Quilting Style “NORTHERN LIGHTS”

My favorite free motion foot; the Bernina #29C is shown on this quilt.  This is a “leftover” ribbon-fiber scarf, attached to a piece of my hand-dyed fabric, and then free motion quilting became an extension of those colors and lines that were intricate to the form of the scarf.

This is an original quilt I created titled “Northern Lights!”  And it features free motion quilting motifs of what I call “thread circle buttons” and then one of my most favorites: my “confetti stitch.”  Both motifs are mixed in with soft undulating swirls, and then just for a touch of the unexpected… some square motifs too.

If you haven’t discovered how to use the zig zag stitch “free motion style” now’s the time to experiment and play!! Practice is the KEY!  A free motion zig zag is a beautiful skill to have and to USE! It gives you sew much creativity!   I LOVE switching back and forth from a straight stitch to a zig zag, and the Bernina’s make it sew very easy with the built-in “temporary altered stitch memory” in every machine!  I teach this to my Mastery class students… this is a big bonus, and often overlooked! How it works:  ANY changes you make to any stitch… that means ANY kind of width, length, needle position AND tension adjustments… stay with that stitch until you either: 1. turn your machine off, or 2. make other changes to that stitch again.  It’s so convenient to switch from a straight stitch to a specially adjusted zig zag (#2 stitch on machines) you can see this stitch sequence in the light green threadplay in this pic… just touch the button for straight stitch (normal settings), then to my specially altered mini-zig zag then back to straight stitch again to make “confetti” quilting motifs.  I truly hope you… EnJOY!  Let me know what you think!