I also consider the design of the quilt, what part of the quilt needs to be emphasized (the flower, obviously, in this case), and, frankly, how much time I want to spend quilting it.įrom there, I finalize my plan, choose thread colors, and get to quilting. If this was part of a quilt that was for snuggling on the couch, however, I’d give some serious thought to a looser quilting plan.
In this case, I’m making a mini, so plenty of dense quilting makes sense. Once I have some ideas out, I take a step back and think about the quilt. Whenever I’m creating a quilting plan, I go through and create variations of quilting ideas, much like you see drawn above. It creates beautiful color and texture contrast as well as adding a little detail about the subject of our block. Here, I’ve used a mix of thread painting and FMQ to show the vines the Corpse Lily flower lives on as a parasite. This could mean creating secondary “blocks”, or taking a more pictorial approach as I did with this month’s Color Builders 2022 block: The Corpse Lily. Create a pictureįinally, consider using your quilting to create a second “story” on your quilt. Some of my favorites to combine include swirls, pebbles, paisleys, McTavishing, and filled swirls. Riff Quilting is simply combining a whole bunch of quilting motifs more or less at random (Quilting Rockstars… Riff Quilting– I can’t resist a good theme!).
Personally, I’m nearly always down for some pretty dense quilting, and combining variegated thread with this playful technique is straight up brilliant. I recently used continuous curves in the background of one of my Color Builders 2021 blocks, and I loved the effect! Riff Quilting For something a little denser, consider swirls or paisleys (or even big pebbles, like I did in the Sirius Quilt above). If you want a lighter, airier feel to your quilt, a simple meander or even straight lines might be the perfect fill. But that doesn’t mean complex designs are the only “right” way to fill the background. We have all seen stunning quilts on social media where the negative space is almost, if not more, interesting than the piecing. The shortest answer, of course, is “whatever you want!”īut as that answer is wildly unhelpful, let’s take a peek at three ways you might fill in negative space on your quilts to let it, and some gorgeous Aurifil 50wt variegated thread, shine. “What am I supposed to do with all that SPACE?” That last question, though, always seems to gain a particular urgency when negative space is involved.
Learn more about Aurifilosophy and find your favorite Aurifilosopher here.Īs a free motion quilting teacher, a lot of the questions I get asked are about tension, supplies, and what the heck to quilt where. Is your shop, group or guild looking for insightful, inspiring and educational information on thread? Consider booking a virtual or in-person program with one of our skilled Aurifilosophers. Huge thank you to HollyAnne for sharing her quilting knowledge with us today! Be sure to check out her website and her debut Aurifil thread collection, Quilting Rockstar. Interested in upping your free motion quilting game? HollyAnne is passionate about guiding students to quilt with confidence.
HollyAnne uses the Stinking Corpse Lily collection (February 2022 Color Builder) and coordinating appliqué pattern to share her insight for designing quilting plans. ‘How to quilt it’ seems to be a very popular question for free motion quilters. You’ll love how HollyAnne breaks it down and tosses in a little extra inspiration for how to apply those luscious variegated threads. Greetings Aurifil family! As Master Educator and Aurifilosophy Program Coordinator I’m thrilled to introduce fellow Aurifilosopher and Quilting Rockstar, HollyAnne Knight of String & Story.