Thread Talk from my Sewing Machine #11

Most quilters probably have a quilt panel or two languishing in their stash.  Quilt panels make wonderful free-motion quilting projects because of the minimal effort involved in constructing the quilt top for quilting.  An example is my Baby Circus quilt.  I started with this panel:

Then, I added some prairie points to some of the triangles printed on the panel to give for a bit of interest:

Then, I did trapunto on the animal heads to give the circus heads some  extra POP, and quilting free-motion around and on the animals:

See the other fun motifs I quilted around the clown?  Fun motifs like that don’t require precision, so it’s a great way to get yourself in the groove if you are just now giving free-motion quilting a try.  Even if you are a seasoned free-motion quilter, it’s nice to just quilt fun motifs sometimes and see if there are other aspects of your quilting that needs improvement.

More fun quilting here:

Can you see I have quilted the word “Circus” underneath the horsie?

For embellishment, I added buttons, yoyos, very simple borderie perse circle applique, and pompom trim.

FUN! FUN! FUN!  So, go and dig through your stash and see if there’s a panel somewhere you could just layer and start quilting!  Or, if you like my Baby Circus quilt, the panel is part of a new collection called “Ringling Brothers Barnum & Baily – Baby Circus” by Quilting Treasures.  Check with your local quilt shops for availability.   You may also download the free pattern project sheets for this very Baby Circus quilt from Quilting Treasures’ website.