Day 56 – Triangle Mosaic
So what do you get when you Pebble with squares? Cubing! What do you get when you Pebble with triangles? Triangle Mosaic!
Inspiration – Several years ago my sister got into tile mosaics. It’s a beautiful craft and just like patchwork quilting you create the images by cutting up pieces and putting them all back together again.
Difficulty Level – Intermediate. This is a tricky design because triangles don’t flow as naturally as squares or circles. Just try to keep your stitches flowing smoothly and your triangles nice and even.
Design Family – Stacking. Like Pebbling, Triangle Mosaic is created by stacking the same shape repeatedly upon itself. This means it works great in all areas of your quilt no matter how small or tiny.
Directional Texture – No Direction. This is a great background filler design because it doesn’t pull your eyes in any single direction.
Suggestions for Use – Because this design is SO time consuming to stitch, I would use it sparingly, so maybe just the centers of flowers or the tight spaces around blocks.
If you do place it in a big area, make your triangles fairly big as well so you don’t spend half your life finishing your quilt!
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
I like many have been following your post, hang in there you are doing wonderful. I have not done any FMQ but am slowly getting exposed to the possibilities of trying. I have a top picked out to doodle on and purpose by the end of the year to get at least as many of your ideas interperted as possible. thanks for sharing! cw
Hi! Just wanted to thank you for all this great info! I'm just beginning to learn this and it's been so helpful. Now I have to pick which one I like best to try first!
Wow – what a great blog to come across! I love your ideas and designs!!
What a neat thing you are doing. I really want to get better at free motion quilting and you certainly inspire me with your creative patterns.
Leah,
I am so glad I found you 🙂 I am trying to "get out of the ditch" and your videos are great. Thank you also for your tips on tools and machine set up.
I am currently trying to quilt a baby quilt with random circles of different sizes, sort of like bubbles. It is not a continuous design. Do you have any tips on starting/stopping smoothly?
I have a viking that automatically secures and cuts the threads at the beginning and end of stitching, I'm not sure thats the way to go.
Have a great day,
Lisa
Lisa – Starting and stopping can be a challenge and quilt judges really look at these areas for bumps and loose thread.
Personally I would try to get the thread cutting mechanism disabled on your machine. A good sewing machine repair person should be able to disable it without messing up anything else on your machine.
Next with your circle pattern, I assume you're going to mark your quilt top with the circles as they can be hard to quilt perfectly without marking.
As you work around the circle maintain a good speed in relation to your hands. When you near an area where you will pass over your previous stitching slow down slightly so you have better control.
I'd avoid breaking thread as much as possible, and since you described your pattern as overlapping circles, why not travel your way to the other circles rather than break thread between each one? It might be more challenging to travel, but you'll have a lot less start/stop areas.
Let's go quilt!
Leah Day