Cheryl Malkowski - Doodle Quilting: Over 120 Continuous-Line Machine-Quilting Designs

On any given day, most quilters have at least one quilt top that is begging to be quilted. These are not necessarily masterpieces or competition quilts, but quilts for family, friends, or even a local charity. They dont call for intricate, precise patterns, but some sort of allover design to hold the quilt together. These are my favorites to quiltquilts that are really all about the fabric; the stitching adds a bonus layer of interest. My theory is that these quilts should have interesting quilting patterns, even if they dont require them. Patterns draw viewers closer to the quilt and invite them to really explore it.

But what I hear from quilters is, Im not at all artistic!" or I could never do that!

In my prequilting days as a preschool classroom assistant, I taught representational drawing to a group of four- and five-year-olds. The children were fabulous. By the end of the unit, they were drawing a rose in a vase on a table with a table runner, and it looked like the real thing. These were not genius four- and five-year-olds; its just that the thought had never occurred to them that they couldnt draw. So they just did it. They drew the rose still life by breaking down the picture into understandable shapes and drawing each shape one at a time.

Now, I know that you, my fellow quilters, have, at the very least, the artistic abilities of a young child, but you probably have been telling yourself since you were about nine years old that you cant draw, because your simple drawings didnt meet the standards of your sophisticated minds. Now you probably look at a subject or design and decide you cant draw it, so you dont even try. But maybe your drawings never advanced after elementary school because nobody ever broke down the simple shapes for you.

The principles that worked for my preschool class will work for quilters looking for designs to put on quilts. Granted, you are going to need to master the actual machine-quilting process, but the hardest part of quilting is deciding where you are going to stitch next. We will discuss that decision in this book as you learn about breaking down simple shapes, traveling shapes, and shapes that stay putor boomerangs as I call them. Learning how to draw simple shapes and then putting them together to make a quilting design is the first step toward more interesting quilting, because you have to know how the design behaves and how to draw it before you can quilt it. So lets get to it!

THIS BOOK

The goal of this book is to help you gain confidence with the basic shapes that comprise most quilt designs. Knowing the characteristics of individual motifs, how they work, and how they work together is what every quilter needs to know to get beyond stitching in-the-ditch.

To make this easy, Ive prepared some drawing exerciseswell, actually, motifs to traceso you can get the idea of where youre going. This book has a special lie-flat binding that will make tracing easier. Turn the book so the pages are in the landscape format. Use Quilters Vinyl, available at quilt shops and from C&T Publishing, and a low-odor, fine-point, dry-erase marker. The vinyl can be used over and over with these markers. Dry-erase markers can be found at office supply stores or even the office supply section of a department store. You should be able to find a package of multiple markers for less than $5.

Once your lines are smooth while tracing and you see where youre going, try holding the pen in your fist or with your hand farther up from the point. This will keep your elbow off the table and force you to draw with your whole arm. Tracing this way more closely resembles the movement necessary to machine quilt, whether on a domestic or a longarm machine.

Take it one step further by using another pen or pencil and a rubber band or hair elastic to make a cross-piece. Try tracing this way. Your dominant hand will lead, and you will get used to the feeling of moving both hands together.

Then practice the motif without tracing. Mix different motifs together and fill up the Quilters Vinyl. Erase and do it again! Doodle at every opportunity, and doodle with purpose, keeping your pen on the paper, so that youre not starting and stopping.

When you have a good idea of how your motifs will work together, you will be closer to success when you actually start stitching. Go to the sewing machine and start a new adventure! Need a moment to figure out where to go next? Just put your needle down and think for a bit, then continue to doodle with your machine.

traveler (noun) [tr v lr, trv lr]
one who journeys to a specific place

Traveler motifs can stand alone as an allover design, or they can be used in combination with other motifs. Every allover quilt design needs to include at least one traveler because they are the elements that make a design work.

Most commonly, I use a plain vine, loops, or echoing in my allover design because they can get me out of jams. For example, if I am quilting away in the lower right section of the area and see that Ive inadvertently left a section unquilted in the upper left section, I need a way to get back there.

By including a traveler in my repertoire of motifs, I can do just thattravel back to where I need to fill in. Well look at that scenario more closely in the Ensembles chapter (). For now, lets practice the basics!

Use a ruler to measure these inch marks to verify that printout is correctly sized.