Help! How Do I Quilt Negative Space? - Live Chat with Angela Walters

hey everybody welcome to this week's live chat i am coming to you from sweltering steamy hot liberty missouri just north of kansas city missouri so very glad that you are joining us for this week's live chat um we've had a great couple chats last couple weeks i'm going to tell you i am really enjoying doing these i love getting on right before i go live and type typing out with other people and answering questions getting their questions written down because such great things come up before and during so as i'm doing my presentation if you have any questions just put them in the chat because jessica's sitting over here writing them down furiously for me so i can make sure i can address them during this week's chat before we get on to our topic which is going to be tips for quilting negative space i put together eight tips i was going for 20 but i stopped at eight no i'm just kidding i thought that's a good round number to learn i just want to talk about a couple little things first of all lots of questions lots and lots of questions about the next free motion challenge quilting along that's a video series where we work together quilting through a project from start to finish good news everybody i just sent out the panel for test print today or this week so i should be getting it back soon and once the panels go we're usually about four four weeks out from actually announcing it so it's coming together pretty quickly and i think you're going to love it so i'll be sharing some sneak peeks some little pictures more and more as we get closer so definitely keep that in mind also great response to our last two live chats the tula pink butterfly quilt and the picking threads live chat lots and lots of people taking advantage of that weekly deal just want to let you know that my people are cutting furiously their packaging threads as fast as they can we're a little delayed so if you just be patient we'll definitely get those out to you so but i do appreciate your support purchasing from our online store lets me keep doing this so definitely love that speaking of this week's special it's going to be 20 off the echoes and curves panel or the cathedral quilt kit and you're going to use the promo code thread to get that now i'm going to show you pictures of both those in just a second but just know that to take advantage of anything i talk about all you'll have to do is click the link in the description box and it has everything you need speaking of everything you need i have put together a downloadable pdf tip sheet and i think it's pretty amazing it's a lot more in depth than my normal tip sheets but i thought man i was just on a roll so to download that for free all you have to do is go to the description box and click the link that will take you to everything that you need and there's no cost for the pdf i do it completely free the only thing i ask is that if you like the pdf or the live chats that you'll give the video a thumbs up or leave a comment because that helps other quilters find it as well so that's all i ask for all right let's talk about quilting negative space you know i've got a bunch of pictures to share a bunch of tips to talk about and again if you have questions you can leave them in uh just leave them in the chat and jessica will write those down so first let's talk about what is negative space so this is a class that i have taught several times hands on in lecture and when i say negative space i kind of almost say it interchangeably with background now listen i don't have an art degree i have a degree in fast food with a major in french fries not really but um so i'm sure there's a more artistic definition but for our purposes we're talking about the area that's around the most important parts of the quilt sometimes that negative area or that background is very easy to notice so this is the cathedral quilt it's a very fast and fun quilt to make using raw edge applique this is actually the kit that is 20 off for this week only it's pretty obvious where the negative space is or the background it's going to be that light gray fabric but sometimes it's not quite as noticeable or sometimes there isn't any so let's look at this quilt now this is a little mini quilt but this was from a market several years ago but as you look at it you're like okay well maybe that white could be negative space so there's a little bit in there or maybe you treat that white as a whole block and there isn't any negative space at all so when you look at a quilt it might not be so obvious right up front now the negative space or the background can be what you decide to make it so this quilt i quilted for camille ross kelly of thimble blossoms and she used the same background fabric for her sashing in her blocks and it kind of gave the illusion that they were floating in between those corner stones well i decided to break up that background or that negative space by quilting an all-over swirl around the star and then treating those sashings as though they were a different fabric so using the quilting you can also decide what you want to be the negative space so you don't have to just pick what comes to you it can be lots of negative space or it can be little bits of negative space or irregular negative space how about this quilt this quilt was humongous it is all needle turn applique and i quilted it for an exhibit for quilt festival years ago and so there's not a lot of negative space but we can see what it is right that cream background because obviously the most important thing is that needle turn applique so sometimes you think of negative space as a big area but it can be smaller it can be irregular shapes so you kind of have to look at the quilt and see here's an example where maybe i have to use the quilting to determine the negative space or the background this quilt is made with very similar fabrics no one element stands out more than the other so i could either just quilt them all the same like blocks or i could use the quilting to indicate which area is a negative space and here i just quilted the borders