Tuesday Tutorial–The Upward Curl

I hope you are all well and warm…We have hit a cold snap here in Minnesota.  The temperatures have been hovering around zero degrees Fahrenheit–Good quilting weather!

I hope you have had time to try a few of the other tutorials like The Curl and The Spiral.  If not, check out the “Quilts” tab above for more lessons and projects.

Today, I have a little free motion quilting tutorial for you.  I call this “The Upward Curl”.  It is very versatile and very simple.  Check out the sidebars on my blog and you will see many upward curls used both on the bird and on the  2013 banner.  So let’s give it a whirl (or should I say…let’s give it a curl!)

I have drawn several lines–one inch apart. These are your right and left rails.   Starting from the bottom left rail-curve up toward the right rail and the curl back to the left rail–leaving a small space.

After you finish the curl–stop with your needle down  (here’s a good place to adjust your fabric, your body, your radio—) then just trace back on the inside of your first curve.  The left upward curl is down the same way–just flipped…

In order to keep your curves as smooth as possible, it is important the choose the timing of your stops and starts.  In other words, when you need to stop for any reason–do not stop in the middle of a curve, line, stroke.  Instead wait until you are at a change-in-direction point.  In that way, the resultant change in stitch (which happens whenever your stop or start)…will be less noticeable.

Instead of heading straight up the line to start the next curl, we are going to add a little angular jog in our line–near the tip of the curl…

It looks a little strange when you only have one side complete…

However, it looks great once the other half of the line is finished!

This makes a fabulous border…

So give it a try!  I can’t wait to see how you use “The Upward Curl”!

On Thursday, I have another very cool variation of The Upward Curl for you to try…and tomorrow…

A Valentine’s Day giveaway!

PS…Thank you to several followers who posted the tutorials on Pinterest…I am always amazed by the power of The Web!