Spiral Quilt

When I first saw RaNae Merrill's book, "Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts" I was so fascinated that I bought a copy.  I didn't get inside it for awhile because I kept looking at the cover photo trying to figure out how she did that quilt (why open the book when it is such fun to challenge your brain to solve the problem).  I was so thrilled when I figured out that the basic design was nothing but a pentagon and triangle kaleidoscope that I immediately sat down and read the book.  During this time I went to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival where the complete gallery of the Hoffman Challenge for that year was on display, and fell in love with the fabric for the next year's challenge.  It wasn't long before I delved into the design process for a spiral quilt and bought the challenge fabric to use in it.  The rest is history.

Although variations are possible it is probably easiest to start with a wedge 1/6th or 1/8th of a circle.  Draw some shapes on it and use a mirror to see if you like the repeated design...or decide on shapes you think you would like to fit into the wedge.  They do not have to be even, but these lines will be seams and you must be able to sew them together.

Basic outline of one 30º wedge

I know, I said to use a bigger basic wedge than the example above, but I never start out with the simplest possibility.  Two of these, side by side, will make 1/6th of a circle and the larger number of wedges increases the design possibilities.  The process is the same.  For this first spiral of mine I chose only two shapes because I saw them in the quilt on the book cover, and thus could visualize the potential results.  Illustrator is my software of choice.  You can draw your design on paper if you prefer.

The next step is to draw lines that create triangles within one of the shapes.  There are several ways to do this, but I started with the pentagon and used the "Pinwheel Spiral" as below.

Step 1 (fig 1):  After you have drawn the outline of the pentagon use a ruler and pencil or the pen tool in Illustrator to draw a straight line from point A to a point on line BC about 3/4"-1" from point B.  The chosen distance for that point does not have to be exact but 1" (give or take) is a good place to start for an entry level spiromaniac.  You can measure the distance or guess.

TIP:  The lines you draw within the pentagon shape create triangles.  If you are using the computer I recommend that you draw the complete triangle with the pen tool on a separate layer so that it can be filled with color later.  If you are drawing with pencil this is not necessary as you can color in the lines with your choice of coloring implements.

Step 2 (fig 2 & 3):  Next you draw another line from point B to a point on line CD about 3/4"-1" from point C.

Step 3 (fig 3):  Now go back to where the second line crosses the first line (red circle on Figure 2) and erase or adjust the line so it no longer crosses over the second line.

Step 4 (fig 4):  Continue in this manner until your drawing looks like Figure 4.

Step 5 (fig 5):  Second round.  Continue as you did for the first round, but place the first point at the intersection of the large end of a first-round triangle (red circles) and the second point 3/4"-1"  from the intersection of the first and second first-round triangles.  Erase the overlap as you did in step 3.

Continue in this manner, completing 2 or 3 more rounds as you work toward the center.

Look at that:  it is basically a Twisted Log Cabin!  If your pentagon's sides are equal and every triangle's broad end is the same measurement, then the center will also be a pentagon.  My centers are always wonky because my pentagons are not always equilateral and I don't measure my points precisely, but I rather like the quirkiness they give to a design that is otherwise so ordered.  The triangles do not have to be perfect, but the points must be in the right place and the large ends must lie on the line of the previous round.

Give this a try.  It is fun, and while you are at it, work the triangle piece at the lower part of the wedge and fill it in the same way.

TIP:  You are designing your own quilt.  There is nothing wrong with adapting an idea from someone else, but once you get the technique down, modify it to make it your own.

Stay tuned for my next post, which will continue with the process.  These quilts are beautiful, but they require spending design time, pattern prep time, and sewing time, so I will give you a few days to work out the basics as described here.

Paper Piecing

It was right about here in my journey that I learned how to do Paper Piecing, also called Foundation Piecing.  It is not hard, and once you catch on, it allows you to piece a block or shape with amazing precision.  You can piece tiny, little pieces that would otherwise be impossible.  You can look at a good video tutorial on Foundation Piecing if you don't know what I am talking about.  You can start with some simple practice blocks such as the triangle sashing blocks in this quilt.  The sashing is 2 inches wide so they really don't have to be paper pieced, but I found that the bias edges of the triangles were much easier to control with paper piecing.  I loved the way everything lined up straight and measured correctly when I put the quilt together.

Here you see again that I have a penchant for fussy cutting and kaleidoscope design.  The feature fabric is a symmetrical, border fabric that screamed for action.  The large blocks also have bias edges to work with, and they must be sewn carefully without stretching.  It may help to pin if the edges are long.  If you find that you must sew a bias edge to a straight edge it works best to keep the bias edge on the bottom as you sew and again, you probably would do well to pin first, but please do not sew over the pins.

If you look carefully you can see that I branched out to some easy free motion quilting on this quilt.  My first attempt was so awful that I ripped it all out and did it over again.  Yes, ALL the quilting!  This is frustrating, time consuming and discouraging, but I urge you to rip if you don't like the results.  You will never learn to like that quilt if you aren't happy with the job you did.  You can save yourself a lot of grief by making some 12 inch quilt sandwiches out of your chosen fabric and batting on which to practice your design.  Either way you will have practiced and learned to machine quilt a little better.

Love of Lone Star

This post features my first Lone Star Quilt and I learned so much in doing it.  I used a pattern from "Lone Star Quilts and Beyond" by Jan Krentz, and strip pieced the diagonals in the points.  This made it so much easier, but dealing with the wonkiness of bias remained a challenge throughout.  I found that it is very important to create a template, pin the points securely to an ironing surface, measuring and adjusting to fit the template.  Then starch and press.  This made them go together very nicely.

Another challenge in Lone Star quilts are the Y seams.  See the U-tube directions of Kaye Wood on this subject.  When the seams are done well they lie flat and lovely as in the following close-up of the same quilt.

I love Asian fabric and I had these wonderful birds.  I chopped the fabric to pieces, cut out the bird motifs and attached them with needle-turn appliqué.  If you like handwork you can spend a lot of time doing this.  I wasn't exceedingly precise because my plan was to quilt over the edges to blend them into the background.  That plan worked out very well.

I mentioned that I love fussy cutting so I put the center together with eight triangles cut exactingly the same.  It is important to sew the center points carefully to the place where seam allowances come together.  If you press the seams all the same way they nest together on the back and form a flat, unseen flower.  This presents another problem if you have open seams at the Y-seams.  Somewhere you have to let the seams change direction and press.  Some people say this is a no-no, but others find it doesn't affect the finished product.  I have done it many times and am comfortable doing it.  After all, you want both the center and the Y-seams to be perfect.  Here is a close-up of the center kaleidoscope.

At this point I was just beginning to learn to machine quilt.  I did 1/4 inch lines in each diamond, breaking thread in every one.  It was insane, and I thought I would wear out the quilt turning it four times for each diamond.  The borders were also done with 1/4 inch straight lines.  The black background was medium stippling.  I am told that is a very difficult way to start, but I didn't know it at the time.  By the time I finished this quilt I had just about decided I never wanted to machine quilt ever again.  That has changed as you will see in future posts.