Free Motion Quilting Design #8 – Fern & Stem

Today is Day 8, so I’ve officially completed one full week of free motion fillers (say that three times fast)! I learn today’s free motion quilting filler design, Fern and Stem from Kay Young, a quilter in my local guild:

This is a very interesting filler that creates a lot of movement and texture for your eyes.

Inspiration – Kay’s quilting and the many mimosa trees around my yard inspired this filler. You could also look at fiddle head ferns for more inspiring free motion quilting designs.

Difficulty Level – Intermediate. If you were covering a very large section of quilt, it might be tricky to stitch the stem all in one go, but as long as you keep your stitches consistent and an even distance apart, this filler will always look terrific!

Design Family – Stem Centered. This is the first time I’ve based a design on a stem and I think this works great. The stem definitely stands out though so take your time stitching that first.

Directional Texture – All Directions! Depending on how wiggly your fern fronds, this filler could have movement in all directions.

Suggestions for Use – This filler contains a very noticeable stem that definitely becomes a design element in itself. Because of this, you wouldn’t want to use this quilting filler in a situation where the stem conflicted with other quilting elements like in a wholecloth.

Instead, Fern & Stem looks best over busy fabrics filling up large empty spaces such as borders and block backgrounds.

Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts, and make sure to tell your friends where you learned it. Click here to support the project by visiting our online quilt shop.