46. Learn How to Quilt Happy Stitch, Design #399

It’s time to get Happy! Here’s a cheerful design that’s sure to make you smile:

 

I think this one is particularly well suited to a kid’s quilt. Baby quilts are excellent practice for quilting because you get to experience manipulating the quilt through your machine, but with less bulk and weight to fuss with.

Because babies really like to focus on high contrast, consider stitching this design either in dark thread on a light colored quilt top or light thread on a darker colored top. Not only is quilting contrasting thread easier because you can see what you’re doing, it’s also something that will make your baby very happy to see!

This is one of those designs that proves that you can absolutely stitch anything in thread. I came up with it during a conversation with my Father-in-law about designing after he asked if a smiley face could be a new design.

I sketched a bit on a napkin and showed that so long as all the lines within the face – the eyes and smile – connect in some way to the outer circle, then yes, you can absolutely stitch that design continuously.

So now that we can make Happy Stitch, think of all the other expressions you can quilt! Angry stitch, confused stitch, silly stitch – there’s probably another dozen designs to create just of funny expressions on fabric!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day