Graffiti Quilting and Swirling Feathers

Published: Wed, 07/19/17

Graffiti Quilting
Hi ,

Hello my Quilting Friends! Last week I shared a wonderful interview with Karlee Porter, the creator of Graffiti Quilting.

I also have a super exciting announcement - all the podcast episodes are now live on YouTube! I've put the episodes together in a playlist so you just have to click once and the videos will play automatically so you can binge listen / watch to all the episodes shared so far.

Also I've pushed myself to start recording the introduction section live. I pulled out a quilt, turned on the camera, and shared the updates from around the house while stitching on James's puff quilt. The rest of the video will be a still image, but it's one small step to making the entire podcast live video (which is a big leap forward).


Graffiti Quilting example
Swirling Feathers on the Grace Qnique
Swirling Feathers
Sunday was a very lazy day because we spent all day Saturday canning 30 quart jars of tomatoes. It was hot, sticky work, but definitely worth it to enjoy fresh tomatoes in the middle of winter. On Sunday I continued to work with food as I'm quilting another pear in my table runner with Swirling Feathers.


Swirling Feathers is one of my favorite feather designs because it allows you to stitch feathers in all directions and fit them together organically. Sometimes the design has to completely break the rules to fill a quilting space consistently like around the stem of the pear shape, shown at left.

This feather design is also great for sorting out excess fabric issues, which is something I'm dealing with on this quilt. If you watch the video, you'll see how the fabric begins to go baggy within the pear shape as I quilt towards the edges.

Design #482 Bean Sprouts
Bean Sprouts
This funky, flowing quilting design starts with a very simple Dew Drop shape.

Basically a wiggly line with two tear drops on the end. Then just echo quilt around it multiple times until you get bored and move on to quilt another shape.

Click Here to see how this design is quilted in this new video.

Are you looking for more inspiring quilting designs to add beautiful texture to your quilts? Click Here to find 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, a huge book filled with hundreds of quilting designs to stitch on your home machine.

Now let's learn a bit more about quilting Bean Sprouts:

Difficulty Level: Beginner - This is a really simple design to machine quilt so long as you keep the basic rules in mind. Memorize the starting Dew Drop shape and quilt it carefully first, then all you have to do is travel stitch and echo to expand the design.

Where Do I Quilt It? - Echoing Designs like Bean Sprouts can be quilted anywhere on your quilts. You can expand the design and quilt it on a huge scale and cover your quilt with All Over Quilting. You can also quilt it easily in blocks, sashing, or borders.

So that's it for this week! I really hope you give a listen to my fun interview with Karlee Porter, and also let me know if you like the new format of video introductions and conclusions on the podcast.

Until next week, let's go quilt.

Leah Day