Spiral Flower Project

Last week, we practiced the Spiral Lollipop Flower.  This week, we are going to turn that motif into a Doodle Quilt.  The basic formula for today’s project is:

Spiral Lollipop Flower + Echo Quilting = Doodle Vase Quilt

It’s easy!  Perfection is not the goal.  The goal is to just keep moving.  This is a very forgiving process.  If you want to make it even more “forgiving”  use thread that matches your fabric.

So let’s get started.  I always like to begin by Dividing and Conquering. 

I started with a 12 inch square–why 12 inch?–because that was the size of my ruler–let’s make this easy on ourselves.  Draw your square to fit your fabric or to fit your ruler.

Next, draw two lines diagonally across the square–the main motifs will be placed on the diagonal lines.

Stitch the outer border.  I sewed a double zigzag border that resembles rick-rack.  Easy!  (Straight lines are the hardest thing to FMQ–and we are making this easy, remember?)

Now, sew a large spiral lollipop flower on the drawn line.  Do not go beyond the center point of the square.

Trace next to the stem-back to the base of the flower-the stitch along your rick-rack border until there is a little free space-and add a few smaller flowers.

Continue around the square-adding large flowers along the diagonal lines and smaller flowers in between.

Until your quilt looks like this:

This looks rather cute as it is, but to make it a Doodle Quilt, we need to add echo quilting.  Echo quilting is simply tracing around each of the motifs until all the space is filled.

I usually start in a corner and begin tracing until I run out of space.  Then I knot off and start again.  The only rule–(ugh – I hate rules!)  is to avoid crossing over other lines.  You can do it occasionally, but if you do it too often, it starts to look like scribble.

As you can see, this is not perfect…

but the overall effect– is a highly textured quilt that was FUN to make and has lot’s of personality!

Now who wouldn’t want this darling quilt hanging on their bulletin board or sporting a pretty little vase of flowers?

Or…as the center of a full sized Doodle Quilt…

Next week we will be starting a tutorial on THE Easiest Flower Ever!

Related articles

• The Spiral Lollipop Flower – A Tutorial (theinboxjaunt.com)
• DO the Spiral! (theinboxjaunt.com)
• Work in Progress Wed – Olivia’s Doodle Quilt (theinboxjaunt.com)
• Four Easy Steps to Perfectly Quilted Spirals (theinboxjaunt.com)