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Do you want feathers on your quilt, but they have to be a bit whimsical and modern? I have a great design option for you!

This edge to edge freemotion design lets you indulge in single feather shapes and curve them to the left or to the right. The design can be used on a quilt with a theme like: birds, water, waterfall, splashes, flowers, plants, leaves and the jungle.

Pattern Tutorial

The Feather Fan design is based on a series of single feather shapes placed next to each other, like the feather crest on a cockatoo’s head or ...

Fall weather has made its entrance and I have already grabbed my enormous fleece hoody to cocoon in in the evenings. I have started work on a Halloween quilt project which I will share in a separate blog post later this month and have taken the cinnamon tea out of the storage cupboard. Here comes sweater weather!

The Comtesse edge to edge design is airy and soft, like leaves falling off the trees in a gentle Autumn breeze. The word comtesse is French for countess, a female of a certain rank in nobility. The Comtesse design reminds me of gentle ...

The Stipple design is a free motion staple! Such a versatile pattern: great as a chunky allover design, and gorgeous as a background filler.

For many of us this design is one of the first we have ever tried to learn, which has actually puzzled me over the years. Why would a beginner quilter be guided to a pattern that has no safe place to stop and start so they can think where to go next?

Stippling requires multiple skills; going in all directions and flipping the design (the inside shape can become the outside of the next shape), keeping ...

Before we delve into this week’s design, I would like to welcome the new subscribers! Some of you have joined through the Free Motion Quilting Summit that was held last week and some other quilters have found this blog through the links in YouTube. Could you please leave a comment and share, I would love to know how you have found this blog. Thank you!

It is time for an angular edge to edge design! The Mountain edge to edge is a random and dynamic design that would work well in any scale. You can use it as a ...

This design is named after a person I know who travels the world to discover its beauty and who creates meaningful connections where she goes. It flows from spot to spot with curved lines and adds sets of three loopy triangles.

This edge to edge pattern would work well on a coat or bag and table runners too. Think about projects with a theme like travelling, propellors / airplanes, connections, friendships and nature. Maybe this design looks more like a flower to you.

Pattern tutorial

This design is most dynamic when using curved lines to move around instead of straight lines ...

To all the free motion lovers out there, have you already signed up for the Free Motion Quilting Summit that starts in 9 days? I am one of the 16 teachers who have created videos for this three days event. You can sign up for FREE, HERE. If you would like longer access to the videos and also get all the goodies, like my extra mini course, you can sign up for the All Access Pass. The Summit totally focusses on free motion which makes it unique in the quilting world. Don’t miss out!

On this blistering hot day ...

I see fireworks! The kind that are positioned on a pole and twirl around, throwing off sparks in all directions. You know the kind?

This pointy and dynamic edge to edge design would quickly fill your quilt. This is a beginner-friendly pattern because there are so many places where you can stop and think where you want to go next.  I wouldn’t recommend this for an absolute beginner. Creating even curls and echoes can be tricky. But if you have those down, try it out! 

Lines can be quilted closely together as in the sample, but you can quilt ...

Free motion quilting is like doing a puzzle where you have to create your own puzzle pieces to complete the image, don’t you agree? You work yourself into a corner or you end up with a weird empty spot. In many cases, traveling along already stitched lines is a great solution to get to the area you need to be at. But travelling isn’t a skill that comes easily. This week’s design will get you some more ‘training in traveling’. I will also explain my vision on how large your designs can be when using a domestic ...

In June I made two quilts for people who were becoming grandparents. I knew the grandparents but not the baby’s parents that well. It was a bit of a puzzle to come up with a color scheme for the baby quilts. Both sets of parents were so kind to sent me their preferred colors and photos of the baby’s room.

Baby #1’s parents really liked the Dutch baby brand ‘Little Dutch’ which had wall paint as part of their collection. I selected some colors from the range that would fit with the colors in the photo of ...

Let’s travel to far away lands and visit mysterious gardens, meet exceptional creatures and inhale magical and exotic scents!

This curvy and lush edge to edge design resembles an exotic flower with round and pointy elements. It would look great on a quilt with a theme like nature, the renaissance, far away lands, fairy gardens or fantasy books.

This exotic flower edge to edge design is curvy and lush with round and pointy areas which makes it just that more interesting.

The spacing within the flower is wider than the spacing of the echoes around the flower, making the ...

Do you see many butterflies were you live? Many of us make a conscious decision to have an insect-friendly garden, but do we all welcome caterpillars who munch on the plants? Last year I discovered these stunning caterpillars in my front garden on the verbascum plants. These caterpillars are way more colorful than the adults sadly. They turn onto a chunky and hairy brown Mullein moth.

In this free motion Caterpillar edge to edge design, small caterpillars are placed in all directions. The design is based on a short sequence of movements that are echoed to move to a new ...

The sound of flags flying in the wind, the fabric moving in all directions. The flashes of color and bright sunlight in your eyes… Let’s go to the beach!

The design Coast is inspired by flags, bunting and bows and would look lovely on a quilt for the beach, a quilt for a national holiday or any other celebration. The design is dynamic, curvy but not too curvy.

The triangles ‘curve with the Summer breeze’ so you can fill empty spaces pretty easily. Add sets of 2 flags and curve around one of the sides and then add a ...

Did you know you can free motion quilt with a 12W thread? You would have to go really slow, yes. But it can be done! For this week’s design I used a spool of Sulky Cotton Petite 12w thread. People have been using this for hand quilting and embroidery, but you can freemotion with it too!

The edge to edge design Trio is not based on an existing shape like a leaf or a flower. With a bit of imagination it looks like a cartoon drawing of an animal / dinosaur seen from the side. Or does it look like ...

Some of the flowers that I sowed last month have already turning into plants that I can plant out in the garden this week. Some have not come up at all. I will have to redo them to see if it is a problem with the seeds, or if it was too wet and cold the last two months.I love to fill my garden with bright colors. my garden has the perfect size for me right now, but I do wish there was a bit of room for bigger plants, like a magnolia tree.

Magnolias flowers are something special ...

Over the millennia and different cultures, people have created labyrinth designs on walls and floors. This ancient tradition endures in new buildings, parks, computer games and from today also in quilting! read more

The weather has been different from hour to hour! Rain, grey clouds, sunshine, strong winds. Nothing dramatic, just a typical Dutch February. I have been able to do some cleaning up in the garden, that felt so good! I even managed to sow some Sweet Pea seeds.

This week’s free motion design is harder than it looks! Grab some paper and try it out.

The edge to edge design Splash creates Paint splashes or splatters by adding blobs in different sizes. When each set of blobs is completed, you travel to a new spot to add a new sequence ...

Are you looking for an elegant free motion edge to edge design for your quilt project? Try Feather Flower!

The gorgeous Feather flower design moves in every direction and starts with a shape that you may have tried before: the feather with a pearl. I used this shape a couple of weeks ago in ‘Bubble Wave’.

After the feather with pearl, you stitch two more feathers and add a final leaf shape that can fill any area that needs to be filled. The leaf can go on either side of your stitched ‘branch’.

It looks really well on this red ...

 Ok, it took me until Wed to share my messy unorganized design wall.  I really wasn't going to share for a couple of reasons.  One it really doesn't look like who I am as a quilter.  But then I thought, wait a minute, there were no little quilt fairies that put that stuff up.  But if there are quilt fairies, I must say I have a list of things they can do!! And number two the projects that I really want to be working on aren't there.....maybe this can be a goal for a future Design ...

 Baby quilt 1 ("Palate Cleanser") is coming along.