Day 212 – C’s and E’s

Lately I’ve been looking back at Independent designs, like stippling, and trying to find interesting new variations that add a bit more thread texture to the surface of a quilt.

Of course, what is more similar to stippling than cursive writing?! Let’s see what happens when we play with the letter “c” and the letter “e” in cursive:

Ah! The joys of fall: brisk cooler air, occasional forays back upstairs to look for a sweater, and of course, the ubiquitous runny nose from my preschooler.

Despite the fact that our cold season starts the second James goes back to school (and ends the day he gets out), this year has set a new record. James was in school only 2 days – 2 DAYS -and came home with a runny nose that turned into a sore throat, cough, and fever.

And of course, Josh and I have already caught it! So while we drink our Echinacea tea and run upstairs to find a sweater to stave off the chill, you sit back and enjoy learning how to quilt C’s and E’s:

Inspiration – Stippling has a wonderful, flat, directionless texture, perfect for placing in the background areas of a quilt. However, sometimes I wish Stippling had a bit more thread buildup so the design would stand out a bit better.

I’m beginning to notice that the amount of traveling a design involves will determine how much the texture shows up on your quilt. A lot of travel stitching means the threads will build up and the design will stand out, particularly if you’re contrasting your thread color with the color of your quilt fabric.

But minimal travel stitching means the design will be very subtle, standing out very little on the surface of the quilt. Stippling, of course, has no traveling at all. Creating this new design of C’s and E’s was an attempt to create an independent design similar to stippling, but with more traveling to make the design stand out even better.

Difficulty Level – Intermediate. This is a very simple design and because you’ve probably drawn many cursive C’s and E’s in your life, it will likely come very naturally to you.

As I mentioned in the video, I found it a bit easier to quilt the E’s first, then loop up into the C shape, but play with it and see which way feels the most natural for you.

Design Family – Independent. These designs are all formed independently of everything around them. This means that C’s and E’s will work great both on a large scale and a small scale anywhere on your quilt.

Directional Texture – No Direction. Most Independent designs have no directional texture. They appear very flat on the surface and usually recede into the background very nicely.

Suggestions for Use – This design is really fun to quilt and once you get the hang of it, it will likely cover a lot of space very quickly. If you have a bed quilt sitting in the closet waiting to be finished, maybe try covering it with C’s and E’s stitched in the All Over Quilting style!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day