion quilted this zig zag quilt, but the same stitching could be done with the walking foot; and instead of straight stitching, you could use a decorative stitching.
The same parallel stitching lines, following edges of the block.
The different directions add texture and interest.
Some fancy machine quilting designs
Feathers on hexagons – a very good idea and so easy to stitch (tutorial here- sheets for practicing are included).
You could quilt feathers on any shape!
Still afraid to machine quilt?
“I have worked so hard on making the top pretty, now I am afraid to machine quilt it, I don’t want to ruin it with lousy quilting”.
Do you struggle with this too? The only solution for this is to start quilting on small pieces; it doesn’t have to be a pretty top; just layer 2 pieces of cheap fabric with batting and start practicing. As you gain confidence, start quilting bigger and bigger pieces.
Practice on paper
You could practice on paper too, until you find the rhythm of your machine! I find this much more effective (and fun) than doodling with a pen on paper.
Print your designs on paper (a lightweight paper is the best, mine is a little bit thinner that the one I use for regular printing). Remove the thread from your machine, attach the darning foot, insert a thin needle that you will keep only for this purpose (it will become dull soon) and start sewing through paper. You don’t waste fabric or batting and you don’t have to unpick stitches.
Recommended reading: Quilting through paper.
A few tips for your success!
Quilt sandwich
Baste your quilt sandwich correctly and you will quilt easier and with better results.
Here is how I baste my quilt.
- Large quilts – I baste them on the floor. I tape the backing to the floor with masking tape, keeping it flat and taut.
Then I lay the batting on top and then the quilt top. The thin cotton batting is the best for beginners – the fabric sticks nicely to it, leaving almost no room for creases while quilting.
- Medium quilts could be basted on a table and binder clips could be used to keep the layers taut.
- For my small to medium quilts (smaller than 50”) I prefer an adhesive spray; I baste the quilt on the table, in the front of an open window. If the quilt is bigger than the table, I work in sections. I never feel sorry when I spend money on basting spray!
Uniform quilting
Try to have a uniform quilting all over your quilt; large heavily quilted areas combined with large unquilted areas could distort the shape of your quilt and you could end up with a quilt that doesn’t lay flat.
Speeding up quilting
If you don’t need to match the color of the thread with the color of the fabric, use a thread in a neutral color; it works well on any color and it saves you a lot of time. It’s what I do for most of my quilts; I prefer quilting with light color thread.
Needles
Not all the needles are the same – these are the ones I use with great success!
Washing the quilt
I wash every quilt (by hand or by machine) when it’s finished. To remove the water, I put it in the machine for a low-speed spinning cycle; when it’ done, I lay it on the floor (or table) and smooth it until it’s nice and flat. If the quilting distorted your quilt, you will be able to correct it at this stage.
More tips for easy free motion quilting
If you haven’t downloaded my ebook yet, do it now (it’s free)- click below.
This is what I quilt on my quilts! If you are looking for inspiration, I hope you find some ideas.
Happy quilting!
This is very helpful. I wish I’d been able to read it before quilting my first and, so far, only quilt. I found very little on the internet about how to match quilting designs to the design of the block or the overall quilt. Mine was a wonky quilt, a design I (wrongly) exaggerated with the quilting. Now, thanks to you, I know better and won’t make that mistake with my second quilt!
Dinah, I am very happy if this post gives you some new ideas.
This is so informative! Thank you so much. I enjoy your blog!
Glad you find something interesting.
I’ve hand quilted for 40+ yrs, and am 2 1/2 yrs into FMQ. Very helpful information. And your work is absolutely beautiful
Geta, I am thrilled to find your blog and website! So many practical ideas. I love to FMQ and you are encouraging me to start FMQ on a queen quilt, that I have had sandwiched for almost a year. I have been working on lot her quilts since then but today’s blog is the inspiration to start. Thanks so much…
I also like the idea of the free motion butter than using the rulers that are flooding the market… ‘I want to do it myself’…?
I am glad that this inspires you to take action; I personally think the rulers are just an added stress for beginners. I would use them to draw the magic on the top and then I would quilt it as usual.
Oh my goodness! What a wonderful bit of eye candy. I love your quilting and have been following you for a few years. I do a lot of EPP, but my quilting never holds a candle to yours. I aspire to do better. Thank you for your willingness to share with us and teach.
Kris, thank you for forcing me to find out the meaning of “can’t hold a candle”! You are too kind. I owe my love for quilting feathers to my first big hexagon project!
Thanks so much
I am a beginner and your designs are simple modern but fabolous .. Love it!!
Many details are from the quilts I made in my first years of quilting, so I thought it’s helpful for beginners. Many times we have so beautiful tops that really don’t need too much or too fancy quilting.
Thank you so much, free motion quilting intimidates me but with your advice I’m willing to give it a try. Your quilts are very beautiful.
Just try it, Norma, and start with a small piece!
It is a great post with lots of tips. Thank you very much for your quilting knowlege! I’m sure that I will be come back to this tips.
Greetings from Poland
Kamila
Geta, Thank you so much for the blog. I have 4 quilt tops I am trying to come up with what to quilt. My husband bought me a long arm I have been practicing on a top to get ready to quilt a Dresden plate , 4 doves in a window, circuit and a baby quilt. The baby quilt I do a stipple . The others are a challenge but I am going to try out different designs on paper first.
Your info was very helpful.
Thank you
I am glad you find it helpful, Barbara!
I have made 2 Dresden quilts, here is how I quilted one of them.
http://getasquiltingstudio.com/2015/04/modern-dresden-fanplate-quilt.html
Geta, thank you so much for the inspirations. I enjoy your blog!
You are so wonderful to share so many ideas and inspiration on quilting. Do you quilt large (queen) quilts on a domestic machine or long arm? I will be quilting a queen size on my domestic machine. Any tips for this?
Pat, I have an industrial machine that I use for free motion quilting, it’s great for large quilts.
Many details about it in my FREE free motion quilting ebook (subscribe in the sidebar and download it).
Oh, what a wonderful blog post. How great to see the different ways that fmq ideas could be used. I will refer to this again and again. Thank you so much for sharing!
You are truly gifted. I love to quilt but as you said i turn away from a pretty design and always end up with straight lines.
I will practise on small blocks. Sometimes even with my walking foot on I have trouble passing the quilt sandwich under the needle. I always used warm and natural batting. Maybe this is too thick. I do use an 80/12 needle. I will change to a Jeans needle.
Thank you
Geta, I find this website very helpful, as I am just starting to machine quilt, and deciding “what” to quilt seems very difficult. Your designs and quilting are absolutely beautiful. And thank you for your generosity in sharing the motifs and ebook.
Thanks, I’m starting my next quilt tomorrow- design already picked out. I’m definitely going to be referring back to this in the near future!
Thank you so much for your ebook and article. It was difficult to find information directly about ‘quilting’. If you type quilting in your search it will take you to sites for blocking or completing the top of the quilt, but not specifically quilting. You’re information was exactly what I needed to move forward to learn how to quilt and what kind of patterns to use. Again, thank you so much!
Thank you! I now have a quilt ready to machine quilt. All I have done previously is hand quilting. This is the information I needed and helped me choose a design and helped me feel more confident starting out!