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You all know I’m a sucker for machine quilting and I love it when others helps spread the message, that yes, you CAN quilt your own quilts! 🙂 Prolific quilter and author Amanda Murphy has just released her latest project, The Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book.
It’s chock full of ideas on how you can apply specific motifs to actual blocks. It includes over 150 step-by-step designs that are sure to jump start your creativity! Just take a look at these two ideas from the book:
I love it that the book is organized so that you can look up the motifs by quilt element or design family. But what makes the book extra special is that you can apply these ideas to your quilts whether you are a stand up long arm quilter, or a sit-down machine quilter. Amanda started off as a domestic machine quilter (like me) and she’s now the spokesperson for the new BERNINA long arm, so of course I think she has great taste in machines!
Here’s Amanda, in her own words, describing why she wrote The Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book:
“I wanted to write an idea book to help people figure out how to quilt their quilts by breaking them down into a series of steps. Each quilt element featured in the book has multiple designs but all are based on the same basic allover designs featured in the front of the book – so it is easy to create a cohesive look. For instance, there are several designs for quilting flying geese, and they work well with other designs that feature the same families. There are also coordinating borders, sashing, and stand alone designs. There is a simple table runner design included to get you started.”
As an added bonus, Amanda and her publisher have teamed up to offer a companion to The Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book. It’s called the Free-Motion Quilting Idea Sampler and is available as a PDF download which gives you loads of block patterns to piece and practice on!
Sampler Quilt for Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book
Giveaway
Leave a comment telling me your favorite free-motion quilting motif. (Mine is swirls!) Contest is open to everyone through the end of the week. US winners will receive a hard copy of the book; international winners will receive an e-copy.
Blog Tour
Check out the rest of the stops on the hop for more inspiration, and your chance to win a copy of The Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book:
- Monday 11/2: C&T Publishing
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Tuesday 11/3: Generation Q Magazine
- Wednesday 11/4: A Quilting Life
- Thursday 11/5: Pat Sloan’s Blog
- Friday 11/6: Mandy Leins
- Monday 11/9: Sew Sweetness
- Tuesday 11/10: Christa Quilts You are here!
- Wednesday, 11/11: Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio
- Thursday 11/12: Amanda Murphy
Christa Quilts 
Right now I’m into feathers with swirls. Thanks for this opportunity
I have to say swirls, and the many variations you can achieve with them, like to combine them with leaves and do a great allover…thank you for the opportunity! and the great posts!
I’m a newbie to machine quilting and so far have stuck to straight lines. I love the look of pebbles and circles.
I love paisley designs!
Feathers of any kind! Not that I’m very good at them, but I just love how they make a quilt look like it has a lot of motion.
so hard to choose a favorite. I like swirling vines with leaves but then I also like geometric shapes. Thank you for the chance to win a copy of this book.
Loops and swirls are my favorite go-to designs when I’m in a hurry. Thank you for introducing us to a new book for more ideas!
I’m still very much in the learning stage, shook I love matchstick quilting, but I love the look of pebbles combined with back and forth lines.
I like the look of pearls on a string and it’s variations but I need lots of practice.
Paisleys, loopy flowers, matchstick, and crosshatch are a few of my favs. Thanks for the chance to win a copy of this book. It looks wonderful!
My go to is a flowering clam shell! Covers a large area and gives great motion!!
Feathers and swirls, for me. The book looks very intriguing and would be a wonderful addition to my library!
I don’t have a favorite design , I am still trying to pluck up the courage to try !
I use my walking foot and am trying out lots of curved designs like orange peel. I really need this book! I have a stack of quilts that I do not want to fmq an all over design on!
I seem to be into loops lately, but that is now. But it could change today.
I just finished an online class on free motion quilting and the one design that I really enjoyed stitching is the Pebble. It looked so pretty and was pretty easy to stitch out. I really thought free motion quilting on my home machine was beyond my ability but I learned it just comes down to patience and practice.
Feathers have yo be my favorite, but right now I am loving swirling snowflakes!
I love the effect of pebbling. Thanks so much!
I love echoing designs and especially using the walking foot and do parallel lines. Love the look.
My go to tends to be spirals, but I’m trying to stretch to other ideas.
I love doing the hook swirl! Thanks for the chance to win and get some new ideas 🙂
Love swirls. Still practicing to get them to look beautiful.
I’m still trying to develop my FMQ skills. I can do straight lines and echo, and for some reason writing comes easily for me. Beyond that, I’m hopeless!
I like the look of pebbles.
Being a newbie to fmq, I tend to stick to straight line quilting. Just getting my “feet wet” and love to do swirls.
I’m a newbie, so I haven’t done anything but stitch in the ditch and echo quilting, but I love petals, wavy lines, and feathers!
How can you pick a favorite? I love them all and strive to practice until they are part of my skill set.
Too early to have a favorite. I practice themes like pumpkins, poinsettia. I like echo stitching large flowers and curved lines like mctavishing…. The book looks great!
I seem to be in a serious pebbling phase but feathers come a close second. This sounds like a great book.
Wavy lines and swirls are my favorites that I can do. I love the look of feathers and pebbles when other people do them, but so far don’t love the look of mine!
Right now my favorite is ribbon candy, it flows so nicely.
Oh Christa, what a sweet blog hop giveaway!! I am in love with funky feathers…. adapting and changing them so they look like ribbons, flowers and so on. 🙂 Thanks!!
Currently I am mostly doing swirls and loops.
I love feathers, but I have trouble making them. I definitely need more practice. I love the idea of a book that helps me decide how to quilt a certain block!
Looks like a great book! I use loops all the time and would love to try something else!
Hi Christa I love wavy lines and loops you can make them in all different directions and designs…thanks for the heads up looks like a great addition.
I love her block by block designs. It seems this would help to inspire creativity in all ofus.
thanks,
I love swirls, wavy line, pebbles and feathers, all designs with curves. XXX
I’m still very much a novice at FMQ, so my favorite design that I can actually do is simple loops. I’d love to work my way up to fancier designs!
I’m so new I don’t have a favorite but I love how swirls look.
It’s so hard to pick *one* favorite! I love swirls, but feathers – oh my! And pebbles!!! Oh, and paisley… *So* hard to just choose one!! I’m really looking forward to having this book!
At the moment feathers are my favorite.
Thanks for the chance!
Greetings, Rike
I can meander, without crossing a line, and do pebbles virtually in my sleep. Ditto wavey lines but the rest of my quilting skills are rather primitive…..Definitely need to work on that!
Ann Pugh
My favorites are Swirls and Feathers! This book definitely is going in my library. Thanks for the chance to win!
I love feathers as they are so versatile.
Sandra
I like swirls too, or swirls with a daisy thrown in every now and then.
Feathersswirlscontinuouslinepebblespaisley and anything with rulers!!! Thank you for the opportunity to win a copy of this awesome book!!!
Vines, leaves and free form feathers – so much fun!
My favorite is feathers.
I’m still in the beginning stages of free-motion quilting. I mostly have done straight line quilting and meander. Will eventually learn MORE!!! 🙂