Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Spiral Quilting

What's wrong with this quilting design? Once my quilting foot was on the design, I realized each spiral would put more and more of the quilt to the right of the needle. By the end the entire quilt would be there. Talk about a difficult way to quilt.

Spiral started the wrong way

So I rubbed this out with water and wound the spiral clockwise. Now half the quilt started to the right of the needle and every round moved it further to the left. I dodged a bullet.

But what did I do next? It was late, I was in a hurry, so I didn't hold the quilt square as the walking foot moved along the bias. In fact, I pulled on the quilt. Even though the top squared up nicely, by the time the quilting was done, I had a lovely flounced, Spanish-dancer of a quilt to get under control.

Do you see all the waves along the bottom?

Back of neutral string quilt shows
lovely scraps from Stephie and spiral quilting

After carefully washing the quilt I measured across the middle to determine the length of a side of binding. The quilt had to be eased on each side.

This will never be an award-winner. Well, it wasn't planned to be. But I should have been more careful.

BTW: Lovely quilting design. I will use it again with much more care.

Enjoy the day, Ann

24 comments:

Sew of Course said...

Lovely quilting! Could the wavyness be improved by blocking?

Quiltdivajulie said...

My first spiraled quilt had a bit of wave to it like your's. But it was to be a play on the floor quit and now, after several washings/dryings, Mr. Marvelous's spiral quilt lays quite flat.

Monica said...

I love that quilting design, but I don't seem to have good results with my walking foot. Sandra and Julie both make interesting points -- maybe some water will solve the problem. Good luck!

Kate @ Smiles From Kate said...

It's all a learning curve. Sometime you have days when everything goes wrong, sometimes they go like a dream, it is what it is. Better to make mistakes and learn than to have a perfect quilt and have learned nothing.

KaHolly said...

Fret not! You'll make it work, wait and see!

margaret said...

fingers crossed that once bound etc it squares up not tried a spiral maybe one day I will

LA Paylor said...

I do see all the ruffles... maybe blocking with hot water will flatten it a bit. This is a problem with echo bias machine quilting. It does this. Also at this point you lose spiral nature and it looks like concentric circles which is fine too. Just different. It looks really good to me, so I hope blocking helps it flatten. We learn from doing and each other so thanks lots for showing us what it looks like. Bet lots of people try it today because of you!

Sophie Zaugg said...

When my husband saw me working on a spiral quilting with all the quilt on the right of the needle, he asked me why I didn't trace the spiral in reverse. He notices that kind of things straightaway ... And I don't ;-) Your backing is very nice !

Ann said...

Well, I've already blocked it, Sandra.

Ann said...

This one has the same future. Glad to know the waviness will wash out over time. I'm just annoyed I pulled the fabric; I certainly know better.

Ann said...

We really need to hold the quilt straight of grain while the walking foot travels bias. I know this; just annoyed I didn't do it this time. It's still a useable quilt.

Ann said...

Yes, Kate. The thing is that I know better... I just didn't follow that knowledge. Now I'll live with the results.

Ann said...

It's still a useable quilt. I am vexed I didn't follow advice I give others.

Ann said...

I'm going to rebind it and that should flatten the ruffles a bit. But I may introduce bubbles in the interior.

Ann said...

It's an easy design and fun to do. I just forgot to hold the quilt straight as the walking foot traveled bias. Annoying since I definitely know better. But this is still a useable quilt. And an object lesson to me.

Ann said...

At least I'm glad I noticed that point before quilting. I like the backing, too. Especially the bits from Stephie. Thanks, Sophie.

Janie said...

Reminder to self, late and hurry equal fuzzy thinking.
Been there done that.

Ann said...

Exactly, Janie.

Mystic Quilter said...

I'm just catching up on blog posts! What a shame about the waviness at the bottom, these things happen sometimes and we jus have to move on I guess. I love the way that spiral shows up on the back, nice pieced backing too.

audrey said...

Too bad about the waviness at the bottom. I didn't realize spiral quilt could result in this sort of problem. I still haven't tried this for myself so will make a note about this issue.

patty a. said...

I have not done this spiral quilting before. I think the end result is very cool, but I am not sure I have the patience to do it! LOL!!

Ann said...

I'm having so much trouble with my technology right now. The spiral does look pretty and I plan to use it again, this time holding the quilt properly.

Ann said...

Anytime we sew on the bias it can pull. That's why I should have held it on the straight of grain instead of pulling it and exacerbating the problem.

Ann said...

Your work is already beautiful.