Intense Quilting Pattern Spiral Boomerangs #237

Here’s a very intense quilting design I’m calling Spiral Boomerangs:

I’ve been having loads of fun looking back at early designs from the project this week, and two in particular have caught my eye. Fossil Bed was one of the first designs created by combining two existing designs. It created a really neat texture and recently I started wondering if I could do the same thing with straight lines and sharp angles. What did I end up with? Spiral Boomerangs!

Combined, I think both designs look even better! The Square Spirals really stand out of the crowd and show off beautifully against the more complex Boomerang designs. Definitely play with changing the size of the spirals – the bigger they get, the more they will show off and change the design.

Difficulty Level – Advanced. The biggest thing to keep in mind with this design is to keep your lines straight. I’ve found if my Boomerangs get too long, my lines start to curve and wiggle because it’s hard to keep them perfectly straight.

So instead keep the boomerangs short by changing direction often and the design will stay under control and looking good throughout.

Design Family – Stacking. Spiral Boomerangs is created by stacking shapes together, so really this design can go anywhere in your quilt and on any scale.

Directional Texture – All Directions. Straight line designs generally have a flatter, less flowing texture than curvy designs. One thing to keep in mind is how much this design builds up thread on the surface of your quilt. If you contrast your thread color with the color of the quilt top, this design will really stand out!

Suggestions for Use – What if you stitched this design in different colors? I haven’t really done a lot of this, mostly because I hate breaking thread often and having to hide a million loose threads, but for this design, I think I’d make an exception.

Try stitching the spirals first in red thread and then break thread and fill in around them with boomerangs in green for a funky festive quilt. The design won’t flow as easily as in the video, but the effect will definitely be very interesting!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day

Day 91 – Fossil Bed