a spiral (and oval) quilting tutorial

As requested, I'm going to share a tutorial on how to spiral quilt. (I'll talk a little bit about oval quilting, too.) I've done a few quilts in this fashion now and I've learned a few things along the way. Hopefully this tutorial will give you the confidence to try this technique!

The quilt I'm showing in the photos is my scrap vortex quilt, which you can see finished here. It is a king size! Smaller quilts are easier to spiral quilt, obviously, but it is feasible to do almost any size on your home machine. If your back can take it, that is! :)

First, find the center of your quilt. The polka dot was within 1" of the center, so I used it as the starting point. Close enough! It would have looked awkward to have the center just a bit displaced from such a natural focal point. I drew a circle and spiral with a water soluble marker. (I use the clover brand fine tip disappearing pen. It's a great one!) I tried quilting the very center with my walking foot on my Janome 3 different times, but it never was quite smooth enough. So, finally, I moved over to the JUKI and used my free motion foot.

That looked so much better! Bury your knots, as shown in this tutorial. It's a little bit of a pain, but it's soooooo tidy when you are done! I bury my knots as I go, so I don't have a bunch to deal with at the end.

At this point I switched over to my Janome and used the walking foot to quilt the rest of it. I use the width of the walking foot as a guide, so the quilting lines end up being about 1/2" apart. It's perfect spacing! I keep my needle in the center position.

Once in awhile the width of my lines waver. Here I was about 1/8" off or so. In the big scheme of things, that's ok! You really won't notice it in the end. Just try to keep the arcs as smooth as possible.

'What do you do about the bulk?'
That's a fair question, if you look at the photo above! The good news is that only 1/2 of the quilt (or less) will be in the throat of your machine at any time. It takes a lot of turning and shifting, but as you spiral your way outward, it gets easier. Work slowly, adjust often and most importantly...support the bulk of the quilt so it doesn't pull against the needle.

I used the dining room table when I was quilting the center. It was ideal because there was a lot of room to spread out the bulk of the quilt. (A cushion for your chair is a must, too. For real!) After my husband gave me too much grief for having half a basement to quilt in AND taking up the dining room table, I moved back down to my normal quilting quarters.

My table downstairs isn't very large, so I set up two tray tables right next to my work space to support the quilt. (An ironing board would work well, too.) It helps a bunch!

Once you get to the corners, just continue to echo the arcs, starting and stopping at the edges. (This is where one can really appreciate an auto thread cutter!) It's very common to breathe a big sigh of relief once you hit the final corner. But it's oh-to-satisfying to be able to quilt your own quilts. Even (or especially) the big ones!

For the oval quilting on the lipstick quilt I used the same technique, except I drew an oval (a very long oval) in the center. I used the stripe of the center block as a guideline. I used my walking foot for the center, but wasn't thrilled with it. After I finished quilting, I went back and ripped out the center lines that were bugging me and used my free motion foot to re-do the quilting. It took me 3 tries to make it look decent and in the end I had to forgive myself for a few wobbly lines. {Perfection is over-rated, right?}

I think I've learned my lesson and next time I will just start with my free motion foot for the center and hopefully I'll save myself some stitch ripping. It seems to work the best for me, anyway.

I would like to give a shout out to Marianne, who posted her great spiral quilting tutorial. It gave me the idea and the confidence to give spiral quilting a shot in the first place. Thanks, Marianne!

If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them in the comments. Happy spiral quilting!