Using decorative stitching in your Quilting

I have been using my decorative stiches in my quilting since about April 2015 when I purchased my new singer CE-150 sewing machine. My machine that I was using before that had decorative stitches but I didn't really give it that much thought and being an older machine the decorative stitches it has are maybe not so appropriate for quilting.

Now that I have my new singer machine it has 3 main decorative stitches that I love to use in my quilting now. It has the serpentine stitch, a star stitch and a vine (leaf) stitch. I am finding myself using these stitches more and more and I love the effect that it has given to my quilting experience. I feel like it has completely transformed some of my quilting projects. I also love to use these stiches when I am quilting my projects because I have found that  with my machine it kind of pulls the fabric through itself and all I have to do is guide it and with the chronic neck pain that I have been suffering from it has been a godsend with taking the pressure off my neck, shoulder and arm.

                                                    
                                                            Serpentine stitch

I tend to use the serpentine stitch for all of my bigger quilting projects now because it is probably the quickest stitch out of the 3 and also seems to look the most effective on larger quilts, but I love to use all 3 of these stitches on smaller mini quilts or cushions and love the effect it  gives the project. I will show you some examples below.

 

 

 

 

                                                                      Star stitching

                                                              Vine (leaf ) stitching


Also look how effective this star stitching looks just on a plain black background fabric.  I have cross hatched it using 2 different shades of gold embroidery thread and the effect has turned out amazing and completely transforms a plain old piece of fabric to a work of art before you have even done anything else to it.

 I have even used the decorative stitches to machine sew my binding down and it just adds a little bit of a different touch to it.

So if your sewing machine has some decorative stitches and you find yourself not really using them with being a quilter, why not give it a try and see if you like the effect. Your possibilities are endless.

Hope you enjoy trying out some of your decorative stitches and let me know how you like it.

Take care and have a lovely weekend.