How to Free Motion Quilt Stars and Swirls

Have you ever put off doing something because you’re don’t feel confident enough in your skills and you don’t want to take the chance of ruining the project you’re working on? That’s me sometimes when it comes to free motion quilting.

Even though I free motion quilted waves, figure eights and feathers on the quilt I made for our oldest daughter and leaves on the Forest Friends quilt, I still consider myself a beginner when it comes to fmqing and I get nervous when it comes time to quilt a new project.

I’m making a Dr. Who Tardis quilt for our son. In truth, it was his Christmas gift but by Christmas it was still only a quilt sandwich. Nevertheless, I wrapped it and put it under the tree for him.

I couldn’t have been happier with his reaction when he opened his gift. He loved it… despite the fact that it was only half finished.

After the new year, I worked away on the stitch-in-the-ditch part of my quilting plan. There was a lot of it!

By mid-February, I had the quilting on the Tardis done and was ready to quilt the borders. And that’s where I got stalled.

I knew I wanted to free motion quilt stars in the borders but his quilt was turning out so well, I was scared of ruining it.

Finally in March, with our son’s birthday approaching I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer. I dug through my fabric dresser, found an orphaned quilt block, layered it up with batting and backing and sat down at the machine to practice.

I started with the idea of quilting stars and loop de loops.

Then at the very end, on a whim, I did that curlyq/swirl. I liked the look so much I dropped the idea of doing loop de loops completely.

After one more practice sandwich in which the style of the swirls changed a bit, I switched to the Tardis quilt.

Here’s what the stars and swirls look like quilted around the lantern at the top of the Tardis:

A close up:

One of the right side border:

Video Tutorial – How to Free Motion Quilt Stars and Swirls

I started out on the bottom left border and by the time I got around to that right side border pictured above, I was feeling confident enough to enlist Dave’s help in making a video to demonstrate how I created each star and swirl on my home machine so you can too.

As I mentioned at the end of the video, don’t wait until you’re an expert at free motion quilting to start making quilts for family and friends. It doesn’t have to be perfect. And you’ll get better and more confident with practice.

Feel free to remind me of this next time I’m stalled on a project due to fear or perfectionism. 🙂

If you quilt something using my stars and swirls tutorial, take a picture and tag me @supermomnocape on Instagram or @1SuperMomNoCape on Facebook. I’d love to come see!

Pin this video tutorial for future reference by clicking on the Pinterest button under this post.

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