Quilting Design #23 – Striated Earth

Today I was in a reminiscent mood and was thinking back to Etch n’ Sketch, the design I created on Day 2 of this project. I’ve mentioned before that a totally new design can be created simply by changing 1 or 2 things about the design. Today I’ll prove that statement with this Striated Earth quilting design:

free motion quilting design striated earth

As you can see, Striated Earth only differs from Etch n’ Sketch in 2 small ways: points instead of rounded U-turns and wavy lines instead of straight lines.


Inspiration:
This design was really born more out of a “What will it look like if…” mood rather than a “I love the Grand Canyon!” mood, but I still managed to make something that looks like striated earth. Pretty cool!

Difficulty Level: Beginner. If you can Etch n’ Sketch, you can definitely quilt this design. Just keep your lines consistent and you’ll do fine!

Design Family – Edge to Edge.

Directional Texture – 2 directions. Even with the wavy lines, Striated Earth is definitely a horizontal/vertical quilting design.

Suggestions for Use – Hmm…Pretty much the same suggestions for Etch n’ Sketch should work for Striated Earth so use this design in the background or land areas of a landscape. I’m not sure that it would look as awesome with oriental fabrics, but the only way to tell is to try it!

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.

5 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    Thank you for the videos! I'd love to be able to see larger images of the fronts and backs when I click on the photos though.

    I think you have actually inspired me to give free motion quilting a try.

    ~Erin

  2. Shasta says:

    I just discovered your blog. This is so wonderful. Thank you for taking the time to share all these free motion quilting ideas with us.

  3. Leah Day says:

    Erin – That's a great idea! I'm actually planning on having downloadable drawings soon so you can practice the movement or even transfer the designs using a lightbox.

    Thanks Shasta! I love sharing the designs and all the people I'm helping with free motion quilting.

    Cheers!

    Leah

  4. Janice M. says:

    Just came across you blog about ALL these different stitches. Boy, am I glad I spent some time here, LOL!!! I have not had the guts to machine quilt yet (been tying them) but hope to gain the confidence to try soon (even own the gloves already). As I watched your videos I noticed your cloth was NOT basted down. HOW do you keep the fabric from shifting?! How big are the (stitch-boxed) blocks you work in?

    TIA, Janice M.

  5. Leah Day says:

    Janice M. – I'm only working with 6" squares of fabric with a marked 4" square to quilt in the center so basting is really not necessary.

    Even if you make up a fat quarter sized practice piece, you still won't need to baste it very closely. Just mark your lines and go for it!

    Let's go quilt!

    Leah Day

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