Four Easy Steps to Perfectly Quilted Spirals

November 1, 2012
The Basic Spiral--Four Steps

Spirals are frequently used in free-motion quilting, but they can be deceptively difficult to get right.

Here are four steps to perfect spirals:

  1. Begin with a “Rail”.  This can be a quilted line or a drawn line that will be erased later.
  2. Stitch to the top rail and curve down, but finish the lower part of your spiral above the bottom rail.  This allows space for the “Escape”
  3. Continue to curve inward and stop in the middle (at the X).
  4. Now reverse direction and bisect the lines you have already created.
Curve up to the top rail, but above the bottom rail
Stop in the middle– a little to the right.
Reverse direction and bisect the lines you have already created.

That’s it!  Easy as pie!  (And we all know how easy pies are to make!?)

Over the next several days, I will add many, many motifs that employ spirals….

We’ve only just begun!

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21 comments

  • WOW this is just what I need 🙂 I found you through Craftsy and am in love with your tutorials. I´m so going to try them out. I can do some stippling? (I think it´s called LOL) and straight lines LOL but this is what I want to be able to do with my quilts. Thank you so much for being on the internet and SHARING you knowledge with us.

    • I am delighted that you found us! Your enthusiasm is buoying! Perhaps you can teach me how to stipple–I have never mastered stippling and avoid it always!

      • Sorry for not replying sooner 🙁 just forgot about this 🙁 But me teaching sorry can´t do – I´m not that good in English but I know there is a lot of tutorials on youtube you can see 🙂

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