15 creative designs for your next quilt

January 24, 2023

After you’ve finished piecing your quilt, many quilters feel a sense of relief and accomplishment shortly followed by the realization that now it’s time to decide how you will quilt it. This can be a tricky task for most quilters, so we’ve put together some design ideas to help guide you through your decision.

We recommend first deciding if your quilt needs a simple allover design or if motifs in the blocks would pair best with it. The freehand designs we’ve included are perfect for filling open areas or as allover quilting. If you tend to favor something more detailed, try some of the floral, circle, or feather designs. Use a copy machine with an enlargement feature to resize them to the perfect size for your quilt.

The designs that we’ve previewed below are just a few of the endless possibilities for quilting your quilt. To download the full booklet, click this link.

We hope they will help you take your quilting to the next level!

Freehand quilting designs

Looking for quilting designs that don’t require templates? Freehand quilting designs are the perfect fit for you! With these patterns you don’t need to use templates or follow marked patterns. Simply begin stitching a dot and continue in the direction of the arrow. Check out these freehand designs for various levels of quilting expertise.

Multiple freehand quilting designs

Flower power

Freehand flowers have the ability to brighten any quilt! The photo below shows a wonderful allover flower design that pairs best with quilters who have intermediate skill level.

Flower power design one

The second flower design features a single flower stitched in the center of a block, paired with lines of echo quilting that fill the area around it. This design pairs best with quilters who have an advanced skill level.

Flower power design two

The flower block designs pictured below work wonderfully for quilters who prefer a large flower motif.

Flower block design

This leaf border design will pair perfectly with any of our flower power designs.

Leaf border design

Quilting in circles

Circles can be easily overlooked when selecting a quilting pattern, but they can bring so much detail to your quilt! You can easily combine circular patterns to fill a block or fill your entire quilt with circles, either way, it will surely look fabulous!

Block designs

Take a look at the circular bock designs that are the perfect fit for filling quilting blocks.

Multiple block designs

Eight circle medallions

This stunning design is sure to make any quilt pop! Although the stitching is a bit tedious, we promise it will all be worth it once you’re done!

Eight circle medallion design

Six circle medallions

We love this simpler twist off the design above. It is sure to make your quilt stand out from the rest!

Six circle medallion design

Allover circle designs

Looking for the perfect allover design to use on your quilt top? Check out the two allover circle designs below!

Overlapping circle designs

This fun allover quilting pattern features rows of circles that overlap to form a secondary pattern.

Overlapping circle design

Baptist fan diagram

This is one of our most popular and most detailed allover designs. We love the use of partial circles covering the entire quilt top.

Baptist fan design

You can also jazz up your next border with a circular pattern! Try one of the border designs below on your next quilt.

Circular border designs

Basic feathering

The elegant, feathered quilting designs give a very classical look to any quilt top.

Hot tip – for many designs, all you need to create is one quadrant. Fold paper in fourths to form center guidelines. Create the design by tracing it in each quadrant.