Tuesday, October 25, 2016

AHIQ Linkup October 2016 and Quilting Spirals

Between this small quilt and the t-shirt quilt I haven't started any improv this month. But the quilting design has free-hand aspects. After some ditch quilting with a walking foot, I decided to quilt spirals on the inner border.

Why? Because the thread is a bit heavier and tends to knot up if you change directions in a point. Spirals have no sharp points for knots to form.

Free motion spirals without echo quilting

I used a glass to mark circles. This keep the spirals reasonable spaced. But it still takes practice to maintain spacing during the inward and outward spin.

A glass makes a good
template for spiral placement

Adding a line of echo stitching on each side of the spiral will fill out this border.

Enjoy the day, Ann

InLinkz removed because it was hacked.

6 comments:

Janie said...

Thanks, Ann, for sharing what you're up to, good info.
Speaking of Ad Hoc Improv.quilts, You must take a look at Jean Wells' quilt 'Ephesus' http://stitchinpostinsisters.typepad.com/stitchin_post_in_sisters/2016/10/greeting-from-jean.html
She designs amazing AHIQ's.

Kaja said...

I like the spirals - they seem very even too. I wouldn't have thought about the advantages of curves over angles, but now that you have mentioned it, it makes sense to me.

Ann said...

Jean's quilt is wonderful. Thanks for sharing the link. I was fortunate to meet Jean last month. She is a treasure in the quilt world.

Ann said...

This peach thread is regular sewing weight. It's knotted before when I change directions while FMQ (like feathers.) Spirals seemed like a good choice for this thread. Saving the feathers for the embroidery thread.

Stephie said...

Ann, I've been meaning to ask for a while - can I link up an older post, one from during the past month for example? Recently I haven't been able to post as often as I used to, so if I've been working on some improv I tend to post it before your link-up comes round! Hopefully that's going to change over the next few weeks - I'm actively working on two improv quilts now :)

Ann said...

Unfortunately the link is only open a week. But there's a new linkup monthly. It's good to know you're settling in. I can't wait to se your new improv; your work is always fabulous.