Free Motion Quilting Design #29 – Cat Hairball Filler

In my early morning doodling I came across the most ingrained, well known, and easily recognized continuous line design ever: circular scribbling. This is the very first drawing we ever do as children, but what will happen if we use a sewing machine instead of a crayon? Well, you end up machine quilting something like this Cat Hairball Filler!

Personally, I expect you all to take me to task for daring to call this a possible quilting filler. However, as I mention in the video, this design does have it’s place in the quilting world.

Learn more about machine quilting Cat Hairball Filler:

If you’re interested in thread painting, try starting with cat hairball as a base, then move on to stitching forward and back repeatedly over an area until it’s solidly filled with thread.

Inspiration: If you watch a 2 year old color long enough, it’s going to wear off. My little boy is already preferring the sewing machine to crayons – so many buttons to push!

Difficulty Level: Super Beginner. You will want to be careful to keep your lines consistent.

Of course the lines of stitching should cross, but they shouldn’t build up excessively or you will get some nasty distortion, not to mention a quilt that feels like sleeping under cardboard.

This is one stitch that you probably already have the movements ingrained into your body, so you’ll want to increase your speed to your stitches are even. If you end up with big wide stitches, try to speed up the needle and slow down the movement of your hands.

Design Family – Overlapping.

Directional Texture: No Directions. This is a flat fill like Stippling, so your eye isn’t really being caught by any movement within the texture.

Suggestions for Use: Play with thread painting! It’s fun and will definitely help to loosen you up if you’re struggling with free motion. In a quilt, this would look great and be easy to stitch around complicated shapes and tight places.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day