Quilting a Leaf Quilt

The leaves have been gorgeous this fall.  I'm hoping to get out for a nice walk later today to enjoy the beauty.

Of course my favorite leaves are those in a quilt.  The following sampler quilt top has a wonderful fall theme and was provided by Beth R - who indicated that she wanted "medium custom".  For this week's post, I want to walk through how I decided to quilt it.  Even if not doing a leaf quilt, this can assist you in analyzing your own quilts.

The theme for this quilt definitely needed to be "leaves".  There are a number of different spaces that need to be filled and I also needed to address how I wanted to quilt each of the sampler blocks.

I started by going back to my library of quilting books for inspiration.  In looking at "Machine Freehand Patterns" by Nan Moore, I discovered a few pages of freehand leaf designs.  The beauty with using my Art and Stitch software is that I only have to draw "one" leaf and then I can modify for designs I can use     on my Intelliquilter.  If you don't have a computerized system, these designs could also be done freehand.

Here is what I came up with for spaces 1, 3 and 4.  A wreath (or partial wreath) of oak leaves.

My Initial Oak Leaf

Corner Triangle

Half Squares

Oak Leaf Wreath Quilting Pattern

For a free quilting pattern this week, I decided to give you the oak leaf wreath.  Click here for a pdf of the pattern.  Click here for the Art and Stitch file.

For space five I decided to go with another leaf variation.  This one could be used as a point to point design as well.  I like that I can stretch this (or shorten this) to fill a space.

Leaf quilting for Sashing or Skinny Border

For the sashing I wanted a very simple leaf with vine that could come together in the corner.

Leaf Quilting for Sahsing or Skinny Borders

For the border, I will use a design that came with my Intelliquilter, Falling Leaves by Dave Hudson.

Now for the sampler blocks.  There were a number that were based on an eight pointed star, so I came up with a leaf that could be flipped and rotated to fill the space.  For the backgrounds, I will use a point to point arc and do that directly on my longarm.

Leaf Block Quilting Option

Eight Pointed Star Quilting Option with Leaves

There were a couple of additional blocks that I designed some other quilt patterns around a leaf.  The second design was inspired by the "Leaf Flower" in Patterns by Helen on my Intelliquilter.

Will add point to point arcs in the corners to fill the background space.

For the leaf blocks, I wanted some leaf like texture or veins.  The "S Curve" option was inspired from a book by Deloa Jones.  All of these blocks will also have "arcs" in the background spaces.

I hope this provides some inspiration when quilting your next leaf quilt.  Here are some photos of the finished quilt.  I used a rust thread for much of the quilt -- which of course means the quilting is only visible on the back.  But you can see more of the quilting in the close-ups.

Back of Quilt -- lightened to better see the quilting.

Happy quilting.

Kari

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