Leaf designs to quilt

Ah, the beautiful leaves of fall, now all sittin' under seven inches of snow and ice outside. Winter has arrived! But severe weather outside allows you to be inside and work on some free motion designs, provided the electricity is still on...


Use a white board with a dry erase marker or a pencil with your sketch book. Begin with a simple arc, elongated s-curve, drawing a small hill and then going down into the valley until you reach a point. Easy, right?


Now head back the other way with another arc until you reach the starting point...basic shape accomplished. If you can draw this, you will be able to quilt it even better.


Add a vein by drawing up the center to the tip of the leaf and retracing the line back to the starting point. When you quilt this center vein, the retracing doesn't have to be exact. In fact, it will look great if you stitch a bit away from it, about a 1/8" echo line.


Quilting the basic leaf shape, add in veins, maybe echo around the shape, then once you have one leaf quilted, go on to the next by quilting a meandering line to an open area where you can stitch another basic leaf shape, repeating the process.

When I quilt these leaves in a block, say as a background fill, I will begin my securing stitches in the seam line, then begin quilting a short meandering line. Add leaves, meandering in between, until the space is filled. Return to a seam line to secure the final stitches.

I have a few little journals where I sketch out a basic design. It's not to be an aspiring artist...it's how to train my brain to follow the lines. Then I'm prepared to quilt lines, curves, and swirls with needle and thread on my sewing machine.

Copyright ©2008, Sharon Baggs