Hey Everyone, welcome back to Free Motion Friday.

Last week I did some cross hatching with a wavy free motion line and today I am just adding a bit of curve to the free motion line to add some contour lines to a piece. This type of quilting I find is great for filling in the background on a landscape as I did here on my Jacaranda Tree.

Contour lines behind the tree

I have also used it in the ocean to give some contour lines to the water to look like waves. As well as in the sand on the beach to create ripples in the sand where the water has been. It would also work great to create some hills and valleys. Many different uses for this particular free motion motif.

Not comfortable doing this with the free motion foot? It can also be done using a walking foot. Though a bit more guiding of the  foot and quilt is needed to create the curves in the lines.

To start a line can be drawn on the area intended to be quilted or it can be totally done by eye balling your way across the quilt. Here I have drawn in the first line with a Chaco Liner – I used blue today and it didn’t seem to show up as well as the red one I used last week. Sorry about that.

Draw a line to start with a couple of curves in it

Depending on the size of the area being quilted you may want to start in the middle and work out in either direction. This will help to maintain the squareness of the quilt.

Next, stitch over the line from one side of the quilt to the next or however far the line goes.

Stitching in place over the line

Draw another line to go with the first line – it doesn’t have to totally mimic the first line.

Draw a second line below the first

Stitch over that line.

Stitch over the second line

I want to fill in the large gap on the left hand side so I draw another line in that area connected to the bottom line.

Filling in a gap

Once it is stitched it looks like I have added in another hill. Some depth and dimension is forming with each line stitched.

Beginning to see some depth and dimension with the quilting

Continue on drawing lines or just free wheeling it until the area is filled in. Some lines are connected to others while some just stand free of each other.

Contour lines completed

This is a great way to fill in an area or create contour lines in a landscape quilt.

Here in my Rectangles and Squares quilt I have created contour lines through out the whole middle of the quilt.

Curved contour lines on Rectangles and Squares

Give it a try and see what you think.

Happy Quilting!