slightly different and quilted the blocks all together so that negative space that you determine can be decided by fabric it could be decided by location it can be decided for the secondary effect that you're going for and then how about that echoes and curves panel this is the other project or the other fabric that is on sale for this week's this weekly live chat deal 20 off the panel and this panel was designed for previous free motion challenge quilting along and it does have different colors right has the darker ring the lighter ring and then the more you know piecing that blends into the background using the quilting i determined that i'm going to make all that piecing around the edges i'll make that the background i don't necessarily need those blocks to show up or shine i want the darker and the more vibrant fabrics too so just know that you can definitely pick and choose what you want to highlight and not to get confusing you can actually have negative space in between your quilting designs like if you have a main element what you put around it in the negative space can really show it off now regardless of how much negative space you have or whether it's part of the pattern or you determine it with your quilting the designs that you put in that negative space can really enhance the piecing it can enhance the piecing it can help show off other elements so it's just as important what you put in those areas is what you put in the main part of the quilt i always say you know great quilting can enhance a quilt pattern but it can also take away from the quilt pattern so just being aware of that is really going to help you out so let's talk about some things to think about i've kind of broken it down into eight kind of chunks but you have to know that whatever you put in the areas of your quilt it's gonna be fine so don't stress about it just use this as some kind of inspiration to help give you a direction to go when you're trying to decide how to quilt your quilts now this adorable quilt i quilted it years ago and this is for robert kaufman i don't know the piecer or even the fabric collection but in between those crowns in those blocks i wanted to use the quilting to create a secondary pattern so when you have those larger areas of negative space you can use the quilting to group blocks together to create secondary patterns or things to really kind of give it a more custom elegant kind of look now in this particular example if we zoom in kind of on those blocks i use a quilting design to kind of hook them together so nothing too crazy nothing too over the top but adding those kind of curved lines just kind of help those little blocks stand out it with all those crowns and things going on i wanted them to not kind of fade into the background now when you're using this and by the way in that downloadable pdf all this stuff is in there when you're trying to decide those secondary designs that you're going to work with in the background first just look to your blocks look to the piecing when you can use those reference lines that are already on your quilt it saves you from having to mark it out and it gives you a really cool cool effect so here just adding a couple extra lines using the corners of the block as that guide really makes it easy and impactful even this works best for quilts that are on a grid not all the time but if you have quilts that have blocks placed out evenly you'll you'll have a really good option option of creating designs and this quilt is ventana and it was pieced by allison glass and again i did this a few years ago it's probably in my top 20. i love how the quilting turned out on this the negative space is that gray block but if you look at it it's the same shape over and over again and i just loved the idea of kind of looking beyond the blocks and creating the secondary design and i'm just connecting points on that block echoing it to make sure i can see what i'm doing and then putting some different fillers in that now if you're going to try this just take a little time beforehand and kind of plot out your your your course of action because i wanted it to be i wanted those squares to look like they were floating behind the blocks and so i needed to be sure i put it in the right place and that's actually a question that jennifer asked what about marking the negative space negative space to break up larger areas and this is an example of where i might mark it out i might mark just the first line so that i know that what goes in that block i might mark out a section and i'll talk a little bit as i show the pictures i'll talk a little bit about where i might have marked that but what's really neat about giving the quilting a secondary pattern is it's not going to overwhelm the quilt top you still see allison's bright vibrant fabric you still see the beautiful pattern but it just creates this secondary effect that is so fun and so easy it's just a couple of straight lines and some swirls and back and forth lines and it just shows that quilting doesn't have to be difficult to be impactful you can really come up with some neat effects just by changing it up a bit okay so here's a little bit closer look this is when it was on my long arm frame as i was quilting it and since those blocks are the main thing i mean as much as allison loves me she was selling her pattern and her fabric i kept the quilting pretty basic in those pretty simple and then just saved the while quilting for the background areas again since i did this on a long arm i'm kind of working my way down in sections so i definitely had to be sure of what was going to go where um i have in the past quilted the wrong thing in the wrong place and then i got to get super creative on how i cover that up but you know just another example of again using the the points on the blocks the piecing that's there where those gray squares come together that's pieced and so there is a perfect center point for me it's just like begging to be quilted so it's pretty easy when you can look for that area um you can also do this with you know any kind of blocks but again here i've added some of those lines that