Day 148 – Paisley Division
This may sound weird, but in order to think of new designs I’m constantly asking myself questions that usually start with “What would paisley do if…”
Here’s a design that answers the question “How does paisley expand in the wild?” The answer? Paisley Division!
Today I’m busy cleaning and organizing my downstairs quilting studio.
For several different reasons these 2 rooms have been horribly neglected for the past 6 months and every surface is literally covered with quilting junk, fabric, tools, notions, books, and other miscellaneous stuff (hey! I just found another sock!)
Once I get these rooms clean and with everything back in the correct place I’m going to piece up a super quick baby quilt for a friend.
We’re having a shower for her next month and I was already planning on piecing a quick quilt for James, so I might as well use the left over scraps for her new baby boy!
Difficulty Level – Intermediate. Paisley designs are not hard, but this one can be a bit tricky to wiggle into the center so that all the paisley shapes are dividing from the center area.
If you notice, I tried this first with a tiny little circle in the center, but didn’t like the look of that. It was too much like Paisley Flower.
I really like it when all the lines meet in the center of 4 paisley shapes like they’re ripping themselves apart.
Design Family – Center Fill. This design is of course created just like paisley, but because you stitch each motif in a cluster it’s a little trickier to squish into complicated areas.
You might even want to stitch this as a center fill design from the center of your quilting space to the outside.
Directional Texture – All directions. This is a really nice, all over design that will add a really cheerful, springtime texture to your quilts!
Suggestions for Use – I think I might use this design in the background of a quilt to fill in the whole area just with the dividing paisleys.
As the petals get bigger and bigger, you could even fill them up with circles or cursive “f” shapes for a totally different design!
Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts,and make sure to tell your friends where you learned it.
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I absolutely love this design!
I like this design…all of your designs…BUT…isn't it funny how there is always a but in there somewhere…I'm going to have to call BS on this being a paisley…it's a tear drop. Paisley's have a curve in them.
It's ok if you don't post this…just my opinion…
Hi Marilyn W – Yes, you're correct that this design is based off of a tear drop shape.
But most quilters when they see this echoed tear drop design think "paisley" because that's just the name it's gone by FOREVER.
If you think about it, we all call Stippling stippling because that's it's name.
But a more descriptive name would be non-crossing meandering stitch. Wouldn't that be boring!
Chill,
Leah Day