Day 80 – Cucumber Vine

Wow! Super duper thank you to everyone who has commented or emailed me about the changes happening to the blog.

While I may not post a design daily, I do plan to meet my goal of 365 quilting designs. Just today I sat down at my Juki and cranked out ten new ones without even thinking about it!

I was flipping through my book of designs and realized that Tree Roots really could use some variations.

Today’s design is a variation of this design and is inspired by the green, curling tendrils of a cucumber vine:

free motion quilting design cucumber vine

Today I had a wonderful afternoon with J and J (my nickname for the guys). We picked up James from preschool and headed to Gastonia, NC for food, shopping, and fabric.

I headed into Sew Much Fun! for just one 1/2 yard cut of some Moda Eva purple fabric for binding and left with these two batik beauties:

I saw the purple one from the cutting counter and HAD to have it. It looks like a filler!

Inspiration – I’ve made half-hearted attempts at growing cucumbers in the past few years. I have all the enthusiasm of spring fever and plant the plants with high hopes in the spring.

Then I forget to water them and if they do manage to survive, I forget to pick the cucumbers too!

Difficulty LevelIntermediate. This design is not very difficult, but there is a small amount of traveling involved. Make sure to follow your stitching lines exactly so you maintain the curly-q shapes of the vine properly.

Design Family Independent. This design is much like stippling and forms independently as you move around your quilting space. This means that this design will work great in just about all areas of your quilt.

Directional Texture – No Direction. While the vines twist and curl in all directions, when stitched densely on a quilt, this filler will give the same texture as Stippling.

Suggestions for Use – Hmm…I’m thinking this would look great expanded to a larger size and stitched over a whole quilt for a super quick finish. Or you could keep it small and use it around complicated quilting motifs like vines and flowers.

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.

5 Responses

  1. Needled Mom says:

    I like the looks of this design and can see where it would be a fabulous fill.

  2. Emma says:

    I actually used a very similar deisgn to this as an all-over on a simple play quilt about a month ago. I doodled the design after your blog inspired me to 'doodle with intent' in meetings. I really liked the way it come out: http://sampaguitaquilts.blogspot.com/2009/10/fruit-punch.html

  3. Denise says:

    Hi, i just found this. Any ideas on wquilting gravel or ground so it doesn’t look like water?
    Thank you!
    Denise

  4. Leah Day says:

    Look up the design I call Cobblestones and Rockin – both should work nicely!

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