November 24, 2014

FMQ weekly: Windswept quilting design

Such a nice lot of supportive comments on my last post, thank you all! Today I want to share one of the designs I used on that quilt. I asked my Instagram followers to help me name it. I heard a lot of wind and hair references so I'm going with Windswept!


I like really flowing designs and I'm hoping that I share this in a way that it makes sense to you. This is an "emerging" type of design, it starts at a point and each new motif emerges from between two others, which you can probably see above if you look for the start of each new swirl. It's not hard, it just looks hard. I had a new quilter in a class this week who did great with it.

So here is how I make the basic motif:


a. Make a loose spiral/swirl
b. Come back to the point along the inside of the spiral.
c. Echo back around the outside of the spiral to the far point.
d. Echo back along the inside of the spiral to the starting point.


e. Then take a short line up to the curve of the spiral, travel along it a little way and then go back down to the point.

That's it. Do it over and over again! You can make your four-spiral unit in whatever order you want. It doesn't matter whether you're coming back on the inside or the outside of the spiral. The explanation above is just the way I've been doing it, and the way that I stitch it in the video below.


The only other thing you need to be prepared for is that where the round ends of your shapes come together they will leave some odd shaped open spaces between them. Unless those are tiny you'll probably want to fill them with some evenly spaced lines to keep the texture consistent and avoid those areas "popping" forward in your design.


You can see me stitching the design in this video. You can also maybe hear my 2 year old waking up from his nap at the end, so it did get cut a little short. If you watch it I think you'll get the idea of how the design flows.



Here's a shot from the quilt I posted about in my last post. Windswept is in the upper left corner in this picture.


Hope you get some use out of this one quilters. Happy stitching!

14 comments:

Barbara Arcement said...

Wow, I could not stop watching that video. you make it look so easy.
I like the way you take your time and don't rush while the machine is going fast. I tend to want to move too fast. Thank you for sharing this.
hugs
beebee

Stina... said...

Thankyou!!! Another lovely you design...

What Comes Next? said...

the possibilities are flowing! Lovely!

QuiltLaughLove said...

Love it! Thanks for sharing!

Elsa said...

Oh, I love Windswept! It makes me think of Peter Max art!

Lesley Gilbert said...

Lovely video, thanks for sharing and taking the time to record :)

Laikabear said...

I love this design! Windswept is a great name for it. I am trying to get good at one design at a time (I'm making your quilted baskets) but I'm impatient because I love ALL your designs. You have a great style.

Charo said...

Thanks so much for these great FMQ tutorials, Christina. I'm learning a lot with you.
If you don't mind I link you to my blog

Greetings from Spain

Vicki said...

I learn a lot from you and your videos. Thank you so much for sharing. Beautiful!

Lisa Lisa said...

So fun to watch the video! I could watch you FMQ all day :)

Nurdan Kulluk-Rennert said...

Watching you quilt is like a dream...

Lara B. said...

Christina this is so lovely! You explain it very well too - as usual!

BillieBee (billiemick) said...

Great video!! Thanks.

Megan said...

This is so beautiful. And watching the video is hypnotic. We MUST get together soon!!!!

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