A Quilting Plan - Week 6 - brownbirddesigns

August 5, 2025

A Quilting Plan – Week 6

Blog, Quilt-A-Long, Quilts
Ginger, Moda, Quilts I have made

Over the years, I’ve grown to really love this part of the process. There was a time when I dreaded binding—and I didn’t even want to quilt my own quilts. I’d send them off to be quilted by someone else or use my sister’s longarm and do an easy Edge-to-Edge pattern. But over the last five years, something has changed. Now, figuring out a quilting plan, quilting and binding have become steps where I can pour my heart into and do it with a smile.

Ways to Quilt

There are so many different quilting options, and each one adds its own personality to a quilt. Here are a few you might consider:

Stitch in the ditch
Hand quilting
Edge-to-edge quilting (computerized)
“Quilt by check” – easy peasy, have someone else quilt it!
Free motion Quilting
Custom quilting – quilt the bird and background differently

Quilting Plan for This Quilt

When it comes to designing your quilting, think about the feeling you want to create. Here are a few ideas I’m considering:

Feathers – classic and elegant
Waves – to create a windy, airy effect
Curves – to add soft movement
Pebbles – texture galore!
Arches – a structured but beautiful option

I origanly thought I would be doing pebles on the background and swirls inside the birds but as I practiced a different idea formed. It tunred into the birds have a feather/scalp stitch in them and the background is lots and lots of swirls.

How to Test Quilting Designs Before You Sew

Not quite ready to start stitching? You can test out your quilting plan first!

One method I love is using a piece of clear plastic—like a page protector or a ziplock bag cut open. Lay it over your quilt top and use a dry-erase or washable marker to draw out your quilting plan. This helps you visualize the flow and see if you like the look before committing with thread.

You can also try practicing the movement with your hands. Christina Cameli, my favorite quilting teacher, did Instagram Live sessions during the pandemic where she practiced drawing quilting motifs on an erasable board. You can do this, too!

This is how I do it: Tape together four to six sheets of used paper to create a large drawing surface. Then doodle out the quilting design. It’s a great way to:

Figure out where you might need to backtrack
Avoid “quilting yourself into a corner”
Find a comfortable flow before moving to the machine

My husband always plans his driving routes—he knows where he’ll be a couple miles down the road. I don’t think that way when driving, but I do when quilting. I plan out the path my needle will take. It helps a lot to work through the design multiple times on paper.

Ready to Practice?

When you’re ready to move from paper to fabric, grab two fat quarters and a piece of batting. Spray-baste them together and use this mini quilt sandwich to practice your design. It’s a low-stakes way to test your quilting with the real tools before diving into your final quilt. It also lets you double check your machine tensions.

Love the fabrics? Want a Kit?

Thank you for joining the Drift Quilt Along

I can’t believe we are done with the Quilt Along. Thank you so much for joining. I had so much fun sewing with you all and I hope you had a great time as well.

What’s next? Want to keep having fun and sewing with others.
Join the Great Jelly Roll Bash!

It’s like our sew day but on steroids!!

JULY
1st – Fabric Pull
8th – Cutting Fabric
15th – Making blocks with F 1 and F2
July 19th Zoom Sew Day
22nd – Making blocks with F3 and F4
29th – Putting the top together
August
5th – Quilting the Quilt

🎉 Instagram Giveaway 🎉

I’ll be choosing winners on Instagram, so make sure your account is set to public for the duration of the Quilt Along. If your account is private, I won’t be able to see your photos—and if I can’t see them, I can’t enter you into the drawings for prizes. Once the Quilt Along wraps up, feel free to make your account private again. If you need help updating your settings, just let me know—I’d be happy to walk you through it!

Week Five Prize: Oliso Mini Iron

How to know if you won.

Use the hashtag #DriftQAL when posting your progress photos. With each new step in the Quilt Along, I’ll select a winner. Here’s how it works: I gather the names of everyone who shared a photo using the hashtag that week, put them all in a bowl, and draw one out. That’s our weekly winner!