September 23, 2010

Free Motion Quilting Designs: Loops

Loops are a wonderful design for beginners. They are so whimsical and fun that wobbles and irregularities just fit right in. You could quilt an entire quilt with loops!


Loops are charming as part of a wiggly line. Ooh, and double loops? Yes.


Some loop variants. I liked the effect of five loops grouped together for an easy flower motif. That one design down in the middle I was trying to make pointy. Hmmm.


Riding home on the bus one day I saw some circular barbed wire. I thought it would be a fun quilting design to try. You would stitch around the circle twice and then stop (at the dots) to start a new circle.


Loops make great meandering, which is yet to come, as well as pebbles which we will cover next - trust me, there are a lot of pebble variations, pebbling deserves its own week.


If you are feeling goofy for pebbles, here is a nice pebble line to start with. You stitch a circle, then follow it back around to the bottom, where you begin another circle immediately below it.


I found some examples of how great simple loops can be on quilts! Now, how about sketching some of these loop designs, and designing some of your own?



1. Loopy-doo, 2. more loops, 3. 28.365, 4. Little red under a Christmas Tree, 5. Pretty square quilt detail, 6. free motion quilting

See more Free Motion Quilting designs and tips on the Free Motion Quilting page.

5 comments:

Browndirtcottage said...

Aauuuhhh yes.....loops....it's a 'good' thing!
I did some pebble practicing this week....it's still like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time.HA!!

Cal said...

I love loops! I have been practicing!

Suzanne said...

This is so helpful. I just did a little practice moving my mouse along the loops. :-)

Weatherbee ;) said...

I love all of the loops!!! I think they're my favorite. I've used up my practice piece, so I've really got to get a quilt together so I have something to work on!! :)

Thanks so much for sharing!
And I LOVE the book I received from you.
I posted about it this morning.

~Teresa
www.sew-aneedlepullingthread.blogspot.com

Gray said...

I am really loving all the attention to the detail of the top sewing... ones question.... how on earth do you manover the whole quilt (rolled neatly as it would of course be) into a circular pattern? Its a hard enough job I think putting a small wiggly pattern on but a normal sewing machine just doesn't give the space to manover the whole quilt... or is there a trick??

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