Some can even be quite complex, featuring horses, bears, flowers, stars, etc. You can get ideas for these types of designs by looking at quilts done by longarmers with pantographs. They can be large stippling, other larger meandering designs, or even feathers as an overall design. These are some of the easiest designs to begin with, but not all overall designs are simple.
Overall Designs- Also called edge-to-edge designs. Block and piecing designs are good mixers in a quilt, and I think are the unsung heroes of FMQ. While overall designs are usually loners, typically, motif and fill designs work together and are pretty much mutually necessary. The four types are not overly segregated and mix and mingle quite often. Motif Designs- These are the ones we love to see in fancier quilts the scrolls, feathers, floral motifs and more that are major parts of the design of a quilt in of themselves.Fills- These smaller designs are for filling in spaces between other types of quilting, adding texture and interest along the way, sometimes they are even used as larger design elements in the quilting.Designs for blocks, squares, triangles, borders and sashing. Block and piecing designs- These are designs that are based on the piecing.Similar to a pantograph used by a longarmer, these are great designs for utility, bed and comfort quilts. Overall Designs- These are designs that do not pay attention to the piecing.I divide quilting designs into 4 major types: Practice, practice, practice! Doodle quilting designs on paper too! Which brings us to designs. Don't forget to have a good slick surface! When you are in the beginning stages, any extra pulling or jerking of the quilt in relation to the needle and speed will cause extra tension on the needle (called needle deflection), causing it to flex slightly which leads to tension issues and skipped stitches.
It takes a lot of practice! As you and your machine get used to moving together, some of your tension issues will go away as you get better at moving smoothly. Keep in mind that we could probably camp out for a while on the basic motion of FMQ'ing and tension issues. How to Free Motion Quilt: The Basic Motion and Tension Hopefully, you've read the two previous parts to this series, if not, you can check them out here: