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30+ Free Quilting Designs for Machine Quilting

Put away your patchwork and have some fun with these free motion quilt design ideas!

By: Jessica Nichols, Editor, FaveQuilts.com

When it comes to quilting, there are other options besides straight line quilting or sending your quilt to a professional longarm quilter. Get creative with one of our 17 Free Quilting Designs for Machine Quilting. You'll be surprised to see what beautiful designs you can achieve with your home sewing machine. Here are just a few of the many gorgeous free patterns available on our website.

Free motion quilting is popular because it adds a layer of texture and dimension to any quilt. Learn how to free motion interesting shapes like spirals, flowers, and feathers. One excellent tip is to mark out your free motion design with chalk before you begin!
 

Simple Quilting Patterns

If you're accustomed to hand quilting or simple straight line quilting, these simple quilt patterns are a great way to test the waters of free motion quilting.

Wavy Walk

Continuous line quilting patterns are easy ways to practice your free motion quilting skills, making the Wavy Walk pattern one that beginners should all try.

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Super Swirly Free Motion Design

The great thing about this tutorial is that it teaches you basic free motion skills through a simple swirl, or spiral, design.

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Straight Line Echo Quilting

This kind of quilting can really emphasize certain shapes, motifs, or themes in a quilt. Use it to call out interesting patchwork patterns or set off fussy-cut bits of fabric.

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Interlocking Circles

Add an intricate look to any of your latest quilt patterns with a beautiful free motion quilting pattern that makes Interlocking Circles.

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Truly Checkers Free Motion Design

This vertical and horizontal stripe free motion pattern is really exciting for anyone who likes sewing in straight lines. This free project will test the precision of your free motion quilting!

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Planks Free Motion Quilting Design

This design has a truly modern edge that can transform any of your simple or traditional patterns into modern quilt patterns in moments.

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Floral Quilting Designs

Cover your quilts in flowers and other flora with these beautiful quilting designs. It will give your quilts a floral flair.

Bursting Flower Free Motion Design

This flower design is reminiscent of a poinsettia. If you want to free motion this pattern onto a Christmas fabric, it would look absolutely fabulous. 

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Flower Swirls Allover Quilting

This large quilt design is great for girly quilts with its whimsical swirling flowers and soft curlicue background design.

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Leafy Branches Quilting Design

The Leafy Branches Quilting Design will break you out of that stippling rut so you can try some more creative free patterns for machine quilting.

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Tropical Orchid Quilting Design

Complement your tropical quilts with gorgeous quilting stitch designs that look like exotic flowers. This Tropical Orchid Quilting Design is a beautiful accent to a summer quilt or even a whole-cloth quilt.

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Modern Leaf Free Motion Quilt

This quilting tutorial puts a modern twist on a basic leaf pattern and features leaves with berries. A versatile free motion quilting pattern, this design can be stitched as a fill motif or in a row to create a border.

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Daisy Chain Free Motion Tutorial

Add a little sunshine to your next quilt project with this simple free motion tutorial that's great for machine quilters.

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Feather Quilting Motifs

Feathers are one of the most classic quilting shapes. The swirly apperance allows for continuous line quilting, which looks beautiful as an allover design.

Feather Wreaths

This quilting video demonstrates how to quilt feather wreaths using a longarm quilting machine. To create these quilting stitch designs, the quilter traces the pattern onto a quilt using a fabric marker and stencil and then stitches over the pattern.

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Free Motion Feathers

Next time you see the direction "quilt as desired," why not add some Free Motion Feathers to give all-over designs some added interest?

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Light As a Feather Free Motion Design

This quilting feathers tutorial will guide you through the process of machine embroidery in no time at all. The video contained in this free quilting project is excellent because it explains free motion quilting with necessary detail.

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Echoed Paisleys Quilting Pattern

This free motion quilting pattern takes its inspiration from classic paisleys but adds an echo for easy machine quilting.

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Quilting Patterns for Shapes

These quilting patterns will teach you how to make common shapes and motifs with machine quilting.