connect a little dot to dot so that those blocks come together this is gonna sound weird but i trust you're not gonna think i'm weird okay so when i'm trying to decide what secondary pattern can i make with this how can i connect the points on this grid and create this cool effect i kind of stand back from the quilt don't judge and i let my eyes blur just a bit and i kind of imagine where that line would go where if this at this point kept going where would it run into the next point if i connected this point where would it go a great option could also be taking a picture of the quilt and just sketching it out you know on your ipad or something and options options for that secondary design once you get the hang of it or you get the idea of the plant it goes together so quickly and again it makes a really impactful effect this is the night sky pattern by julie herman and again just using that quilting in the background to group the blocks together give that secondary design but not taking away from her beautiful pattern now i know we've seen this before i've i showed some some of the same pictures in several chats but they're for different reasons but here we have the uh the twist and time quilt this is on the midnight quilter and i'm super proud of this because you know it's my first finished english paper piecing project i mean i did have lots of help on it jessica actually made some of the the little rays and irene helped me put it together but you know it hangs in my house so i get to keep it but that secondary pattern where can i make these points touch um as i looked at the points i thought if this line goes there i can just connect them and make that secondary pattern now this is actually a lot of different techniques within one but i decided to throw it in the secondary pattern section so definitely have fun with that this is the variable midnight stars the nightstars from the midnight quilter it's pretty easy to see where that negative space is right that lighter gray but i actually kind of ignored that outer border and just treated it all as background and quilted a feather that kind of wrapped around that and we'll see that technique here in a second but what we're talking about now is the secondary design what's really fun is if you're looking at the negative space sometimes taking a very basic design like in those light gray squares that's some dot to dot and wishbone but the fact that it's changing direction is what gives it that secondary pattern so sometimes it might be as simple as having your design rotate or having them connect with each other sometimes you don't even have to think about matching the points you're just quilting in that block but what happens is as it's rotating it's just kind of giving it that secondary pattern and sometimes this just happens on its own you're like oh look at that i'm super genius i made that happen other times you have to be intentional about where you put the designs all right number two you can mimic the piecing in the negative space this is a quilt i did for jackie gearing probably in 2012. so a long time ago and it was really one of the very first quilts that i worked on that had a lot of negative space in fact when i met her we were kind of going over design ideas i think this was for a book or a pattern and she's like well i really want to enhance the negative space and i'm like absolutely no problem and then i went home and i went on ask.com because that was before google i knew about google and i asked like what is negative space i don't know what i'm supposed to be highlighting here oh it turns out all this fabric so using the quilting to mimic the blocks in that negative space is just a fun way to enhance the pattern to give it some repetition to break up that negative space and make it a little bit easier this works best for quilts with a lot of background slash negative space it works for quilts that works best for quilts that have not overly complex blocks if it's a very complex block i don't want to try marking the whole thing out and trying to quilt it but these blocks were all different sizes so they didn't even have to be the same size and they were really easy to quickly quilt now you might find marking helpful here especially if it's a block like a star or something that needs symmetry marking the block out beforehand will really help you just get comfortable quilting it but one rule of thumb that i follow is once i quilt that mimicked block on in the negative space i quilt it the same way i quilt the regular blocks that'll give it the repetition and help it be obvious that that's what's going on and if you like the block add some echoing around the outside to help separate it from the rest of the filler because we don't have that fabric to help it pop off we need to give it a little bit of separation so that people can see it here's the thing if i take the time to quilt all these different blocks on here i kind of want it to be noticeable so so definitely give it a little bit echoing to separate it you can look to negative space that are even between blocks so here we have i did this quilt for a gal that worked at robert kaufman it was awesome it was like highlight yellow and white and i did all sorts of those blocks mimicking them in the area connecting them quilting them upside down having a lot of fun with that it was really really cool so when you're looking at your quilt it doesn't have to be just a block you can kind of create that block and work it in different ways and this could also be creating a secondary pattern it's very similar to that but what i'm basically doing is recreating those blocks and quilting in the same way and using the filler around it this is actually from the dot to dot quilting challenge i had a picture of the full quilt but it just wasn't very good so i just threw this in there real quick again using echoing to separate it from the filler if you have a quilt that's bold enough that isn't going to be easily overwhelmed quilting that block in a slightly different thread color will help it pop off as well so even though this is a gray background i quilted that block in