Day 44 – Cracked Eggs
I guess I should call this week Variation Week because that’s all I seem to be doing! I’m starting to realize that ALL free motion designs are variations of one another.
If you keep the way a stitch is formed, like the circles in Pebbling, but change a small piece of the stitch such as the shape or angle it is formed, you end up with a completely different stitch like today’s design Cracked Eggs.
Lately I’ve been working on a small wholecloth quilt called The Scarlet Letter that I plan to donate to the American Heart Association Auction Ball. This quilt has several quilting motifs with small areas of background needing to be filled.
While quilting this quilt with several new fillers created in this project I began to notice that some filler designs work better in small, tight areas than others.
The interesting thing about this realization is that it doesn’t matter what the shape of the filler is, but how it is formed.
For example, Pebbling is a stacking filler, meaning that it’s formed by stacking circular shapes repeatedly.
Because you continuously return to the same starting point and can very easily travel, this filler works great in small, tight areas.
So I believe I have to start exploring a new section with each design that will be titled “Filler Design Type” to explore how each design is formed and how that effects where you place it inside a quilt.
Okay, off my musing detour! Let’s get back to Cracked Eggs:
Inspiration – With the success of Double Pebble and Escargot, I had to try another variation. It just goes to show that a little wiggly line can do a lot even for already awesome design!
Difficulty Level – Intermediate. Travel lightly and carry a big stick. Just kidding! Just keep your lines of stitching consistently on top of one another and try using a thinner thread so your thread play doesn’t turn your quilt into the consistency of cardboard.
Design Family – Stacking. This design is created by stitching stacking circles of various shapes and sizes. When forming this stitch you will continually be returning to the same starting point, then stitching across the circle to form the wavy line.
Because of the way it’s created, this stitch will work really well in small, tight areas and around quilting motifs.
Directional Texture – No Direction. This is a heavy texture background design, no doubt about that! Your eye may not pick up movement with this fill, but your hands will be itching to touch the heavy texture.
Suggestions for Use – This fill looks terrific around applique and quilting motifs. Combine it with feathers for a really interesting effect!
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
Neat!