Modern Quilting
Inspirational projects and educational tutorials.
This post is entitled “FMQ” Lesson, but for the Phoenix and Pixelate blocks I decided to pull out my walking foot and do some straight outline quilting. Both of these blocks have a lot of thick seams which can make free motion quilting much harder. It is possible, but I really wanted to save you all the headache when the walking foot does such a good job.
A walking foot is a special foot for your sewing machine made for machine quilting. It has feed dogs above your fabric and below so that all layers feed evenly and prevents against puckering. Is it required? No, you can use a basic foot, but make sure your block is basted well so nothing shifts. Do you need to backstitch? Well if you want your quilting to look super clean then I suggest burying your threads just as we have done before, but if you are not too concerned than you can backstitch at the start and finish.
For the Pixelate block I decided to keep it simple. To quilt your block in the same way…
Set your stitch length to 3. Began by first stitching in the ditch around the block/border.
While you still have your background color thread in your machine echo ¼” inside each background color square.
For the borders quilt random spaced rectangles.
Bury threads and trim block down to 14.5”.
For the Phoenix block I echoed a few of the inner shapes. To quilt your block in the same way…
Start by quilting in the ditch between the borders and block around all 4 sides.
Start quilting and echo the innermost square two times with 1/4" spacing.
Start quilting and echo the second innermost square one time with 1/4" spacing.
Start quilting and echo the plus sign shape with 1/4" spacing.
Fill all the borders with diagonal straight lines approx. 1" apart.
Bury the threads and trim block down to 14.5”.
My name is Alyssa Williams, I live in sunny Prescott Valley, AZ. I am a front end developer and avid sewist. I write modern quilting tutorials and share techniques and inspiration here at Pile O’ Fabric. Learn more…
Alyssa Williams
Creator of Pile O' Fabric
Alyssa Lichner is a graphic designer turned avid sewist. She writes modern quilting tutorials and shares techniques and inspiration on her blog, Pile O’ Fabric. Alyssa has a passion for exploring different techniques and applying them to modern designs. She is thankful to have the opportunity to share these techniques, through her tutorials, patterns, and classes with quilters around the world. She always encourages her readers and students to challenge themselves to try new things and to approach quilting with a fearless attitude.