like this lime green thread that was still on the lighter side it just helped it pop off just a bit but not so much that it was screaming look at me and then again adding that echoing now this echoing is a little different it's dot to dot echoing around the outside of that block but the result is still the same it does give it a little bit of separation from that filler so again if you quilt that block and you love it add some echoing to separate it it's really going to help it stand out again this is going to be better for areas of large larger areas of space but also more solid and tonal fabrics if this is a busier background i'm not going to take all the time to do all this work because you're not going to see it anyway if it's a busier fabric i'm probably just going to do it all over this is a quilt i found by kind of going back through my old pictures this is a quilt i did for tula pink and it's been a few years ago of course i'm trying to find pictures you all haven't already seen and it was a really stunning quote those hexagons and then all this background and tula does not always give me a ton of background so you know when she gives me places to play i'm going to play and i kind of loved how the hexagons ended in half hexagons and i decided to extend that out into the negative space and then also create that mimic block as though it's continuing and i kind of wish i had done it even more because i just love how it turned out so when you're mimicking the blocks they don't have to be whole blocks separate maybe it's something like that where it's a half block you can kind of pull it out into the background or borders or you can add just a few blocks as you go so you don't even have to do a ton you don't have to do a few you just make it whatever you like i always say start out with one or two and then if you like it you can add more but those those mimicking those blocks would be really fun and you can tell inside the blocks i quilted them the same way as i did the other blocks not totally necessary but i just want to make it extra clear that this is what it's supposed to be it's supposed to be a mimicked block and here's just a little bit closer up of that i'll talk about in a second about you know what you put around your designs to make them show off and this particular design that wavy line is just kind of contrasting in direction it's not super dense compared to that design it's just helping it that pop off just a bit because the direction is a little different in fact that's a question that um yeah jennifer asked she said does the density in the negative space have to match the rest of the quilt and not necessarily you can change up the density if you want just know though anytime there's a contrast it's going to draw attention so if you're quilting the rest of the blocks really loose and you quilt the background really small then it's going to make those blocks pop out which is great if that's what you want so you don't have to worry about that okay technique number three adding fun details to the quilting i try to think of a different word besides fun i tend to overuse the word fun but it's all fun so i don't guess i care the details are a really cool way to show off the the inspiration behind the quilt to add a little bit of detail to it and also to give it a whimsical touch you know i think quilting can be serious i think it can be very artsy but i like to have fun and i find stuff like this very amusing so this particular quilt i don't have a full picture of it but it was a quilt for tula and it was like had columns and she said she wanted creepy feathers so i'm like okay i can do creepy feathers like this is why i love working with her right who else says quilt creepy feathers and nothing says creepy more than spiders so adding a little spider web here and there just added a little bit of detail to it kind of pulled out some of the fun elements that were in the fabric and then this is you know charlotte of course so charlotte quilted out tula in the spider web um and you know so again i am so easily amused i think of these things as i'm quilting them i'm like oh yeah it's like charlotte's web look or quilting the name but i put feather i put some spider webs in the feathers and in other areas so it can be it can be really fun that way it doesn't have to be literal it doesn't have to be like thread painting it doesn't have to be like okay i need the fur of the cat right this is a cute little kitty quilt i quilted for georgiana one of our employees and i just thought well every cat needs some whiskers and maybe a little tongue right so again it doesn't have to be literal it doesn't have to be a lot you don't have to go overboard just adding a few details here and there is is really easy and whimsical way to do it other things you can do in the negative space if there's meaningful details or dates or things about the quilt you can quilt those in as well the joke is if i make a quilt for my nieces and nephews i'm going to quilt angela is your favorite right stuff like that is really cute it can also help show the inspiration behind the design and this is a quilt i use i probably use it during our help how do i quilt it live chat i'd use it and all anytime i do it how to quilt it because the inspiration of this pattern was gothic arches and to me though i didn't really see that until she mentioned it so using the quilting to add those details might make the inspiration a little bit more clear right so i can see the um the brick work here like the little details the echoing around the arches just again nothing super literal nothing super difficult or over the top just little peeps here and there just to make it fun and to give it a little bit more a little more interest all right the next one is adding texture to the background areas this is perfect for quilts that have irregularly shaped areas this is perfect for quilts where you don't want to overwhelm the quilt top the piecing this is for backgrounds where you're like look your only job here quilting is to look pretty but don't look prettier than the blocks so adding texture is a great way to do that and