Quilt Along #12 – Microstippling

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.

13 Responses

  1. MC says:

    You're a Doctor Who fan? Awesome!

  2. Jessim says:

    So many threads! You're killing me! I hid them all from the outline stitching (all the separate hearts…), but I didn't even think of how many there would be from the stippling.

    I always worry they will slip out in the wash. When I hid them from the outline quilting, I tried to push them into areas that would be stippled over, to catch them down. But I'm actually not sure if that is a good idea or not. Where do you normally put your threads? Do you give it any thought? Or just wherever?

  3. Leah, is there any reason that you can't travel stitch to get to the next section of micro-stippling instead of breaking thread each time?

  4. Leah Day says:

    Jessim – Yes, that is most definitely a good idea. You won't likely throw this particular quilt in the washer too often, but it's good to make sure those threads are secured within the middle layer and won't come out to annoy you later.

    Ashlea – You can most definitely travel stitch between the hearts if you like!

    Keep in mind that it's pretty difficult to teach all the multiple options for quilting on a line plus filler quilting at the same time.

    Rather than try to combine the two at once, I separated them and so only showed filler quilting this week.

    You can most definitely simplify the process as much as you like to save time and thread breaks!

    Cheers,

    Leah

  5. beaquilter says:

    that's just lovely, I really want to do a whole cloth on the long arm, but maybe even small scale would work, I'd need micro handles though

  6. sybil says:

    whoa girls……look at us GO! 🙂

  7. danih03 says:

    I love the blue one you did! I ended up breaking thread to do the inner heart part, but if I had seen one like your blue one, with the squiggly line, I might have done that! I like that look!

  8. Malini says:

    Leah I read your post after linking up. So not sure if you already read my post before updating my questions. So, I'm repeating my questions here:

    1.You had mentioned that we need to break threads 16 times. My question is that instead could we travel stitch on the lines of motif if we're using the same thread for the microstippling as we did for the outline of the motif? This way I can get away with breaking the thread. I had connected the hearts with straight line.

    2. Did you choose to use different color of thread for microstippling for video and picture purpose? Or do you suggest to use different color thread than the one used for outline because the motifs will pop more?

  9. Nancy says:

    Thanks for all your information…really great! Now I would like to know if you were going to quilt a full sized quilt How do you manage all the quilt you aren't working on?
    Thanks,
    Nancy

  10. ggsblankies says:

    Well, just found the time to finish my stippling. Wow, time consuming.. I will post a pick and share link as soon as camera charges.
    I noticed that I did get better at the process by the time I was finished… but around the outside edge, my stippling got bigger. My scale, although not a huge…, throw it away mistake, stitches.. they did get bigger..lesson learned to check more often. I got in a bit of a zone and it seemed like things were going pretty smooth.

  11. Hi, Leah! I love your blog and website and the videos are fantastic! I recently got my hands on some Isacord thread and I want you to know that you and Isacord have changed my quilting life! Isacord is the first thread I have used that looks as good on the back of the quilt as it does on the front! Fantastic! However…..I ordered three spools on the internet and of course the colors I ordered were quite different when I got them in the mail from what I saw on my computer screen! Do you know if Joann's carries Isacord? I'd like to be able to see the thread before I buy it! Anyway, thanks again for turning me on to this fantastic thread!!!!

  12. Anonymous says:

    I am absolutely in love with this little quilt! I did stop & start & practice burying my stitches – which wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. However here's my question:

    How do you bury the ending threads? I got the hang of burying the starting threads, but I'm not sure how to pull up the bobbin thread again at the end. Do you just tie off each one separately (top & bottom) or do you somehow bring the bottom thread up again at the end of a line of stitching?

    Thanks!!

  13. Anna says:

    Hi Leah, just wanted to say that I really enjoy watching you quilt. It's like dancing and it makes me smile every time. And now I have to do some sewing on my own. I am totally inspired!

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