Day 284 – Double Stippling

After a long weekend off, most of it spent relaxing on the couch with James or relaxing outside with a book, I’m feeling much, much better! While setting limits on reasonable work hours is going to be hard at first, I can already feel that this is what is absolutely necessary for me to work for myself without burning out.

free motion quilting design double stippling

So let’s get back to the normal schedule of the project with a really neat design today. This is what happens when you stitch Stippling, then stitch it again on top of itself to double it:

Looking at the photo again, this looks sort of like a bowl of spaghetti! I love this wiggly, wobbly texture and it’s actually extremely easy to stitch. The first set of Stippling acts as a foundation upon which the second set of stippling is stitched over. It’s kind of hard to describe so watch this video to see what I mean:

Difficulty Level – Beginner. As I said before, this design is quite easy. Concentrate mainly on creating an even foundation of large scale Stippling over the surface of your quilt. Once you set the foundation, it’s like a baseline for everything that comes next!

Design Family – Foundational. Foundational designs really are fun! The basic idea is you can start with a shape (in this case stippling) and then either echo quilt it, or use that line of quilting as a base for more quilting to branch off of.

Because you first need to wiggle in with your foundation, these designs will work best in the open, more uncomplicated areas of your quilt tops like around simple applique shapes, in the borders, sashing, or open blocks.

Directional Texture – No Direction. Stippling is a very flat, directionless design. This makes it perfect to go in all those areas of your quilt you want very flat. Double Stippling is basically the same design doubled on top of itself, so it’s going to work the same way.

Suggestions for Use – I still think this looks like a bowl of spaghetti! Try quilting this over a fun food applique quilt for a simple, quick way to finish a neat quilt.

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.

4 Responses

  1. LynCC says:

    oh, cool – wouldn't this one look cute if you outlined a shape – such as a dancing Snoopy – and filled that out?!

  2. Anonymous says:

    I am really inspired to start free motion quilting, thank you for the inspiration.
    greetings Judith

  3. Mary says:

    LIKE this one a lot! Thansk for the viveos. I quilt these designs in my sleep, now to put them on a quilt…

  4. Yvette says:

    How neat is that!!! Very creative to think of stippling over stippling!!! This is one that I will be using a lot. Great job as always Leah!!

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