Free Motion Design #6 – Echo Shell

Today is day 6 and the free motion design I’d like to share is called Echo Shell. You may have seen a version of this before:

This difference between this filler and the typical echo half circle filler is that this is much more random. Notice how all the circles radiate out in different directions with different amounts of rays? This causes the filler to appear much more random and, at least in my opinion, more pleasing to the eye.

Here’s an example of a less random Echo Shell:

Learn more about quilting Echo Shell

Traditional echo shell has been around for hundreds of years as first a hand quilting stitch, then a machine quilting free motion stitch. Now placed in a random arrangement, echo shell is ready for the modern age!

Inspiration – My wonderful hubby gifted me with Quilts of Provence, a beautiful book on french Provence quilting. The cover displayed a quilt with a design that inspired this design.

Traditional echo shell has been around for hundreds of years as first a hand quilting stitch, then a machine quilting free motion stitch. Now placed in a random arrangement, echo shell is ready for the modern age!

Difficulty Level – Beginner. Because you have complete control over the direction and size of the shells, this is a pretty easy filler to learn.

Design Family – Echoing. This is a new filler family! You’ll quilt a shape, then travel stitch a short distance away and echo quilt around it. It’s very similar to Pivoting designs, but the major difference is the travel stitching between the lines of echoing.

Directional Texture – 3 directions. This is one filler that is very obvious where the starting line is because it grows from the bottom up or top down. This gives your filled space an appearance of going in 3 directions.

Suggestions for Use – Like yesterday with the Basic Spiral, this is a pretty dominate filler. It would look great as the sky in a simple landscape quilt. The echo shells have a bit of a Greek look to them, don’t you think? Maybe a good idea for a tribute to the Odyssey!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day

Free Motion Quilting Design #5 – Basic Spiral