How to Quilt Four Patches & Nine Patches :: Quilt Your Own Adventure, Week 3
The most foundational quilt blocks can be made simply elegant or absolutely stunning with thoughtful quilting. Whether you are practicing the basics of fmq, or taking your feather skills out for a spin, simple four and nine patches can make your stitches shine
PS This post is part of Quilt Your Own Adventure, where I am quilting my Camp Oda May Moda Bakeshop QAL quilt to inspire you with a variety of quilting ideas for common traditional blocks. Be sure to check out the original post to see the full lineup of content here.
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Quilting Plans
Practice your quilting on paper before you ever put a needle to your beautiful quilt top. By drawing your plan in advance, you can stitch with confidence! I've arranged the plans by "level," and I've included both Camp Oda May plans below. When I draw a quilting plan, I'm deciding what parts of the quilt I want to emphasize and how I want to show off the piecing of the quilt. These plans are meant to inspire you-- feel free to use them, mix them up, or design your own plans using some of the ideas you see here!
An extra note for those who are also quilting their Choose Your Own Adventure Quilt: The four and nine patches from Camp finish quite small, so some of these plans are likely too intricate to fit within small blocks. This post is meant to be helpful beyond camp, so keep size in mind when choosing your quilting plan.
To read more about How to Make a Quilting Plan, check out this post.
By the way, I looooove lots of quilting! I use 100% cotton Aurifil thread and either cotton or wool batting by Hobbs. All natural fibers stay soft and drapey, even with heavy quilting. If you prefer less dense quilting, you can enlarge, omit, or adapt motifs as you prefer. And don't forget to make use of the weekly live videos during this series to ask any questions you may have about adapting designs.
Intro
The Intro level quilting plans uses the four most basic FMQ motifs: meanders, loopy meanders, swirls, and switchbacks. If you are totally new to free motion quilting or if you aren't sure how to grow and develop your skills, I'd love to share my Top Three Tips for Successful Free Motion Quilting! Click here, and I’ll pop it straight over to your inbox!
Depending on the size of your patches, these simple blocks can actually become quite elegant with a bit of creativity. For smaller blocks, keep your quilting classic with motifs like continuous curves (new to continuous curves? Check out this blog post). Continuous curves can also be quilting with a walking foot if you're unsure of free motion quilting them. If your blocks are larger, practice your "toolbox" of motifs by quilting a sampler with a different motif in each section. Feeling out of the box? Treat seamlines more like guidelines and create secondary designs with creative yet achievable quilting
Moderate
The Moderate level uses the 10 motifs from the first two modules of FMQ Academy, plus walking foot lines. If you have been dabbling in FMQ for a little while and need an exciting push to take your skills to the next level, this is it!
Adding a few more possible motifs to your toolbox opens up a whole new realm of possibilities in your quilting. Continue to consider scale to make sure you have room to quilt your plan in your block and don't be afraid to look beyond the seam lines for opportunities to make new shapes.
Four Patch: Rockstar
In the Rockstar level, all bets are off-- I'm pulling all kinds of tricks out of my hat, so this level is designed for a confident, more experienced free motion quilter.
All. The. Feathers. The possibilities are almost endless. Don't feel compelled to feather everything, though. I did a fancy round of feathers in the center of my quilt, so, while I hope to use some of these feathers of future quilts, I'll likely choose something simpler for this round. Alternating between complex and more simple quilting motifs as well as denser and looser and curvy and geometric are all parts of creating balance and contrast in your quilting.
Bonus: Ideas for Tulip Blocks
The Camp Oda May quilt had these optional cornerstones. Here's a few ideas to get you started.
Remember, draw your quilting plan several times of paper before you get started, then quilt one section, one motif at a time. Even the largest quilts get quilted a piece at a time.
Share your quilting progress in the Quilting Rockstars Facebook Group!
PS Don't forget to pin this post so you can find it later!
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