Starry Night Free Motion Tutorial

Create some beautiful free motion designs inspired by the evening sky with this Starry Night Free Motion Tutorial. Reminiscent of Van Gogh's Starry Night, this free motion tutorial shows you how to create stitches filled with stars and moons until you have a quilt full of mini constellations!

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Big and Little Butterflies

You can stitch Big and Little Butterflies using a longarm machine, or you can adapt the sketches provided to free motion quilting.

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Sand Dollar Free Motion Tutorial

It may not be summer quite yet, but that doesn't mean you can't dream of warm days spent at the beach!

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Quilting Houses with a Template

This clever tutorial for Quilting Houses with a Template explains how to use a house block paper piecing pattern to create a template for quilting the same design.

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Free Motion Frost Design

Almost every winter quilt pattern has a red-green color scheme and traditional figures of importance. This Free Motion Frost Design is artistic, tasteful, and not cliche at all.

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Swirly Quilting Designs

These swirling designs are fun to do, and they're great practice if you're just learning how to free motion quilt.

Arching Loop de Loops

For a fun and fanciful quilting design that will look right at home within the stitches of many quilt patterns, follow this tutorial about Arching Loop de Loops.

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Baptist Fans Quilting Pattern

With a circle cut ruler as a stencil, this pattern will be a cinch. Create a ripple-like effect on any of your quilt patterns with beautiful and consistent quilting stitch designs.

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Puzzle Pattern

The fun thing about this free motion quilting pattern is that you can make the puzzle design in any way you'd like.

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Black Hole Free Motion Design

This swirly free motion pattern is guaranteed to turn stares from everyone. If you're looking for solid free motion quilting tips, then this tutorial is for you.

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Low Tide Free Motion Design

If you're making a nautically-themed project, then this Low Tide Free Motion Design is perfect for you. Learn the basics of how to free motion quilt with this simple and wavy design.

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Ocean Current Quilting Design

The Ocean Current Quilting Design is a swirly, wavy pattern that fills in backgrounds with style. Create one wandering line of curlicues, and then double back to outline each of them for concentric swirls.

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Seasonal Machine Quilting Patterns

There is no better way to add that extra bit of cheer to a Christmas quilt or some spooky embellishments to a Halloween idea that add subtle machine quilting patterns. Celebrate your favorite holiday with these season machine quilting patterns.

Wooly Mitten Free Motion Quilting

If you have been searching for a unique, winter-themed quilt idea, then you will adore this Wooly Mitten Free Motion Quilting pattern. This tutorial will show you how to make a free motion quilt pattern of a pair of mittens.

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Basket Weave Free Motion Quilting

The basket weave is popular among hand and machine quilters because it is a great, easy way to fill in any background.

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Pumpkin Free Motion Quilt

Pumpkins are everywhere in autumn, so it only makes sense that you should learn how to make a quilt with pumpkin patterns. Using a series of backward “c” stitches, these pumpkins couldn’t be simpler to stitch.

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Shamrock Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

This project will show you how to free motion quilt small swirly shamrocks. To make larger shamrocks, all you have to do is echo quilt around your design.

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Dreidel Free Motion Quilt

This quilting project will show you how to make a quilt with a spinning dreidel pattern. Historically, Jewish people would play the dreidel game to camoflage that they were studying the Torah.

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Christmas Tree Free Motion Quilting

This is the perfect free quilt pattern for beginners because it’s very forgiving. As long as you stitch a basic triangle shape with a trunk, your holiday quilt pattern is sure to be recognized as a Christmas tree.

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Mistletoe and Berries Quilting Design

If you consider yourself a quilting pro, then this free motion quilting pattern will be very easy for you. The mistletoe leaf motif is very similar to a quilted feather pattern. 

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Pretty Package Free Motion Quilt

This quilting tutorial will guide through how to stitch a row of presents. Presents make great beginner quilting patterns because of their basic square shapes.

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Poinsettia Free Motion Quilt

Put that pedal to the metal and stitch these beautiful winter petals. This intricate design would also make a festive embellishment to holiday cloth napkins. 

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What are some of your favorite free motion designs? Be sure to leave a comment below!

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