Quilting a Tree of Life Block on a Longarm Frame

It’s time to quilt our second Tree of Life block, this time on a longarm! I admit, I didn’t like my design when I first began quilting. I was VERY tempted to rip out the stitches and start all over again. Learn why and how I muscled through it in this new longarm quilting tutorial:

Click here to find the Tree of Life block pattern. This pattern includes a bonus Tree of Life Quilt pattern so you can make a huge throw sized quilt too!

Quilting Corner to Corner Curves

Last week I quilted Undulation over my first Tree of Life block and I LOVED the effect! This was All-Over style quilting and I thought it really nicely accented the tree shape and added beautiful texture too:

This is one of my favorite quilting designs ever!

But I know All-Over Quilting isn’t for everyone or every quilt. Did you think it was a shame to quilt over all 45 half square triangles as if they weren’t there?

So I wanted to quilt my second block and pay more attention to the piecing design. I decided to try corner to corner curves – basically bouncing from one corner to the next corner with a gentle curving line.

Uggh! I HATE THAT QUILTING DESIGN!

Unfortunately I quilted only 6 triangles before this thought popped into my head. Yes, I can be very critical of my quilting ideas and very mean to myself when I make a mistake.

When I began quilting this block, I really couldn’t stand the design!

To say it straight – berating yourself is never useful or productive!

I’m working on this habit and my tendency to rip out any even slightly bad looking stitch. Instead of ripping it out, I forced myself to keep quilting. Nope, we’re not changing the design. You’ve quilted it that far, you have to keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t pass GO and collect $200. Just keep quilting.

Wait… that’s not so bad!

The good news is by the time I finished quilting the entire block, I didn’t think it looked bad. In fact, I really like the design now. You can see it best from the back side of the block:

Once I finished quilting, I suddenly liked the design. Sometimes you just have to muscle through it to the end!

It doesn’t matter that some of the gentle curves are deeper than others. When they all group together over the tree, you just see the pretty curving texture. You can’t see the slightly wobbly, demented curves in comparison to the others.

So when you feel extra critical about your quilting, just remember to KEEP QUILTING! Don’t stop just because the critical voice in your head is barking at you. Keep quilting and I promise the more thread you get on the quilt, the better it will look.

And besides that, ripping out stitches is a huge waste of time! If nothing else, I learned something from this experience that I can apply to future blocks. That is the whole point!

Click Here to pick up your patterns for the Friendship Sampler Quilt Along. It’s never too late to join in the fun! You can begin making your blocks and quilting along with us anytime because the videos and tutorials will remain online for you to follow forever.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day

Check out the other tutorials I shared for this Tree of Life quilt block:

• How to cut scraps for the Friendship Quilt Along
• Piece two at a time half square triangles
• How to piece the Tree of Life Block
• Quilt the Tree of Life Block with Undulation
• Longarm Quilting on the Tree of Life Block