Kissing Balls in Australian Quilters Companion & Thread Talk from My Sewing Machine #71

Hello Friends, Happy Monday and Happy Week for you! I am still in my whirlwind of merry-go-round.  I shipped off a couple of quilt last week, and have a few more to ship out before Thanksgiving.  I cannot believe Thanksgiving is next week!!!  It seemed ages ago when I finalized our Thanksgiving plans.  Anyhow, I am happy to share with you about one of my Christmas quilt being finally official!!!  You might remember this…

Well, Kissing Ball is currently being featured in the latest issue of Australian Quilters Companion magazine(#82).  It is a nod to my Aussie Quilting Friends, as well as “the” Aussie quilting friend of mine Lynette Anderson — who happens to be the designers of the fabrics I used for this quilt.  The fabrics are from Lynette’s Festive Fun fabrics for RJR Fabrics.

You can’t really see it, but I quilted an allover holly sprig motifs on the quilt.  I am hoping you can see close up shot I took of a sprig here.

I am sharing with you the schematic of the holly sprig motif for the Thread Talk portion of the post today.   Perhaps you could use the motif on a Christmas project.  You still have time, you know? :)

Step 1. First, I free-motion quilted the center berries.  It was perfectly fine for me overlap stitches because I use Aurifil’s 50wt thread, and the fine weight of the thread withstands stitching over stitches very well.

Step 2.  Then I added the holly leaves.  I would do 2 or 3 leaves depending on the space I have.  Sometimes I added the veins in the leaf center, sometimes I didn’t.

Step 3.  Swirls are the key to break out of a holly sprig to quilt subsequent holly sprigs.  I just picked a convenient spot to quilt a swirl, and then additional swirls until I end up with an area sufficient to quilt another holly sprig – starting with berries, and then holly leaves.

Step 4.  And the process repeats.  Note where it was a bit tight for me to swing a swirl to get out of my holly sprig.  In situations as such, I would just echo the leaf a little and get out before I do a full swirl.  Real life quilting is full of off the cuff improvisations! :)

I would keep repeating and repeating and repeating until my entire quilt was covered with the motif.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a lovely rest of your week!

p.s. Today is the last day for 20% discount on any of my online machine quilting classes.  Click here for the details.

My 2016 Line-up

Note:  You may click here for the exhaustive list of my published work.

Editorial Features:

American Patchwork & Quilting 2016 Calendar: In Your Corner

Australian Quilters Companion (Issue 79): Little House on the Hill

Australian Quilters Companion (Issue 80): My Heart At Home

Australian Quilters Companion (Issue 82): Kissing Balls

Fons and Porter Love of Quilting (March/April 2016): Constellation of Stars

Fons and Porter Love of Quilting (September/October 2016): Highland Stars

Fons and Porter Easy Quilts (Summer 2016): Estelle

Fons and Porter Easy Quilts (Fall 2016): Rainbow

Fons and Porter Scrap Quilts (Summer 2016): Pinwheel Parade

McCall’s Quick Quilts (December 2015/January 2016): Rows of Roses

McCall’s Quick Quilts (February/March 2016): Early Birds

McCall’s Quick Quilts (December 2016/January 2017): Domino

McCall’s Quilting (January/February 2016): Sherbet Stars

McCall’s Quilting (November/December 2016): Winter Wind

Quiltmaker (May/June 2016): Lavender Love

Quiltmaker (July/August 2016): Dawnstar

Quilters Newsletter (April/May 2016): Tartan Links

Quilts and More (Summer 2016): Tutu Cute

 

Free-to-use Designs:

January: Heads Up Crib Quilt & Playmat (Quilting Treasures)

January: Big Love using Go Big or Go Home (Windham Fabrics)

January: Star Dust using Brittany (Benartex)

January: Wish You Were Here (Hoffman Fabrics)

January: Farfalle using Whisper (Windham Fabrics)

January: Tulips Quilt using Flower Pedals (Windham Fabrics)

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