I have been trying some new patterns using the Angle Play templates.  Angle Play quilts feature strong graphic lines formed by half-square and half-rectangle triangles and lots of pinwheels.  It’s time to think of new quilting designs in triangles!

A Basic Spiral

For some of the blocks, I quilted a spiral to fill the whole space.  I didn’t worry about contrasting thread showing over lighter fabric.  I did not mark anything either, I just used my hopping foot as a guide for spacing and circled from the inside out to the edges of the block.  Many times, I traveled in the seams to fill in the corners.

Loopy Triangles Free Motion Quilting Design

In some of the Angle Play blocks, the triangles make a frame around the center square.  For these spaces, I used a row of loops in the same way as children practice writing cursive E’s and L’s.

I turned off the overhead lights on my quilting machine and the texture of the stitches really stands out!

Arcs quilting design in triangles

Arcs are another basic filler design for free motion quilting. Again, I didn’t mark anything or use a template, this is just hand guided machine quilting on a longarm.  I travel in the seams as I quilt through the triangle and move to another section of the pinwheel.

Flames free motion quilting design

I love using a flame design in my free motion quilting!  It is so versatile – easy to echo and fill large or small spaces, branch out along a stem, stitch long flames or short ones, infinite variety.  When stitching in a pinwheel, I found it helpful to follow the right angle of each triangle so my central flame had a bend at the corner.

To fill the space, I added additional smaller flames.

Here is a sketch of the arcs and flames together, along with a sample from my quilt.

Read more about pinwheel blocks in this post.

Another flame stitch quilting design is found here.

Download a practice workbook for free motion quilting designs HERE.