Free Motion Challenge /
Floral Frames Free-motion Challenge Quilting Along

Floral Frames Free-motion Challenge Quilting Along

7 Classes
1hr 57m

Machine quilting the borders of your quilt can be fun! In this free video series, I’ll show you some of my favorite border designs, plus I’ll share tips & techniques to make quilting them more manageable. Plus, I’ll demonstrate the designs on a sewing machine and a longarm quilting machine. Whether you’re a new quilter wanting to improve your machine quilting skills or just looking for design inspiration, this video series is for you!

In the first part of this video series, we are going to see how using motifs, or stand alone designs, might be an easier option for adding detail and interest to the borders of our quilts. When machine quilting quilt borders, one of the things I struggle with is quilting a design that wraps around the whole border. Connecting the design so it looks continuous, no matter what machine you use, can be tricky. So in this week’s challenge, we are going to go with an easier option, border motifs.

n the first video, we saw that quilting border motifs can be an easy alternate to quilting a design that wraps around the whole quilt. In the second part of this class, we are going to create the illusion of a wrap around design by breaking up the border into more manageable “chunks”. While “chunking” might not sound like a technical quilting term, it’s a great way to approach the borders of your quilts. Instead of looking at the border as one big area, we are going to see just how to break it up and create quilting designs that look amazing!

In this video, we are going to focus on another part of quilting borders that can be a little tricky…..the corners. While wrapping a design around the corners of your quilt might require a couple more steps, the results are so worth the effort! Not only will it give the border design a “framing” effect, it’s just looks so darn nice. But don’t let the thought of turning the corner scare you! It’s not as hard as you might think. In this video tutorial, I am going to share three different options for wrapping your design around this tricky part of the borders. Plus, we will explore the ribbon candy, wishbone and serpentine designs…..all of which are perfect for narrow sashing and borders.

We have covered a lot throughout the last few videos of this series. We’ve learned border motifs, how to break borders into chunks as well as how to turn the border corners with some of my favorite designs. In this video tutorial, we are bringing everything together and learning an elegant border design that is easier to quilt that it might look. I am talking about the swirl chain, of course. You may have seen this design before as an allover design, but now we are going to see just how amazing it looks in borders. Not only will I show you how the swirl chain goes together, you’ll also learn how to turn the corner, how to embellish it, as well as how to pick out filler designs to quilt around it. When we are finished, I think you are going to love this beautiful design as much as I do!

In this video, we are leaving the borders behind and focusing on the center of our Floral Frames panel. Quilting fabric that has a large focal print can be so much fun! We can either use the quilting to highlight the designs in the fabric print or we can use the fabric for design inspiration. In this video, I’ll also show you how to use the quilting in the background areas to make the main elements “pop”.

In this video, we are finally finishing our Floral Frames panel by quilting the center area. In the tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a couple of “motifs” just by using simple shapes. For the first one, we will be incorporating squares and echo lines to help draw attention to the center of the quilt. Then, I’ll talk about using designs from other areas of the quilt to create interest. By the time we are done, your beautiful Floral Frames panel will be finished.