Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Free-Motion Quilting Blog by Leah Day!

If you've seen my quilts, you know that I really put my heart into the piecing. But when it comes to the quilting, I just want to get the job done without ruining a good top. So I use my Juki 98Q to sew parallel wavy lines across the quilt. I'm afraid that if I tried to make them straight, some would be wavy. So I just go with wavy right off the bat. If I plan to enter the quilt in a show, I make the wavy lines closer to each other. That's my idea of heavy quilting.

But look at these awesome free-motion filler designs by machine quilting genius Leah Day! She has challenged herself to come up with a new pattern every day! And you can watch videos about how to do them. Her website is Day Style Designs. See 365 different patterns like the ones shown in this post: The Free Motion Quilting Project. For the latest on what Leah is up to, visit her blog. She has an excellent post on buying sewing machines too.

I think discovering Leah's work will have a big influence on my quilting life by enhancing the appearance of my quilts and adding more fun to the process of making them. Wowzers!

The pattern designs are called "Fossil Bed," "Little Hands and Fingers," "Space Star," "Spaghetti and Meatballs," and "Elodea" (listed from top photo to bottom).

I've seen gorgeous machinie quilting before, but the difference here is that I think I can actually do these! I'll let you know how I make out. Thanks to Liz Broussard who made the brown selvage quilt (that was featured here a few days ago) for telling me about Leah. I love how inspiration spreads through cyberspace!

6 comments:

Kristopher K said...

WOW : beautiful inspiration indeed :)

Anonymous said...

Her blog gave me the confidence to do my own quilting.

Nifty Quilts said...

Wow! She just might give me the courage to try something other than wavy lines and big squiggles. I've had the exact same thought about quilting for too long. Thanks!

Michelle in Saskatoon said...

wow, indeed! these almost look like sashiko to me

Shanny said...

I have been following Leah's blog for a while. Her video tutorials are priceless!

Unknown said...

WOW, I love it!