Quilting Design #15 – Flowing Glass
Today’s free motion quilting filler design was inspired by lampwork glass beadmaking, something I was into over eight years ago. I much prefer stitching my Flowing Glass rather than having to fuss with a torch!
Isn’t it crazy how fast time flies? Four and a half years ago I was getting married and had never created a quilt. Six years ago I thought my greatest ambition was to become a famous jewelry and beadwork designer. And eight years ago all I wanted to do was make lampwork glass beads.
It’s funny to think about how different my life is now from what it was then. The wonderful thing is that my love for molten glass can still be expressed in beautiful quilting stitches. See what I mean in this video:
Learn more about quilting Flowing Glass:
Inspiration: Lately I’ve been reading the Nora Robert’s Born In Series, and the main character in Born In Fire is an amazing glass blower. Of course her talent and beautiful art leads her to find the man of her dreams, fall madly in love, and live happily ever after, of course, in Ireland.
This filler makes me also think of pebbles in a stream and flowing water. Once I listened to a talk by a glass blower at a Renaissance Fair who claimed that glass was a constant liquid, even when it looks solid to us, it’s really still flowing and moving like water.
Difficulty Level – Beginner. Concentrate on maintaining an equal distance as you’re quilting the flowing glass shapes and this filler will always come out perfect.
Design Family – Edge to Center.
Directional Texture: 2 directions. This design is always going to have a horizontal or vertical texture, depending on where you place it in your quilt.
Suggestions for Use: This would look great as a horizon line in a sunset quilt or as fill in pretty much any area of a quilt. It’s a gorgeous filler that takes very little time to apply and the end result is gorgeous!
Happy Quilting!
Leah Day
So far this one is my favourite! I tried in on my quilt, and it's the lovliest of the bunch. Perhaps my muscle memory is used to this one as I kind of doodle like that from time to time.
I've been admiring this design for ages, and I love it even more having used it on my most current lap quilt, a rail fence pattern.
I just mentioned this design in my blog post here
http://beaquilter.blogspot.com/2012/03/knocking-few-more-things-off-my-2012.html
Oh my! This will sound really stupid, but a light has switched on watching this video. I knew the feed dogs must be lowered so the fabric can move around but always thought you still had to revolve the material around the needle ….never realised it was possible to sew backwards too. That is much less daunting – off to try my first free motion sewing! Thank-you for enlightening me.
As I'm a glass artist, the name drew me in. As a beginner FMQ, I like this. I really like watching you quilt the whole block. Again, as a beginner, one of my challenges is how to flow the design throughout the working area. Thanks SO much, Leah, for sharing your talent, for demonstrating so effectively, and for teaching so clearly.
How could you take this pattern and use it in an even bigger space? Would you always have the glass dripping from one of the edges? Thank you for freely sharing your creativity and knowledge with us.