Quilting Design #24 – Pine Needles
Every morning for the last several days, I’ve started my day the same way: get up, make cereal, sit at the table, and doodle. I was never a “doodler” before this project, but now it’s a constant habit because I never know when a doodle will turn into another free motion quilting design! Pine Needles was just such design that started it’s life as a humble doodle:
Inspiration: When creating this design, I was actually thinking back to Tree Roots, one of my favorite designs so far. I wondered what would happen if the lines were all straight and longer. Out of that curiosity, a new filler design was born!
Difficulty Level: Intermediate. This design does require straight lines and lots traveling, but if that’s something you’ve been struggling with, use this filler to help you work on those skills!
Design Family – Edge to Edge.
Directional Texture: 2 directions. This design looks great set vertically, but could also work horizontally over any quilting space.
Suggestions for Use: Because this design requires the initial starting line or “spine” of the needles, you won’t want to place this over a huge area of your quilt just because it will be very difficult to quilt a long line perfectly straight without marking it.
Instead, place this design over short distances, like placed horizontally in your quilt sashing, for an eye catching texture in a small space.
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Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
I really like this one. It's a great eye catcher. I'm sure my lines wouldn't be straight, but that's OK with me 🙂
Just what I needed for a Xmas table runner I'm getting ready to quilt. I'll let you know how it goes.
I just found your blog through I believe a HQ 16 forum website and really like what you are doing! I just bought a HQ Fusion and I'm going to join along with you in your day to day free motion quilting as I'm sure it will really help! Thanks for the inspiration!!
Laura T
Hi Leah! Your designs are fabulous – I belong to 6 quilting groups and you're all over all of 'em. You do know that you're doing all the prep work for a book, right? I'd LOVE to see you in print a year from now!
Thanks Ladies!
Robin – Don't worry about your lines being straight! Wavy lines would actually make this look entirely different. That's another variation I'll add next week.
Wordmama – Terrific! Shoot me the photo when it's done. I can't wait to see it!
Laura – That's terrific about your new machine. This is definitely the place to be to learn new designs!
Linda – Yes, I've heard from many quilters all over the world. It seems to have taken off in the last 10 days or so.
The forum response is overwhelming – thank everyone for posting about the project!
I'm planning on putting all the designs into a book. Just waiting for a prospective publisher to find me!