Day 144 – Spiral of Spirals

Going through all the designs the last couple of days, I realized how many spiral designs I’ve done so far. There’s been quite a lot!

But here’s one I know I haven’t done yet that is really the mother of all spiral designs. I’m calling it Spiral of Spirals!

free motion quilting | Leah DayAh! I’m finally sitting downstairs in the bigger office with fresh lighting (yes, they’re full spectrum florescent lights for everyone that was worrying!)

It feels great to have everything (mostly) in place and to now have Josh start getting more on board with my business. It’s been a hectic week, but now I feel like I have some time to chill and prepare for my workshop in South Carolina.

When I get back I think I’m going to start working on a pattern for Winter Wonderland. I really want to start teaching my reverse shadow trapunto technique and creating this pattern sounds like something fun to work on this spring. (Update: Click here for the Winter Wonderland pattern, which is now available!)

Speaking of something fun, let’s learn Spiral of Spirals!

Inspiration – Starting on Day 5 of this project with Basic Spiral, I’ve been fascinated with spiral designs. I’m always trying to capture a really complex spiral that’s created in a very simple way.

Sounds like a contradiction, right? Well, I think this is a pretty good start with this spiraling spiral design!

Difficulty LevelAdvanced. This is a pretty complex design, but as long as you keep the shapes in your head, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

The best way to get a handle on a design like this is lay a really solid foundation with your intial giant spiral. Once you get the foundation laid, all you have to do is fill it up with spirals.

Design Family – Foundational. This is a pretty weird design because it starts on the edge, works into the center and then back out again.

I would say this is a design that should definitely be placed on it’s own in an open block. I can’t imagine trying to squish this design into a tight or complicated space.

Directional Texture – Center Focused. The mother of all spirals certainly is an attention getter! Place it somewhere you want to add a lot of attention and drama to your quilt.

Suggestions for Use – I really think this would make a great addition to an applique quilt. Just think how much your flowers would pop with Spiral of Spirals stitched in the centers!

Back of Spiral of Spirals

free motion quilting | Leah Day

Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts,

and make sure to tell your friends where you learned it.

Click here to support the project by visiting our online quilt shop.

Let’s go Quilt!

 

Leah Day

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

11 Responses

  1. lw says:

    Wow– this is starting to look like the embroidery on East Indian fabrics. Very pretty!

  2. Beth says:

    amazing! Love this pattern.

  3. Sharon says:

    Hello Leah!
    (I'm posting this here because it bounced back to me when I tried to email you.) …

    I'm so pleased to say that my dear Hubby used the wish list I created for birthday gifts! Among the things I wished for were several items from your
    site! Now to get over the intimidation and just jump in there and try out the machine quilting!

    I'm having problems with the tension of the quilt back. The top looks fine, but the back get ripply. I shall look back over your old posts and see if I can figure out how to fix this problem. I stretch the quilt layers out, back, batting, top, one at a time taping them to the table top. Then use quilting pins to baste the layers together.

    I so appreciate what you are doing on your blog! You are amazing and talented! Wish I lived closer to you to come to one of your talks!

    Blessings,
    Sharon
    http://schutt.net/sharon

  4. tasfibre says:

    Leah,
    this is so beautiful!!!!!
    I am still waiting for my DVD so when I get them it will be practice , practice practice
    hope your new studio space works well
    cheers judi

  5. Ethne says:

    WOW what a stunner – I've been looking at various 'doodles' as inspirition and there is one leaf doodle that would be stunning done this way – heres hoping I get around to trying it sometime soon

  6. Gail Moss says:

    Yes!!! Leah, I just found the design to put inside the blocks of a quilt I just finished for my youngest grand child.. I think I can do this!! I love your blog and tutorials and can't wait to see you at our guild in July. GM.RH.SC

  7. Martha says:

    They keep getting better! This one definitely NEEDS a place in my next project- whatever that may be!

  8. Sylvia says:

    This one is AWESOME for sure–not sure I could do it–but at some point I MUST get some pieces together to just PLAY.
    Great job, on this & really ALL of them.
    Syl

  9. holly k says:

    I really like this one! 🙂 …stands out to me for some reason!

  10. Vania says:

    Leah this is a very beautifull design for quilting and j like it so much, you give me a very big inspiration. A big "CIAO" (HELLO) from Italy.
    Vania

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