Quilt Along #44 – What a Starry Mess!

It’s Quilt Along time! While I know this is a super busy time of the year, it is still possible to find those peaceful moments to hop on your machine and spend some time free motion quilting.

And to make it even easier, this month we’re focusing on the easiest design type – Overlapping Designs – which require about as much thought and detail as a child’s scribble drawing.

Last week we learned Cat Hairball Filler so this week let’s focus on Starry Mess and see what happens when you overlap a simple star shape:

free motion quilting | Leah Day

Make sure to watch this video to get tips on quilting this design on your next quilt:

Difficulty Level – Beginner.

Design Family – Overlapping.

So that is Starry Mess! Just remember that if you want the star shapes to be more clear and defined, just quilt them bigger with a bit more space between each one. You could easily expand each star shape to over 3 inches and cover a quilt super quickly with this design.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a more dense texture, understand that when you bring the stars together and overlap them intensely, most of the “star” shape is going to be lost in the shuffle of all those lines of quilting.

Just keep those two details in mind and play with this design in a few different scales before trying it out on a real quilt. The best way to know how a design is going to look is to stitch a sample of it on the same fabric your quilt is made out of, with the same thread you’re planning to use on the real quilt.

And just a heads up – next week will be our LAST new design, and the following week (Dec 26th) let’s plan to link up on all that we’ve learned this year. Maybe look back through your posts and take a minute to see how far you’ve come. Everyone linking up has made enormous progress and I’m so very proud of every single one of you!

So that’s the plan for the rest of the month! Enjoy this time of family and fellowship, but also remember to slow down and find that quiet time for yourself on your machine. There is nothing more relaxing than creating something beautiful with your hands and tapping into that peaceful place in your mind.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah

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.

3 Responses

  1. sherry says:

    thx for these words …just what i need this morning…

    is still possible to find those peaceful moments to hop on your machine and spend some time free motion quilting.

  2. Neicee says:

    Leah: You dont sell the tables for the Juki Machines anymore?
    Deebriese@yahoo.com

    Thanks so much

  3. I'm halfway through my 4th attempt at FMQ, this one a sofa throw. At last, everything seems to be clicking into place. The stitch length isn't always even (but not too bad) and the echoing lines aren't always evenly spaced (still, not too bad), but this one looks pretty good. It is one I would not be ashamed to show people. I love the Isocord thread; what a difference — in machine settings, appearance — from the cotton thread I had been using. I sectioned off the quilt with swooping, curvy, doubled lines and am using several different designs in each section. I will post a photo when it is completed.

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