Quilting Super Spiral Collaboration with Helen Stubbings
So how do I quilt it? There’s a lot of little pieces with this block and certainly many ways you could creatively add extra texture to the quilt surface. The best way to pick your quilting design is to shoot a picture of the quilt or block and print out copies of the picture on plain paper. Then you can draw your quilting ideas on the paper and figure out what you like best.
Personally I was looking for an excuse to jump back into walking foot quilting so I already had that style of quilting in my head. When looking at the block, I really liked how round the border around the star appeared and I wanted to accent that with circles or a spiral. Super Spiral is a bit faster and easier to quilt than Concentric Circles so that seemed like the perfect design for this quilt.
Learn how to quilt Super Spiral with your walking foot in this new video tutorial:
To get started on the right foot, mark the first few rings of the spiral shape on your quilt with a fabric marking pencil.
I marked this from the center, and estimated around 1/2 inch between the lines of the spiral so that as I worked further out from the center I could use the edge of my walking foot as a guide for the rest of the design.
When you begin stitching, take one stitch at a time, lift your foot and rotate the quilt very slightly. You’ll want to avoid big rotations as this will make your spiral look jagged.
It’s definitely a bit tedious to begin, but once you get further out from the center the curve of the circle will be bigger so you can stitch and rotate the quilt at the same time.
As I mentioned in the video, the center of Super Spiral is easier to quilt with free motion quilting because you can see the entire spiral and form the design without having to rotate the quilt. If you like you could knock out the center of the spiral with free motion quilting, then break thread and change feet and finish the outer section with walking foot quilting.
Quilting a Super Spiral like this over your quilt is called All Over Style Quilting. It’s a method of covering your quilt with one single design and ignoring the piecing or applique design.
This style of quilting is fast and doesn’t require a lot of thought or decision making during the quilting process. This is really important if you’re needing to finish a project quickly and easily.
The downside of All Over Quilting with Super Spiral is how it overlaps your piecing design. This might not be the effect you’re going for on your quilt, especially if it took a long time to piece.
What do you think of this design on Helen’s quilt? Would you have quilted it differently? Share your thoughts and any questions you have about Super Spiral or All Over Quilting in the comments below!
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