when i say texture i just mean that no one part of the design shows up more than the other the spacing is consistent and so here just adding those serpentine lines in between these stripped pieces is going to give it a nice texture it's nice and similar throughout the whole thing and so it just looks great and not doesn't overwhelm the piecing now here it might look like the quilting is pretty over the top that's just because i've edited the picture so that you could see the quilting if you're wanting to add texture to your quilt without overwhelming your piecing one thing to remember is to use a thread color that matches your background very important because we don't want the quilting to show up we want that beautiful texture that that consistent density whatever it is and just filling in the area of the whole thing now when i do the free motion challenge quilting alongs we've seen if you've been through any of them you've heard me say a million times that people will notice a gap in the quilting before they notice an error what does that mean it means if there's a contrast a difference in density like i just talked about a difference in spacing or whatever that's going to pop out so in this instance we don't want any one area to pop out we just want that nice consistent texture and what i love about this is anytime i got a quilt that was strip pieced it's like thank you i've got all my guidelines already there for me i don't have to worry about it now you can create guidelines you can you know add those in and fill it in it doesn't have to be straight and perfect it just needs to be consistent even if it's consistently inconsistent as long as it's consistent so adding that texture and it can be any shape so even though when we think of texture i think of curves and swirls it can be straight lines it can be anything you want as long as the spacing is consistent they can go different directions you can have different traveling bits and this this is actually from a sample that i quilted of like silky fabric this is really tight echoing wavy lines where they get closer and further apart but even though there's that touch of different density it's consistent it's not just one place it's happening over and over again so this is a perfect example of consistently inconsistent okay talking about texture so here's that echoes and curves panel from the challenge i was telling you about it's actually bigger than this it's just kind of cut in for you you can actually use the quilting to make the negative space so again like i said there's that main thing in the middle we were learning serpentine lines we were learning echoing we're learning all this thing to really show that off and in the background i just went ahead and quilted you know those serpentine lines that we saw just because that's just what we happen to learn there and again giving it nice consistent texture it doesn't have to be within a set thing you can kind of use the quilting to determine what is that negative space so this is obviously a quilt panel but you know the piecing i'm just ignoring that and i'm quilting it like the background now the one thing you can do is if you want to pull out a little bit a block or something and show it off you can quilt it slightly different and it's just going to help it pop out and if you look at the bottom you'll see there's two triangles one pointing each way with some echo lines a little bit little tiny bit difference in density a little bit different design it just helps them stand out a little bit so if you're quilting along your quilt and you're like oh this block actually turned out the way it was supposed to then you can make it show off with a slightly different design and here's a little bit closer up of it so that texture can be whatever you want it to be all right next we're going to break it up we're going to break up those bigger areas of negative space and we're going to make them more manageable now what that means is if you're quilting on a sewing machine or you're quilting on really any machine long arm whatever if you have a big area of negative space that can be really daunting i like to joke that the easier a quilt is to piece the harder it is to quilt you know you're like oh look it's a one big star it went together so fast i've got all this area to quilt then you're like crap i've got all this area to quilt and so by using the quilting to break it up and make it more manageable it's going to help you out now you can do that a couple different ways i'll show you some different examples here this example i'm using a big design that kind of works its way down that paisley feather one of my favorites and if you wanted to if you wanted it to be a certain way or you want to go certainly you could mark a reference line and that reference line will just give you something to follow when filling it in and we'll come back to that these are a little bit out of order this one is going to be motifs so adding a motif to your quilting this is perfect when you want to add a little bit of an elegant touch to your quilt or if you have a negative space or irregularly shaped negative space to fill in so this is another quilt i did for jackie gearing it's called the tin ceiling and i loved the the negative space where those teal blocks kind of came together and so i thought quilting this motif where it's a self-contained design that is meant to kind of draw attention to it but by using the same thread color it keeps it from overwhelming the quilt top but those that piecing those blocks are pieced with bright and colorful selvages i don't think there was a whole lot i could have done to overwhelm it speaking of motifs in irregular shapes here i have tula pink's cartwheels quilt this is the first one i ever did for her and so in between those wheels or those cartwheels i decided to quilt a motif so this kind of swirl that comes out it kind of radiates around it just helped fill in that weird space that i had right there it kind of you know if you continue the motif it gives it that secondary pattern and it just looks really really nice so when you're quilting your motifs you