Easy Landscape Quilts
By Karen Charles
A simple design, a few spools of thread and a willingness to learn are all that is needed to learn the basics of landscape quilting. This is a great project for the beginner or for a more experienced quilter who wants to get creative with free motion quilting.
Supplies
- INSPIRA®FusibleFleece
- INSPIRA® 6" Duck Bill AppliqueScissor
- Free Motion Spring Action foot
- ⅓ yard Warm &Natural
- Sky and water fabric – 1 fatquarter
- Mountain fabrics – 1 fatquarter
- Grass fabric – 1 fatquarter
- ¼ yard borderfabric
- ⅓ yard fabric forback
- Thread - Robison Anton Rayonthread
- Bobbin thread tomatch
- PictogramPen
Cut ←10”→
- Sky Fabric:10” W x 13” L
•Note: make sure the sky is going in the right direction.
- Mountainfabric: Cut one each for template 1, 2, and 3
- Grassfabric: Cut one each from template 4
- Border: (2) 3”W x 42” L
- Back: 12” W x 15” L
- Thread: To match fabric
Prepare
Center sky fabric on fusible fleece and fuse withiron.
Lay the mountains fabric down, starting with template1,
Usuallythatmountainwillhavealighter,greyercolor than
the ones in front of it. When you are pleased with the placement,
lay the 2nd and 3rdmountain in place.
Cut off the sky fabric that shows below the mountains. Turn the piece of sky fabric that you just cut upside down and lay it down over the base of the lowest mountain. This will give the illusion that the sky is reflected in thewater.
Place the grass fabric, template 4, inplace.
Fuse all fabric pieces withiron and pin anything loose in place.
Sewing
This is a great project for an Opal or Sapphire, and all the Husqvarna Viking Machines. Thread your sewing machine with a rayon decorative thread. Use the A foot to straight stitch the fabric pieces in place, the B foot when you do the satin stitch, the Open Toe Free motion foot to do thread painting or free motion. Choose a color that is close to the fabric color of the mountain. Put a 60 bobbin wt. thread in the bobbin. Sew the farthest mountain fabric first, close to the raw edge to tack in place, (the one touching the sky fabric). Trim any extra fabric away if needed. Stitch the rest of the pieces in place the same way. Set your needle to stop in the down position. Select the satin stitch 3mm, stitch over the raw edges of the mountains.
Free Motion
Change your thread color to a blue variegated or solid color to match your sky fabric.
Set your machine for free motion.
Free motion around each cloud and thewater.
Change the thread color again to add dimension as you stitch the mountains andgrass.
Halfway through your stitching, take the time to put your wall hanging on your design wall. Step away from your landscape to see where you might want to add morestitching.
When you are finished stitching and are ready to put your quilt together, cut your landscape to 8”wide x 11”high. You may like one area better than another, and it is perfectly okay to crop your quilt to a size and look that youwant.
Sew on the borders, sides first, then top andbottom.
Cut your back and a second piece of batting to the same size as yourtop.
Lay the quilt top on the batting. With your regular sewing machine, move the needle so you are stitching a ¼” from the edge of your project to attach the batting to thetop.
Lay the back fabric right side up on your table, Place your quilt top face down on the backing fabric. The right sides should betogether.
Sew around all sides, leaving a small opening on the side to turn it right side out.
Top stitch the edge to close the opening. Stitch in the ditch where the landscape and border meet. Add a free motion design to the border and a little more to the landscape if needed.
Thread painting, Free Motion Tips:
Thread paintingis a technique that can help you achieve realistic effects on art quilts and portrait quilts. I usually do most of the heavy stitches without the back fabric in place because the added density of the stitches can make the quilt unsquared. If the back is in place when you do the messier thread painting it will not look nice.When I have finished free motion thread painting, I square the quilt up and add the borders and the back. The last step is to do a little more quilting to quilt the back to the front.
Free motioning grass stitches is usually up and down stitching where a rock would be more circular. Start playing, have fun! At the worst, you will have learned more about free motion and wasted a couple of hours, at best you will have developed a new passion.
Practice: Have a sandwich scrap nearby to practice when you first sit down at the machine. It always helps to practice for a few minutes before youstart.
Starting to Stitch: When you start to free motion, hold the two threads in your left hand, take a couple ofstitches in the same place to lock the thread, then move your fabric in the direction you want to go. Stop to cut the threads before you go toofar.
Needle: An Inspira quilting 80 or 90 needle works great. Use the up/down needle feature to bring up your bobbin thread. Leave the needle set in the down position while freemotioning
Thread/ Tension: To save time and make it easier, I use a neutral 60 wt. thread color in the bobbin when I am thread painting. Reduce your upper thread tension if you notice the bobbin thread coming up to the surface or if your fabric starts topucker. When you add the back of the quilt, use the same thread weight as your top thread and match the thread color to blend in with the back fabric.
When thread painting, more really is more! Don’t be afraid of adding layers of stitching on top of what you’ve already done as it will add dimension andtexture.
These templates at to give you an idea of the shapes you need, I usually free hand cut the shapes and play with the placement and fabrics to make it look pleasing to me. Try a couple of different fabrics to see what you like best. The templates are not full size. enlarge the so the bases are 10 1/2 “ wide or make a smaller landscape and use them the way they are.