Smokescreen E2E Digital Longarm Quilting Design

Some designs start with a technical idea. Others begin with a feeling.

This one started with a story.

I recently finished making a baby quilt based on The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt — a sweet picture book about a ghost who feels different because he’s made of patchwork instead of a plain white sheet. It's such a cute story, and I knew it'd be perfect for a cousin of mine (born on Halloween!) who recently had her first baby. 

As I worked on the quilt, I wanted a gender neutral quilting design that felt soft but not sleepy — something with a steady rhythm and a bit of mystery, like smoke or fog curling through the air. That’s where Smokescreen came from.
 

Smokescreen is a fresh take on the meander — simple enough to blend beautifully into any quilt, but with a bit more attitude. The lines shift between gentle curves and tight turns, creating the illusion of movement without any hard angles or stops.

It’s an edge-to-edge design that gives just enough texture to enhance patchwork without overpowering it. Think of it as the Goldilocks of modern meanders — smooth, even, and perfectly in the middle of calm and lively.



Because the motif flows evenly without sharp direction changes, it stitches efficiently on computerized longarms and is forgiving for minor spacing variations. 

Smokescreen shines when you want subtle texture that doesn’t distract from piecing — especially on quilts with bold fabrics or large-scale prints. 

If you’re building your digital library and looking for something that bridges traditional meanders and more contemporary flowing designs, this one fits right in.

The Quilt

Quilt Pattern

For this quilt, the biggest consideration was which colors and fabrics to use because the "pattern" is so simple! My cousin did not know the baby's gender before her arrival, so the shower theme was Winnie the Pooh, with registry items in lots of greens and yellows.


If I were to copy the quilt from the book exactly, it would have been blues and whites/creams. Still very cute, but in the end—after consulting with my mom and sister—I decided to match the shower and registry theme.

I considered appliquing a sweet lil ghost face on the quilt, as shown in the book, but I thought it'd be prettier without the face, quite honestly. 

For my version of the quilt, I used 5" squares arranged in a 9-square across, and 10-square down layout. Talk about a perfect baby gift combo: the adorable book and a matching quilt to bring it to life! I kept silently thanking the author and illustrator that it wasn't a New York Beauty quilt or even a Feathered Star quilt featured in the book. :) 

Fabrics

I've been using fabrics from my collection exclusively for the last eight months or so. It feels so good to use what I have! Like most of my scrap quilts, this one has fabrics ranging from 20 years ago to very recently. I started by pulling soft green fabrics, and then I cut into my yellow fabric options that coordinated.

The Backing and Batting

After cutting, I realized I had more squares than I needed for the front, so I decided to incorporate the extras into the backing. At first, I was going to have one strip of 5" squares bisecting a piece of fabric yardage horizontally, but I quickly realized that it wasn't going to be big enough for the top. So, then I decided to bisect the piece vertically, too, but that also wasn't going to result in a backing large enough. Then, I realized that if I had a narrow strip of accent fabric outlining the 5" squares in all directions that I was going to eek out the large-enough backing.



I spent maybe twice as long figuring out and piecing the backing as I did the front! Has that ever happened to you? It could have been so easy, but I chose the more difficult path. Because, of course! :)  



My friend Nichole, with whom I retreat, gave me that custom label you see above! I thought it was perfect for this project because my family calls me Jessie most of the time. There's a little heart above my name, and it says "handmade" under it.

I'd like to get into a better habit of using pre-made labels because they are so cute and easy to stitch into the binding.

The batting is made from wool batting remnants I pieced together with a zig-zag stitch. It gives a great poof without being heavy. After all, if a little person is going to be running around with this quilt on her head someday, we can't make it too heavy! :) 

The Quilting Details

Difficulty Level

I gave this design an "easy" rating in terms of difficulty to use. It is a bit dense when stitched at the dimensions I used, but the alignment is very easy. No offsetting is necessary, and there is no backtracking.

If you'd like to view the stitch path, a screen recording is available at the top of the blog post that shows its progression. 

Scale

I scaled down from the default dimensions. As stitched, the spacing between lines ranges from 1/4" in the narrowest parts to about 1 1/4" in the widest spots.

Here are the sizing specifications for how I set up this quilt using my Intelliquilter (45" x 50" quilt size):

Row height: 2.5"
Gap: -1.176" 
Pattern height: 3.676" (measurement from top to bottom of the repeat)
Offset: none
Backtracking: none

Here's a look at the included PDF:

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