can really have fun with the placement of them and when you quilt it you can decide do i want this motif to stand out do i want to add you know really dense quilting around it or do i want to blend in a little bit more and you can kind of play with how much it's going to show off and hide in that area and then here it doesn't have to be curvy it doesn't have to be feathery it can be any kind of shape so again a self-contained design that just kind of fills in an area and gives it a really cool look and there's just something elegant about that something that gives it a little bit more of a custom look and it's definitely a lot of fun now we're back to the break it up section so in this particular quilt i have a tula pink's bjorn bear quilt and this is one of my favorites i guess i always say they're my top 20. it's going to be obvious i have a lot of quilts in my top 20 uh maybe more than 20. but there wasn't a lot of negative space to this quilt you know just the area between the bears and so i decided to break it up but also use the quilting to kind of create this look of depth and what i did is i quilted this feather and made it look like it's running behind the blocks of the quilt so again marking that out ahead of time might be helpful where do i want it to hide and where do i want to overlap will just kind of give you a range but as i quilt that chunk of feather now i have one area over here to fill in and one area over there to fill in it just kind of makes it a little bit easier so you can break it up in any way that you want you can play around with oversized designs like this feather make them really big over the top make them go in different directions you know you can wrap them around and make them look like they're going behind the bear i could say like i just love how it the juxtaposition of it with the bear but i just wanted to quilt a feather and i couldn't fit it in there any other way or you can use more basic designs just to break it up and make it a little bit easier i threw this one in here because that is also a needle turn applique quilt and it was just a big irregular shape that was the border and i'm like okay i've already done feathers everywhere how can i change this up and so by quilting some brackets and then by filling one side in with pebbles and one side with wishbones you can really break it up any way you want you can you know quilt motifs add more details in there um this is really where your imagination can run wild and so even if you want to take a moment and just kind of plot it out what it's going to do is make that whole area easier to manage right it's like how do i eat an elephant one bite at a time but it's just gonna make it you know easier to progress it's great because somebody on the chat beforehand said what do you do if you have a really big border well you just quilt a really big design so if you have a negative space use the oversized design to break it up and make it a little bit easier now i get that you might be thinking i have a hard time quilting a swirl of this size how am i going to put one bigger well you can practice and get a bit better but there was a great question that came through like how how do you see behind the needle when you're quilting on your sewing machine so as you're working in different directions in this negative space you're going to have to kind of okay this is what i do it's probably the best posture but i kind of peer over to the side and peek behind there but it's not going to be perfect instead i'm trusting on keeping that line smooth and if it's smooth it's going to look fine so marking it out beforehand will give you a line to follow as well so you just have to kind of see just past the needle to get where you're going but one great thing about quilting on a sewing machine is you can easily tweak it to the side so you're moving in a slight diagonal so you can see where you're going or just turn the quilt and go the different direction all right breaking it up can like i said it can be done in a number of ways this one was the icat moth i think i said that right it was from the book i did with tula and that background i just kind of quilted this these big swirls that just kind of popped out everywhere and it just i don't know it took that big negative space where i couldn't really fit anything super ornate ornate and it kind of made it tied with little pockets to fill in now the reason they pop out so much is because that dense filler that's around them and the side light that i put so that i could you know really show off the difference there but again you can really have fun with this this big border i started with a swirl chain i put some wavy lines i filled in between it i could have changed up the orientation i mean really really fun if you don't want those individual designs to overwhelm what you can do is use a matching thread color that's going to be key if you want to show them off because you're like dang this looks amazing a slightly contrasting thread will do the trick all right the next one is kind of a twofer you can change up the scale or combine designs this is a really easy way to take something that's familiar and latch onto it without having to really go crazy with the big feathers and the big swirls this is great for quilts that are have negative space or backgrounds of all sizes and if you're really comfortable with one design but maybe you want to tiptoe into another okay so this particular quilt is example of changing up the scale of the quilting so as the pebbles are smaller at the top and as they come down they get bigger well let's be honest it's a lot easier to quilt just a few small pebbles and all of them giving that gradual change of scale or size is what's going to kind of give it interest without taking away from the rest of the quilt and this is another example where i would mark out register lines so i might mark out a couple of lines across the quilt to know like these are the smallest ones these are the medium and these are large knowing that when i erase the lines you'll just see that beautiful texture so if i only know how to meander and i really still