Day 42 – Sea Oats

I must be on a sea kick this week! Yesterday we had Sea Algae and today we have the slight variation to create Sea Oats:

free motion quilting design sea oats

I’m an NC native and when I was in 3rd grade, my family went to the Outer Banks, specifically Cape Hatteras and Kitty Hawk.

I can still remember the wanting to pick the pretty sea oats in the sand dunes. What I would do with them is anyone’s guess, but my mother wisely discouraged me.

Sea Oats are actually protected grasses all along the East Coast and you can get fined for picking them!

Inspiration – I honestly wasn’t thinking about Sea Oats when creating this design. The tips of all of the lines in Sea Algae were just screaming for SOMETHING so by adding the tear drop shape, that design became this one.

Variations really are wonderful!

Difficulty Level Intermediate . This is a fairly easy design. If you struggle with making your tear drops small and consistent, draw them a few times to get the hang of it. It won’t take long before you can stitch it perfectly.

Design Family – Edge to Edge.

Directional Texture – 2 Directions. Place this on the horizontal or vertical spaces of a quilt for a gorgeous effect.

Suggestions for Use – This fill looks really beautiful small, so I might use it as the trim around a quilted jacket.

It’s fun to show off in small areas like right around a cuff or the collar of a garment.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

6 Responses

  1. I am enjoying your different designs – I love how today's is a variation of yesterday's design.

  2. Kim says:

    And of course the reason you don't pick sea oats is that they catch the sand and keep the beach from being blown away……..however tempting those beautiful seed heads are please leave them there!
    Love this pattern……you are a whiz….so many of us are following your designs everyday and talking about it too.
    Happy Sewing

  3. Carrie P. says:

    Just read the post before this one and you sure are a busy girl. I love this pattern. Thanks so much for sharing the videos.

  4. Anonymous says:

    I think this design is grand…. where was I when you first did it? In thinking back I don't think I had found you yet….. but I do remember getting one of your CD's for Christmas…. so maybe November….. I like the light airey quilting. Ok, back to 2011.

  5. I Love the Sea Oats the bast I think. And you make it look so easy, I stink at it still but Im working on it ha ha. Okay I must go finish my peace sign quilt. Later sweet Lady

  6. I just finished an art quilt of a Mermaid who is under water and this was a perfect background filler, she really does look like she is under water now with this design. Thank you Leah for sharing.

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