Day 308 – Pom Pom Parade

I warned you on Day 300 that the designs might start getting more complex. The nice thing is complexity isn’t always difficult!

Here’s a fun design that basically takes Layered Flower and cuts it in half so it can be quilted in a line. The resulting design is the perfect choice for the sashing of your next quilt!

free motion quilting | Leah DayStitch one side from edge to center, filling in a half circle type shape, then travel stitch or break thread and move to the other side to fill it as well. If you find it hard to keep the Pom Poms the same size and shape, try marking just the half circles on your quilt like this:

free motion quilting | Leah DayWhile this may look complex, it’s actually just triangles layered together and overlapping in a half circle pattern. There’s really no right or wrong way of doing this so just have fun stitching the pom poms as big or as small, as crazy or as controlled as you like!

Difficulty LevelIntermediate. For this design just focus on stitching along one line of your quilting space (so if this is in the sashing, stitch down the length of the sashing) and branch out with the triangles stitching them into the center of the space.

Try to estimate the space between and around each Pom Pom so you have plenty of room to travel along the other side and fill it as well.

Design Family – Edge to Center. Working this way is really interesting because you’re just concentrating on working from the edges into the center of the space. This method really lends itself well to sashing and borders because it’s so easy to just stitch down the length, filling these narrow spaces quickly as you go.

Directional Texture – 2 Directions. Because this is worked in a line, it’s going to have a horizontal or vertical texture depending on where you put it in your quilts. Watch out for your thread building up around the base of the Pom Poms! If it gets too heavy your thread might break.

Suggestions for Use – This strikes me as a fun design to use for a bright, super cheerful little girl quilt. Maybe try filling the blocks of the quilt with Super Daisy, Layered Flower, and Delilah, and then fill the sashing with this Pom Pom Parade. It’s sure to make someone you know very happy!

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.

4 Responses

  1. LC says:

    Leah, this has to be one of my big favorites so far.

  2. Dear Leah,

    Thank you for your fantastic blog! Yesterday I started Free Motion Quilting for the first time and your video on how to start has helped me a lot. I made my first lines and my first flower following your instructions. My machine is still running away with me and my stitches are to small and irregular, but I am working on that. And for the first time I feel this is something I could learn to do!
    Greetings, Marina.

  3. S says:

    Love this 🙂

    Jae

  4. Christina says:

    This design really appeals to me Leah! really dynamic but simple, like that you showed different layouts too!

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