want to add some interest to the negative space of my quilt i can do that just by changing up the scale you can play around with making it smaller in the middle and bigger as you go out like i did top down you can really have fun with that and this is just zoomed in a little bit more and again it's a lot easier a lot quicker to quilt designs bigger than smaller so i still get the impact i still get to show off those tiny pebbles i just didn't have to do it over the whole area combining designs is one of my favorites as well combining designs allows you to transition from one to another or mixing them up together depends on what you're going for this is great if you feel comfortable with a design let's say you finally got swirls down you feel comfortable well combining them with a design that makes it a little that you're not quite comfortable with just a little bit of practice allows you to transition into that new design without freaking out and jumping into brand new designs all together so most designs will combine with each other just sketch it out beforehand they're kind of like handwriting they just kind of hook together so you can play around and create some different effects and you can combine several designs depends on how over the top you're trying to go how much you're showing off but this particular quilt i love throwing in clam shells and paisleys and pebbles but here's the thing if you don't want the individual pieces to stand out you want the density to be the same you want you don't want any contrast so that would be more like the texture but here i'm quilting with shiny gold thread i don't think i'm a word i'm worried about it showing up so adding those clam shells with that pop of bigger texture and those pebbles are a little smaller allows those individual pieces to show up and you can see it right there clamshells are a really fun one to combine designs i might have to include that on a live chat sometime all right the last one that kind of brings it up all together is you can combine all the different techniques right so you don't have to just say oh i'm going to do this or this you can do all the things all the things and that's when quilting becomes really fun you can break up the area like i did in this one it's another zoomed in picture of that tulip pink quilt just want to show you how i have some wavy lines i have some straight lines you can use the fabric as a guide as you're picking your designs and you can fill in between those things with lots of different designs so in this particular example i'm breaking it up i'm combining different designs i'm making ghost blah or mimicking the blocks i'm doing all the things now this particular quilt is a perfect example of all the things so the inspiration behind this quilt i think i've showed it before but it's supposed to look like a laurel or a wreath and so i wanted that inspiration i wanted to add details with more feather or more leaves and more echoing i decided to add motifs in that negative space the top and bottom and then in the rest of the quilt i used the quilting to break it up into sections to make it easier to quilt so again you don't have to just pick one you can do all the things and let's end on my favorite quilt of this week it's that cathedral quilt i was telling you about there's an episode on the midnight quilter you can watch it come together very very easy so much fun but in the negative space i just really had fun doing a lot of different things so in the corners quilting those swirl chains nice and big to break it up also create a secondary pattern adding some texture with the swirls but also creating secondary designs in the negative space between those blocks so again the negative space that you're dealing with is not going to always be large it might be smaller it might be irregular shaped but coming up with those secondary designs can be lots of fun now i didn't include this one in there but playing with a thread color i did kind of hint on that a little bit on the mimicking blocks but you can really create these subtle effects by changing your thread color as well and lastly before i answer your questions again you can see the texture with the swirls the secondary pattern with those bubbles going around echoing all the different things and so you really can experiment and find what it is that you like and i know the question is always if i'm in a class if i could read your mind you might be thinking but how do i know what i should do just get started try some different things out and as you progress you'll find very quickly what you do and don't like what works and what doesn't work so you have to remember that as you're working through your quilts it's going to be fun and change it up and then if you learn something new to do different next time even better all right so do we have any questions no questions huh nobody had anything i was like oh my gosh she's going to get writer's cramp over there writing them out how do i balance heavily quilted areas with lesser quilted areas okay so this is it's so funny when i started teaching i i realized there were things that people worried about that i didn't even worry about so i'm like crap i gotta start worrying about that and the difference in density would be one of them now when i talk about changing density i'm not talking about micro quilting to like big areas of unquoted area there it's a range you can have a range in between and so how i balance it is what do what do i want to show with the quilting if i'm trying to show off this particular area that's where the tighter quilting goes that's where the denser quilting goes and the rest kind of doesn't um and the question that also comes along with that would be like well is it going to not lay flat when when you're done and there is a chance of that if it doesn't lay flat because the quilting kind of ripples it up you could do blocking the quilt where you spray and get it wet and get it flat but if it's going on a bed it's going to be fine it's going to look great again don't do anything that i say and expect to win a ribbon in a show that's a totally different thing