How is your Solar Flares block going? This funky asymmetrical block gave me a bit of trouble in piecing because I kept getting the triangles flipped around. Make sure to check out the piecing video hereto find tips on piecing this block.
Now it’s time to quilt Solar Flares and again we’re using a combination of walking foot quilting and free motion quilting. Learn how I planned my quilting path for this block in this new video:
A few extra tips for quilting this design: Make sure to take your time lining up and marking the center Spiral Illusion area. This can be really tricky to line up just right and get the spiral illusion centered into the middle 4-patch block.
I’m still using my lightbox to line up and mark designs from the back, but I just picked up a pack of Golden Threads quilting paper to experiment with marking from the right side.
I’ll be sharing some test videos soon to show you how it works and if it will help make marking quilt blocks like this easier.
As you can see from the back of the block, I did travel stitch a good bit in the ditches around the center Solar Flare star, and then switched thread colors for the outer Hot Path flames.
I really love the flow I was able to create in the background of the block. Being able to travel stitch, fill, then move to the next space without breaking thread and without excessive travel stitching is always my goal.
So what do you think of this latest block? Are you enjoying the mix of walking foot quilting with free motion quilting? Have you ever combined techniques like this to quilt an entire quilt?
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.
I am playing catch-up quilting my quilt blocks this weekend and find I love the walking foot quilting. It is a nice break from the free motion work, and I love seeing all the nice even stitches I can produce with the walking foot. The very center of the spiral illusion was a bit tricky to mark and stitch, but it did work out fine in the end. Thank you for this fun adventure!
I am playing catch-up quilting my quilt blocks this weekend and find I love the walking foot quilting. It is a nice break from the free motion work, and I love seeing all the nice even stitches I can produce with the walking foot. The very center of the spiral illusion was a bit tricky to mark and stitch, but it did work out fine in the end. Thank you for this fun adventure!