Day 105 – Overlapping Arches

It’s been a few days since we’ve had a new design and I don’t know about you, but I think I’m going through withdrawal!

So let’s feed our free motion addiction with Overlapping Arches:

I know this design looks super simple and not very pretty in the photo, but please watch the video before passing total judgment.

I show a second version with a much more complex array of arches all overlapping at different heights. It’s really good to see just how versatile such a simple design can be.

Inspiration – I was bored and searching for inspiration one day and happened to have a dollar bill in my pocket. Have you ever taken a really good look at the front and back of a dollar?

It’s absolutely loaded with signs, symbols, shapes, and designs!

Overlapping arches are found in several places on both sides of the dollar, typically used around the inner and outer borders of the dollar design.

Difficulty Level – Beginner. This is definitely a design that can be as easy or as complex as you want to make it.

If you choose to use a more complex design, try doing only a single line of the arches, rather than stacking them together to cover a large area. The arches are easy to line up in a line, but when you have to travel over the arches for for the different rows, things can get a little confusing.

Of course, you can always mark your arches on your fabric beforehand. For marking on light fabrics, I always use The Fine Line water soluble blue pen.

Design Family – Edge to Edge. In truth, this design works best in a single line rather than as a filler covering a large surface.

Areas of your quilt, like sashing, would look terrific with a small band of overlapping arches quilted in a line within it.

Directional Texture – Two Directions. Of course, if you do stitch this design to cover a large area, you’re going to see the horizontal or vertical texture of the rows of arches. If you stitch this in one single line, the arches will give you more of an all over texture.

Suggestions for Use – Personally, I’d use this design as a sashing standby. So often you see sashing stitched in the ditch, but then nothing else done within the area!

Fill that space, even if it’s just 2″ with overlapping arches for a beautiful effect.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day