so so what thread do i use i love threads if you haven't checked out last week's live chat you should do that because i talk all about how to pick thread colors i use all the thirds i love all the threads but my go-to thread right now is glide it's a 40 weight poly thread which is a bit of sheen but a lot of these quilts were quilted a few years ago and the quilting is a little bit more matte that's quilted with so fine thread it's a 50 weight poly but it's just a more matte thinner thread and so the thread that you should use depends on what effect you're going for if you want that quilting to disappear then you're going to use that slightly thinner thread but i feel like 40 to 50 weight is like the perfect spot it's thin enough to blend in but it's not so thin that it's finicky to deal with when you get to the extremes the 100 weight or the 12 weight you can quilt with them and they look great but just know that you have to make some adjustments to that so see i'm answering questions you didn't even ask do i use a water soluble marker yes i do that's my marking utensil of choice it has always come out for me so i'm just going to stick with it in fact in the cathedral midnight quilter you kind of see me marking out the designs and registration lines i show a little bit about what i mark i'm not marking every single thing i'm just giving myself general registration lines to go with i only seem to be quilting in straight lines any advice to get back into curved motions wine does the trick have a glass of wine try to quilt a straight line it will be wavy no problem okay i'm just kidding kind of i like wine but not everybody does okay when you're good at something and you want to get into something else and that is scary right you're like i'm good at this i suck at that i don't want to suck well you have to embrace the suck and know that there is some suckiness that goes with it but what we're going to do is instead of like going all the way freaking out we're going to transition so let's say you're like i can straight line quilt no problem perfect do some straight lines then come back in between one of them and just add some loops that's it i mean you could even hold your breath and you're not going to pass out in that time frame right do a wiggly line just do anything that's a little bit different and then as you add more and you'll get more comfortable and then pretty soon you'll be doing wavy lines and then you'll do a line that meanders you know so think of it like a transitioning like what do i feel comfortable how can i transition this is especially the case for people that use computerized quilting systems so i'm a handy quilter dealer i sell the pro stitcher it's amazing but what happens is they think this computer makes it perfect and my free motion doesn't look great how do i get to that i'm always saying quilt out a couple of rows leave yourself some space in between and just add some echo lines add some wavy lines just fill it in and and it's going to help you tip toe into that transition and just know that as you grow in any creative endeavor you're just going to keep getting a little bit more uncomfortable until you get comfortable and a little bit more until you get comfortable and keep going and then don't be don't be afraid everybody has been there we've all been freaked out about the designs we're picking and lastly which stitch length do i recommend well i don't know i actually don't use a stitch regulator so i learned without one and so my stitches are what i call organic stitch length where they kind of juxtapose with tinier ones and bigger ones that's only half serious i honestly don't worry about stitch length again that was another thing i didn't know i was supposed to worry about until it was too late um but for newer quilters that have a stitch regulator so for instance my new long arm owners i always say 10 to 12 stitches per inch is a good range for smaller designs like pebbles i might do more stitches per inch so that i get that nice curve and for longer more fluid lines i might make them 12 stitches per inch so that i can you know move smoothly through that but again it's it's totally a personal preference and if any of you have any advice on that leave it in the comment section because you know i don't use it so i don't i'm not always the best advice giver on that but i always joke as long as i don't get my foot caught in a stitch as i pull the quilt over me it's fine and stitch length is one of those things that will kind of work itself out the more comfortable you get with the design so i know right now all those perfectionists out there are getting a little like scratchy behind your neck like oh that sounds crazy um you can definitely have all your stitches the same length it's whatever makes you happy well thanks for joining me i hope you feel more empowered and more excited about quilting those background slash negative space areas of your quilt um use your quilting or your marking to make it more manageable make it easier on yourself but try something a little uncomfortable and i think you might be happy with how it turns out well i'll be back next week with our next live chat and don't forget about this week's live chat deal it's only good for the week so it's only good until next thursday and you get 20 off the cathedral quilt if you want to try quilting some negative space or the echoes and curves if you want to try grouping the blocks together with negative space designs well i will see you

Channel: Angela Walters

Views: 22,438

Rating: 4.986711 out of 5

Keywords: machine quilting backgrounds, how to quilt negative space, picking quilting designs, how do i quilt it, angela walters, angela walters tutorials, angela walters quilting, angela walters quilting videos, machine quilting on home machine, free-motion quilting, angela walters quilting is my therapy, angela walters live chat, midnight quilter, angela walters live, free motion quilting patterns, free motion quilting designs, machine quilting designs, quilting tips and tricks

Id: zO3Yc2guiH0

Length: 42min 34sec (2554 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021