Quilting Motif: Poinsettias and Ribbons

When I was busy working on the quilts for the school kids, I did slow down long enough to shoot a new video on the quilting motif I was using.  I’m calling it Poinsettias and Ribbons.

I used it when I did this quilt from Jean in WI.

Here is the quilt while it was on the frame…

When I did the machine quilting, I used red thread on both the top and the bottom.

You can see the design has two elements, the flower or poinsettia, and the ribbons.  Both are relatively easy to do and both are very forgiving.

I did four petals on these poinsettias but I think I might want to mix it up next time and sometimes make four petals and sometimes five petals.  It’s all up to you and your personal preference as to how you would want to do it.

I’ve heard from many of you saying that watching my quilting videos have helped you get a little braver to do some free motion edge to edge quilting.  That makes me so happy to hear.

I had one reader write to me and told me that she only did pantographs at her machine and hated it.  She said watching one of my videos, got her to try free motion, and now wh is loving her machine.

I had another reader say that they were so afraid to try free motion but they think they are getting closer and closer to trying after they watched my video.

That makes me so happy to hear.  I am no expert at any of this nor do I claim to be.  I only want to be the cheerleader in the background helping you and cheering you to do some machine quilting that you might feel more and more confident about.

I will forever remember a conversation Kramer and I had several years ago.  The story goes like this…
We were in Hayward, Minnesota at the quilt shop there, Calico Hutch.  It’s a great little shop and I highly recommend making a trip if you are ever in southern Minnesota.  Kramer and I were on a road trip to visit my family as they live not far from there.  It was always a treat for me to get to stop.

It was a summer day.  I went inside and shopped while Kramer thought he’d take a nap in the truck.  Another gentleman was also outside waiting for his wife and instead of napping, Kramer and he started talking.  The guy ended up telling Kramer all about his wife who had bought a longarm quilting machine and she had the machine for several years and had never used it.  She was afraid to.  The guy felt so bad for his wife that she was afraid and also frustrated as they had spent all the money on the longarm.

After I got out of the shop and into the truck Kramer told me the story.  He told me he was so glad that I used my machine and said he’d be frustrated with me if I didn’t after we had spent so much money on it.

My goal with these videos is to help some of you who might be that afraid lady.  Longarming like anything else, involves lots of practice to be good and at first, none of us are…please keep trying.  Spend some extra time at the whiteboard and practice the design if needed.  It’s okay…just try.

For those of you who are more experienced, my goal is to give another motif besides loops or stiples.  They are great but why not try something different?

For those of you who don’t have a longarm…I remember being so curious about the machines before I bought mine, I just loved watching…maybe you’re that person.  Anyway, here is my video.

In full disclosure, this was the first time I’ve done this design.  I ended up really liking it and will use it for sure on Christmas quilts.  I love that it isn’t too Christmasy but still has a feel of Christmas with the poinsettias and ribbons.

I think it would also look great on floral quilts that aren’t Christmasy at all.  If I were doing this on one of my own quilts, I might have taken the time to make the design a little bit denser.  I’ve gotten so I prefer a more dense design…not crazy dense but a little denser than this.

I promise you, the work I did on this isn’t perfect but it’s not too bad..and was actually fun to do.  Watch the video and think about giving this design, Poinsettias and Ribbons a try.

A big shout out to Jean for donating the top that was featured in this video.  This quilt has since been donated to a child in need from my area.  THANKS!!