Sampler quilts are a quilting tradition.  They feature many different blocks and can be laid out in traditional rows, or in a modern improv style.  (Left, an Underground Railroad Quilt from Memories Quilted.  Right, Vice Versa by GenX Quilters)

As a functional item for the home, you may want to use simple free motion quilting to let the fabrics and block designs take center stage.  If you are looking for more variety in your free motion quilting designs, I have some suggestions.

Let’s look at my store banner, which I use as a stitch sampler for quilting customers.  

This sampler features lots of different free motion quilting designs from basic fillers to more complex feathers and flowers to give people ideas about the variety of free motion quilting designs they can choose for their own quilts.

Free Motion Quilting for Classic Blocks

I love stars and pinwheels so I featured those blocks in the corners with quilting designs stitched in matching thread.  For the top left pinwheel, I stitched arcs in the white background and a simple wavy meander in the blue section.

Related Post – tips for stitching half square triangles.

Next is the Friendship Star. I stitched a spiral in the center and extended the arms/flames into points.  A meandering design I call “long worms” fills the white background.

Bottom right is the Ohio Star where I echo-stitched the star points and added spirals in the corners.

Finally, I made a pinwheel variation with leaf shapes and lightning bolts  in the white background and more leafs in the points

Check out the background designs for the center block of my store banner in this post.  I describe the borders of my stitch sampler here.

Related Post – More free motion quilting designs for pinwheel blocks are featured in my Rainbow Twister quilt.

Are there other classic blocks that beg for a new free motion quilting design?  What are your go-to quilting designs for stars and pinwheels?  Please share in the comments.