Quilting Design #32 – Fossil Snail

Hello, my name is Leah and am an addict. I am extremely addicted to books with aerial photography like The Encyclopedia of Earth: A Complete Visual Guide. The textures in books like this are amazing and can easily become beautiful free motion designs like today’s quilting design Fossil Snail.

You know, quilting should never be a silent hobby. Truth be told, once you get a shape logged into your muscle memory, it can get really boring to stitch it for 4 hours straight while you fill in a large area of your quilt.

That’s why I always have music playing! For this filler I as listening to Rusted Root: Welcome to My Party. It’s pretty funky and easy to sing to which is why I mute the videos and add my voice later!

Learn more about this Fossil Snail quilting design:

Inspiration – This design was based off of a photo of a fossilized snail, which is an amazing shape and texture to add to your quilts!

Difficulty Level – Advanced. There’s a lot of pivoting, traveling, and speed changes in this fill that can be challenging. Try to reduce your speed around the end of the spiral so your thread doesn’t build up too much.

Design Family – Foundational. This quilting design begins with a spiral shape, then you stitch along it to add to the texture. Take your time and be careful not to let the thread build up too much. If you struggle with thread breaks, click here to find my favorite quilting thread.

Directional Texture – All Directions. This design adds loads of movement and texture, especially when you quilt it with contrasting thread!

Suggestions for Use – A design like this is terrific for large areas where you have unlimited freedom of movement for each spiral to be complete. Small tight areas, like around complicated applique or quilting motifs would be a bad choice because you really wouldn’t be able the see the full texture of the design.

Update: I used this beautiful quilting design in the background of a table runner a few years ago. This turned out absolutely gorgeous when combined with several other designs:

Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts! Click here to support the project by visiting our online quilt shop.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day