8. Learn to Quilt Micro-Zippling

Whoo hoo! It’s quilting time and I’m happy to report that I’m finally finished with all my secret quilting projects! It’s time to get back to Express Your Love and start playing with something new.

What is this new thing? Thread color!

free motion quilting | Leah Day

This section was filled Micro-Zippling in the pretty red Brick color of Isacord.

Yes, I warned you last week that I’m lazy and I don’t like to change thread colors, but today I took a look at the black wholecloth version of this quilt and decided she needed some red, orange, and yellow thread in the background rays.

And to add to the fun, I’m also going to explain an extra design element that effects how the thread and design appear on the quilt – thread density. Basically it’s not just the color that matters, but also the design you’re using as well!

So Micro-Zippling is always going to appear darker on the surface of your quilt.

Why? Because it is a single line, Independent design that wiggles through the area without travel stitching. Because there is no travel stitching, the background fabric is allowed to show through more, making this design have a darker effect on the quilt.

Or maybe I should say “less intense” because the dark / light analogy wouldn’t work if this was a white wholecloth…

Regardless, this is just one effect and the red thread looks quite good here. But what will happen if we use a design that incorporates a lot more travel stitching?

You’ll just have to wait until Thursday to find out!

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.

6 Responses

  1. Pam S. says:

    Leah, this looks great! Love the thread color you've added. This express your love quilt project has really touched my heart and has made me think more on how I approach life and others. Thank you so much for putting yourself out there!

  2. Flor Rojas says:

    Love all your videos, thank you for sharing everything you know

  3. Anonymous says:

    I'm glad you changed thread colors!! I'm nearly finished with my wibbly-wobbly Mctavishing in cream (on black)…I wonder if I should have used black so it doesn't look so amateurish?? Oh well, if you keep on adding colors and designs, my efforts should just all blend together and not look so….well, bad!! (wobbly lines, not even spacing, teeeny stitches and looong stitches – get the picture??

  4. Hi Leah. I tried something like that I tried Micro Hairball. It looks good. I need to set down and work on my micro zippling. Hairball is easy, zippling not so much ha ha ha. Thanks for sharing Leah

  5. lw says:

    I just got my American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine and there you are in the Craftsy ad looking so pretty and happy! What a nice surprise to see you there.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Would you be sure to include a full shot of the quilt as you go? I am unclear how many of "rays" and how much of each of them you decided to zipple in red. Thanks…can hardly wait to sit down to my machineand keep try and trying

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