April 28, 2014

Tickled Quilting Design

I doodle a lot in the evenings when I should be going to bed.  I always know I have a good quilting design when I want to keep drawing it even after I've seen that it "works". That's the way this design was, it tickled me, so that's its name: tickled.


It is just two things: spirals and echoing. It comes out very fluid.


Here is how I do this pattern. Start with a biggish spiral. Come back out of the spiral (I go along the "inside") until you are at the top and start a new, smaller spiral.


Come back out of that spiral until you almost run into the first one.


Now echo around the first one down to its base. Then echo back up around the whole operation.


Do one more echo around again and start the design again.



I think to do good freehand free motion quilting you have to have a certain amount of flexibility. So occasionally you'll only echo once, or just use one spiral in a tight space, or make some other adjustment to get it to all work out. So don't forget that if you try this pattern, you are authorized to change it on the fly as needed.

As with any new free-motion design, figure it out with pen and paper before you try stitching it!


P.S. You can see me stitching this design in my Secrets of Free-Motion Quilting class on Craftsy!

16 comments:

Mandy said...

I love it when people take the time to show how they make the quilting stitches on the quilts. It is so helpful to me.

anyadahab said...

I love this design. I think I will have to try it out.

Ellen said...

So pretty...I will have to give it a try as well. Thank you!

Kimberly said...

I love it. I'll have to practice it.

jabeybaby said...

This is so pretty, thanks for sharing how you do it!

Gene Black said...

Cool! I really like this. I love doing swirls and spirals.

lauraluvsloons said...

Thanks Christina: It's nice to find a pattern that's fun to doodle and that makes a good overall pattern on the quilt top.

sew katie did said...

Your instructions are always well written and illustrated.

Elsa said...

Love the tickle ~

Vicki said...

This is a great demonstration of FMQ. Thank you so much for the hints.

What Comes Next? said...

love the "you are authorized..."! It's a great design, and you've shown how to create it very clearly - thanks!

Gail Lizette said...

I love this! Your sketches on FMQ are fantastic and extremely helpful.

Lynley said...

Thank you so much for putting this up - it was at exactly the right time as I was looking for something different to do on a quilt - and it worked brilliantly! I've finished it- pictures at http://lynleyquilts.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/log-cabin-finished.html if you want to see how well it works on a slightly bigger scale.

Anonymous said...

It looks great. Thanks for sharing the process.

JanetD said...

Just found your post and love it- just what I was looking for. I'm making a quilt for a silent auction and wanted to do some really pretty fmq on it. I made a children's quilt so I could practice this on it first. What I've done so far looks great- so thanks for sharing!

Christina said...

Hi Janet, so glad this is working for you, I keep coming back to this design lately too! I hope you will send me a picture of your finished quilt, I love it when people do that.

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