What is stippling and how do you do it?

A picture is worth a thousand words.

http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransso...-quilting.html

Type quilt stippling tutorial in Google search & you will find more tutorials or videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg3xk...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpUww...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-d_c...eature=related

Here are several videos which will give you a good idea of stippling. Basically it is a free motion design that wanders or you can pretend as if you are drawing with your needle. The experts say don't come close to previous stitches, but it is really up to you. You usually use a darning foot, put feeds down, and guide fabric with your hands.

If you have a longarm or midarm you move the machine to do the wandering.

What a nice, conversational tutorial! :D

thanks for the links

Very carefully!

A little trick I use to keep my sizing fairly regular is to visualize a marble (or sometimes one of the larger buckeye type marbles) as the diameter of the loopy bit in stippling.

I've hear other people who visualize puzzle pieces. IF you do a lot of jigsaw puzzles, you have a sense of the basic size and shapes, and can translate that to your stippling.

I actually find the act of stipple quilting to be very boring, but I think it is often a good choice of quilting style.

RST

Just to mention it - you can also do stippling by hand. The rows of handquilting are done very close to each other and it looks like that:

Very Very carefully! LOL

As I understand it, stippling is smaller (tighter) meandering.

To do either it takes practice, practice, and more practice.

I am now comfortable to do meandering. But have not tackled stippling (but getting closer). Before I start meandering on my quilt, I pull out a scrap sandwich and do a short practice before I start on the quilt. This gives my mind and body some warm up to get in the groove.

When quilting you need to find your "sweet spot". That is where you and your stitches and machine are working together. It may be fast, medium or slow. Mine is in the medium area. But my friend leans closer to fast. We each have our own "sweet spot"

Try not to do stippling too small as the quilt will become boardlike, with no drape/give.

I *love* all your work. It takes my breath away!

I was taught that in stippling the stitching lines never crossed. Stippling is the hardest design for me do.

I would like to share something I ran across recently. Scroll down past the quilts until you see the quilting foot. Keep going - and you will see that she has her quilts under the arm of a traditional sewing machine. Then look at what she is doing on her quilts. Fantastic! And practice makes perfect. Don't give up. This is much prettier than those tight little squiggles some advocate. Somehow or other I cannot reconcile my brain to those tiny designs. One block maybe, but not a whole quilt.


http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransso.../06/index.html

June

Even though you want to jump into stippling, I would say you need to get control of your machine first. I always get my students to start with writing by machine. Draw four horizontal lines about 1 - 1 1/2" apart (just like we did in grade school)on a 12" square of fabric. You can also cover the piece with lines. Make a quilt sandwich with batting and back. Get your machine set up for FMQ and write the alphabet... your name... etc. Remember to fill in the lines completely. Take a breath and repeat. With this excerise you'll get used to curves,loops and other shapes while getting control of your machine. The next step is to draw out the stipple pattern on paper, and/or purchase a stencil for practice. I find that if I can't even draw it, I most likely can't quilt it. And, don't forget to breath.

Thanks to everone for your input. I do appreciate it very much!! You are all too kind.

You are the Queen, Andrea! That is just so darned beautiful. What kind of batting do you use?

I like to use the Hobbs 80/20, but also Legacy 80/20, Tuscany 100% cotton or Quilters Dream cotton.

I watched the You tube videos, they are very helpful

the difference between stippling and meandering is:
stippling no line touches or crosses.
meandering is an all over...meandering, it can have loop-d-loops, stars, flowers, what ever mixed into the meandering along quilting.

borntoquilt, I want to do work just like yours when I grow up!

I use a stencil, air erasable pen and do it by hand.

Ken, nice to see a guy quilter. Where in NS are you? My dd lives in Baddeck and I will be visiting them next month.

Diana

This tutorial was wonderful. Thank you so much. I feel like I am ready to try it now.

If I did mine fast, it would look like it!!

You're terrifficcccc---I can't hand quilt that close together--my bet is that you've been doing it awile, right? Great job

Now, that is an idea that I had not heard about. I am just learning and I started with some large stippling on a baby quilt and it turned out very nice. I then meandered one of my old hand embroidered quilts that just really needed something else. I did not do as well on it, but it was good practice and still looked more completed than it did before. I will try the writing practice and tell my friend who is wanting to try it,as well. Thank you for the input.

www.keepsakequilting.com
Has a pre printed paper with adhesive strips on the back the roll is 9 1/2in x26 feet. You cut it to fit where you are quilting and quilt over the design and then when finished tear the paper away (like stitch N Tear) They have small stipples, Large stipples, Waves, Loops, Roses, Stars and leaves. The also have borders,they are 15.99 a roll Borders are 14.99 - 15.99.

I have mine on the way!!!!CHECK THEM OUT and I believe it's called stippling made easy or quilting made easy.

It is basically free motion quilting using your regular quilting machine.

I think you can just sew regularly on top of the paper. I hope so!!!:)

[quote=Berta48]I think you can just sew regularly on top of the paper. I was going to order them a few minutes ago then bought 2 jelly rolls for 27.53 that included the shipping and didn't.So I will wait on the quilting paper to make sure it is where you can just sew across the patterns without FMQ.Have you used it?

THANK YOU

http://daystyledesigns.com/365project2.htm
I love this site. She takes you through every type of machine quilting possible. I am sure you will find a video of stipling.

Yes that is Leah Day.She has a LOT of designs she makes a new one every day. 365 days a year.I just have to practice, practice, practice!