May 04, 2015

FMQ Weekly: Planks Free-Motion Quilting Design

I have a super beginner friendly design to share with you today! Meet Planks.


This design is one of my favorite kinds, going from one edge of the piece to the other, and pleasantly geometric for those times that curves won't do.


You only need sort-of straight lines to make it work. Don't stress about straight lines. Mine are wobbly too and it still works. Here is how you do it:

a. Start with a short line up, then take your line off to the side.
b. Then another short line up and off to the other side.
c. Keep going up like this, back and forth. Make the length of the lines variable as you go.



When you get to the other edge of the piece it will look something like this: 


Now you make another column the same way, right next to it, making sure you only leave a small space between columns. You can see how the columns fit together below. The more variety you have in the length of your horizontal lines, the less obvious it will be that you quilted this in columns. 


Cover the whole space with your columns...and then you can't even tell how the pattern was done! Magic.


I have a little video of this design in action right here.



Of course it doesn't have to go side to side; up and down works fine too. 


And you may be wondering, does this have to be straight lines? No way! How about curves?



Doesn't that look like stretchy meandering? So if you like the look of the stretchy meander but don't like how all over it is, you could do it this (easier) way instead.


I hope you get some use out of the Planks design. I know I will!  Now I also want to share that I'm in this all-star line up of teachers who will be teaching at QuiltCon in 2016. You know how excited this makes me? Unbelievably excited! Can't wait to be a part of the QuiltCon magic. I hope I'll meet some of you there!




11 comments:

Vicki in MN said...

Great design! Congrats on teaching at QC. My blog post on Sunday showcased your designs :-)

Gene Black said...

Cool. The video is great too. I can see that you use your hands as "stoppers" on the sides. So your hands never move to the sides but only toward toward the "back" of the section you are quilting. That is a great way to define the rows - and that is always a problem for me.

Suzanne said...

Wow! I love how you demystify These complicated looking FMQ designs and the videos are so helpful. Thank you!

bumblebee53 said...

Christina; I really love this design! I have a question for you about thread. what thread do you recommend for beginners - and is there an economical way to buy this thread, such as cones? I'm thinking that on a home machine it would probaby be a good idea to have about 10 bobbins wound! modern FMQ takes a lot of thread - i guess that is why i still use a walking foot and stitch the maximum distance recommended between lines to hold things in place - hence my economy question! Thanks so much!

Mary on Lake Pulaski said...

Thanks for taking the to do this video - I really appreciate it!

liniecat said...

What a fun and maybe less stressful pattern for newbies like me to try!
Must gather my courage and start playing with patterns.

Lara B. said...

Just the type of design I think I could tackle. Thanks for the tute Christina. I would not have guessed it was done in columns - it sure fools the eye.
How totally awesome to be a Quilt Con Instructor! As Sarah would say Whoop Whoop for you!

leanne said...

eep I need a quilt to practice this cool design on ! and of course just so excited to see you on the quiltcon list !!

Rosemary B❤️ said...

I need to must out my old White and practice
Thank you

Joyful said...

Amazing. I don't think I would ever be able to do this.

Nurdan Kulluk-Rennert said...

There is a big possibility that I can make 2016 QuiltCon! If I can, I will definitely enroll in your workshop. And will probably pee myself when I see you! LOLLLL

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