Machine Quilting Matrix Grid Design

This month our feature machine quilting design is Matrix, a design entirely created by gently curving lines. The lines run perpendicular to one another creating a wiggly grid over your quilt that looks amazing and is super easy to quilt!

This month you’ll find a practice worksheet for Matrix included in the Block Party #5 pattern. The wonderful thing about this design is you can quilt it either with your walking foot or darning foot. So this weekend make sure to try both methods when quilting this design and let me know which you like best!

Let’s learn how to quilt Matrix in a few older videos from past Quilt Along projects:

I call this design a Quilt Buster in this video for a reason! Matrix is a terrific design to use as an All Over Fill, and as you saw at the end of the video, I’ve used it to fill a quilt super quickly on a 5 inch scale (5 inches between the wiggly lines). It was an effective and quick way to finish a quilt with minimal quilting.

Now let’s see Matrix machine quilted on a much smaller scale:

You can definitely see how versatile this design is across the two videos! On a tiny scale, Matrix becomes an intense, wiggly grid design. It’s a terrific design to use in backgrounds and borders because it’s so easy to quilt, but the texture it adds to your quilts can’t be beat.

Have you ever tried quilting Matrix? Does it look easy or difficult at first glance to you? Definitely give it a try because it’s very easy, super forgiving, and might just become your next favorite design!

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. KathyinMN says:

    Perfect-just finished a quilt top and didn't know what to do with it. This design is going to be perfect for it. Thanks for the video, very helpful.

  2. I loved seeing the examples of stitching Matrix on a larger scale. Thank you for sharing!

  3. I have 4 quilt tops I need to quilt so I will start with the smallest one and have a go at this one.

  4. Wendy Cooper says:

    If you were to do the overall quilting on a quilt with a five inch spacing. Where would you start. In some ways it makes sense to start at one edge/corner and quilt right across the quilt but I am concerned that that might give you problems by the time you hit the other side?? If you start in the middle and work to the edge you will have problems meeting up with the other side (center out left/center out right). Both seem to have issues. Which do you suggest?

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