Quilt Along #12 – Microstippling

Yes, it’s time finally time to take the classic Stippling design and shrink it down to a super tiny scale when it becomes Microstippling.

I may be wrong, but I do believe this is the only design we have that has one name for the large scale version, and another name for the smaller version.  I think that’s a good indication of just how important Microstippling is to free motion quilting – super important!

This design does many things for our quilts, and because we’re working on a wholecloth right now you can see and appreciate just how much microstippling flattens out the background areas around the motifs.  On top of flattening the surface, this design also has zero thread play or travel stitching, which means the design doesn’t stand out or shout for attention.

This combination of features makes Microstippling simply the best design for filling backgrounds, flattening the space around complex areas without competing with other designs or shapes.

Of course, I could wax on all day about my love for Stippling and Microstippling, so let’s get on with the video so you can learn a few different ways to shrink this design down to a smaller scale:

I’d say the two most essential items I used in this video were machingers quilting gloves and the isacord thread.  The machingers allowed me to hang onto the quilt and achieve a very fine level of control over the design and the Isacord stitched out smoothly and didn’t break, even when the stitches got very tiny.

So let’s break down the steps to going dense one by one.

It will definitely help to review Quilt Along #3 – Playing with Scale and spend some time working down from a big scale to a smaller scale.

I used a small seam ripper I keep near my sewing machine as a visual guide to stitch a 1/4″ scale, then a 1/8″ scale, then a 1/16″ scale of the design.  These measurements are not approximate, and you shouldn’t worry too much about measuring your design.  The key is not really achieving any set scale, but simply to find a CONSISTENT scale that works for you.

So first start by going back to Quilt Along #1 – Let’s Wiggle, and wiggle your way through a 10 inch quilt sandwich with simple rows of stippling.  I stuck with simple U shapes, but if you want to run through all the different types of shapes go for it!

 As you work through each row, attempt to work on a smaller and smaller scale. 

When you reach a point where you can’t help but cross your lines of quilting, you’ve probably reached the smallest scale you can stitch, so stay there for awhile and stitch several rows of various shapes, working to create a more and more complex version of stippling.

 It’s a really good idea to practice this over a period of several days because you may find your skills suddenly improving overnight. 

It might sound crazy, but working on a smaller scale seems to supercharge many quilters skill level.  I personally believe it has something to do with understanding how the design works (which is easier on a smaller scale), which translates into better stitches, and an ability to stitch on a smaller and smaller.

Once you feel you’ve achieved a level of microstippling you’re comfortable with, it’s time to stitch it in your Heart and Feather Wholecloth.

 As always, let’s get started in the center of the quilt.  We’ve already stitched all the lines, so you’ll need to pull up thread in each heart.  The best place to do this is in a point – either the end of the heart or the indentation that comes down – this is where your thread start will not be as noticeable.

Now it’s time to fill that heart with a very dense Microstippling.

 I often find at the beginning of a project, particularly one I’m learning a tricky new technique, I have a lot of “false starts” and do a bit of ripping until I get into the rhythm of the design.  If you can, spend 5 minutes microstippling on a scrap sandwich before actually quilting the real quilt.  This will help you relax and get into the groove and make quilting the quilt much less intimidating.

When you fill the hearts, keep in mind that you’re stitching an extremely dense design onto fabric and batting – things will likely move and shift a bit.  So make sure to stitch around the perimeter a bit, but also fill into the middle of the heart so you don’t allow all the extra fabric to puddle up in the middle of the heart.

Once you fill the hearts in the center, I expect quite a few of you will want to kill me because you will likely have around 16 threads to hide in the center of your quilt!  Keep in mind that when you’re quilting a wholecloth on your own, you can easily combine the steps of outline quilting and filling so you have much fewer thread breaks. 

But do take the time to hide all of those threads.  You can find a video to show you a quick way of doing this right here.

Now it’s time to work on the space between the heart motif and the inner interlocking squares.  I designed this wholecloth intentionally leaving very little space within this area.  This means you should be able to quilt through the space with a single row of microstippling.  Unless your bobbin runs out, you should be able to do this in a single pass, working clockwise or counterclockwise.

Now for the interlocking squares there are 8 triangles.  Each one can easily be filled by starting in a point, then working a row across the shape to the second point, then another row to fill to the third point.

Yep, you’ll have another 32 loose threads to deal with here.  Just turn on a good episode of Top Gear or Dr. Who and hide them all at once.

Now it’s time to fill the space between the outer interlocking squares and the feathers.  This area is also quite narrow, but there are spaces where you’ll need to be careful of how you stitch and fill.

Just make sure to stitch evenly through the area, following along the edge of the feather a bit, but then stitch up to the straight lines for a bit so you don’t end up with pockets of excess batting and fabric in the middle.

Once you finish up with that last inner section, you’ll need to fill each heart in the corners as well.  Yep, this will create another 64 loose threads to hide so take your time and try hiding them as you quilt each corner.

The only remaining section will be the outline of the quilt, filling to the edges with as much quilting as you’d like the quilt to have.

This would be a good time to lay a ruler over your quilt and figure out exactly how big you’d like it to finish.  My red heart and feather wholecloth finished at 16 inches and has a nice bit of microstippling around the edges.

The trick is to not do more filling than you need to because it’s time consuming and can get tedious.  Mark a line to indicate how far you need to fill, then only fill a bit past this line.

So that finishes the quilting of our Heart and Feather wholecloth!

Next week we’re going to finish up this project by soaking, blocking, trimming, and binding for a perfect finish.

I was going to try to include all that information in this post, but then realized we really need an updated post about binding and blocking so look forward to learning about that next week!

Now it’s time to link up your progress from last week’s Quilt Along #11!

Instructions for Linking Up Your Blog:

1. Write your blog post. Publish it on your blog.

2. Copy the link of the specific blog post. This is not just the link to your blog itself (www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com), but the link to the specific post: https://freemotionproject.com/2012/01/quilt-along-2-quilting-in-rows.html

3. Click the blue link up button above and paste your link into the box.

Keep in mind that you’re posting your progress from LAST week on THIS week’s post. This way you have time to watch the lesson, play with the ideas, then post your progress to the next quilt along. I hope that makes sense!

As always, any questions you have, please post them in the comments below or on your blog and I’ll answer 5 tomorrow on Question Thursday.

Time for me to shut up and quilt,

Leah Day