Dream Big Panel Quilt Tutorial

I rarely make anything to keep, so it was nice to get this up on my newly painted studio wall! Panels are a great way to practice free motion quilting, because the top is already done, and you aren't risking much by trying it, especially on smaller ones. On this one, which is called Dream Big (about 45" square and comes in many colors), I also added an applique and some painting with Inktense pencils.

This is what the panels looked like before I started. The color is actually better in these photos than the final, I'm having trouble with the lighting in my studio... or my camera... or myself... hmmm....
The dragonfly came from another panel that matched really well. I used the butterflies too, I'll put that at the end!

Step one: stack the flower panel with batting and muslin. I use spray adhesive to keep them together. Since this was going on my wall, I just left the muslin as the backing, but if it was for someone else, I would put another backing on after all of the stitching. You could also do it before, if you don't mind the stitching showing on the back, sometimes it's kind of cool! But you do have to try to be neater...
Step two: Iron a piece of paper backed fusible web to the back of the dragonfly, making sure it covers the whole thing, which you can easily see through the fabric. Then cut it out... I left a bit of the background edge all the way around, but that is optional. Fuse it onto the flower wherever you want it.

Step three: Start stitching! I stitched around the edges of the dragonfly with a gold thread. Then I did a squiggly spiral in the flower center using a dark teal thread. I actually did most of the flower stitching with that same thread, but you could use different ones if you want. I stitched the outlines of the petals, then added some details. I have seen some amazing versions of this online since I made mine, so look around for ideas!

Step four: After all the petals were stitched, (see right photo for approximately how I did those), I added some fuschia thread to the center and the stamens.

Step five: I still wasn't happy with the center, so I added some coloring with Inktense pencils, using fabric medium instead of water. (Click here for my video on using those!) It took a couple of tries to get that to where I liked it better. You can always add more, but you can't take it away!

The back is kind of fun too!

Step six: square it up (I had to get creative and use a mat for a ruler, I'm not used to making things this big!) Then put binding on it. I'm planning to do a tutorial for my straight (not bias, no mitered corners) binding method, but I haven't yet, so use whatever method you like! If you put a clean back on it, you probably will want to stitch around some petals halfway out from the center or something to help hold that, this is a little too big to have no stitching through the back. Like I said, I just left the messy muslin back on mine, since I knew it was just going on the wall...

Speaking of which, one of my Christmas gifts from my husband was getting this wall painted, it looks great!

Thanks for joining me, I hope you will try this project, and also look around! We have lots of tutorials, and lots of great kits and patterns too! Click the photo below:

Oops! Almost forgot the butterflies! I fused them to Peltex heavy weight interfacing, cut them out roughly, added some stitching with metallic gold thread, cut them out exactly, and pinned them to the wall!