Day 152 – Trailing Spirals

This design is also featured in the DVD Beginner Free Motion Quilting Fillers, as well as the ebook From Daisy to Paisley.

Way back on day and day I ran designs named Flowing Glass and Trailing Tears. I really loved both designs a lot, so much so that I ended up making stencils out of both of them.

But I always felt that these designs could use another variation, and today I’ve finally created a new version with spirals!

It’s been a long time coming and I’ve put it off as long as I possibly can. Today I will do my taxes…dum….dum….DUMMMMM!

But I’m really trying to have a good outlook about this. Just like with enjoying quilting for the process of quilting, I’m going to try to enjoy doing my taxes because it’s will make the job so much easier than hating it.

And further proof that my new ideology is working: I finished the gift baby quilt last night after my lecture and I wasn’t even TRYING to finish it!

I was just quilting, listening to some great music, and having a nice time and then WHOOPS! the quilt was done.

So cross your fingers that my cheerful attitude works for taxes as well!

Difficulty Level – Beginner. This is a really easy design, especially if you’re just wanting to try out spiral shapes for the first time. The spirals stay fairly far apart so it’s a great learning design without a lot of stress about making everything fit together perfectly. 

Design Family – Edge to Center. This design is stitched first into the center of your quilting space, then once you fill one whole side, you’ll go back and fill the second half.

Because of the way it is stitched, this design will work really well in open areas, like your sashing. I’m really trying to convince quilters to use bigger sashing, like 4″ or even 6″ because it’s such a fun place to show off with free motion quilting.

The plus side is you’ll also finish your quilt faster and with fewer blocks if you use wider sashing.

Directional Texture – 2 directions. This fill flows from one side of your quilting space to another so it works great as a horizontal or vertical filler.

Suggestions for Use – I think I’m finally going to get all 15 of the Basic Blue quilts I pieced for How to Piece Perfect Quilts basted and ready to quilt.

These quilts are all very simple blue and white quilts perfect for showcasing free motion quilting designs. Best of all, these blue quilts all have 3″ sashing or wider so I’ll have more than enough room to play with Trailing Spirals in these nice open areas!

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

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

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