My Spiral Art Quilt

My friend, D, gave me a quilt collage technique class from Susan Carlson.  I finished my spiral quilt yesterday!  I was not sure, at first, if I wanted to make a quilt that used glue to attach the fabric pieces, but I decided to just go with the flow.  I am so glad I did!  It was so much fun, even though I had some gluey fingers to take care of now and then.  I really enjoyed the process and the outcome.  I think I may do another one.  Please view the slide show, just below.  Give it a few seconds to start and click on the icon on the lower right to make it full screen:

It was an on-line course, that I could access as often as I wished, so I could run wild, then decide to see what was next or go back and see if I missed something.  It is actually an art quilt.  It has the top, batting in the middle, and a back.  I stippled it myself and added a traditional binding.  

This is a close-up, so you can see my stitching and how the colors blend together.

Besides needing something to glue your fabric scraps to (I used an old piece of sheet because I did not have any muslin on hand), batting, and a backing fabric, it requires only a few other supplies.

I used a 2' X 2' piece of foam insulation board that you can obtain at Home Depot.  It is nice to keep your project flat and easy to stick straight pins in.  You need a basket of light and dark scrap pieces of fabric that are whatever colors/tones you wish to work in. I used tweezers to move my small pieces and hold the edges up, of the bits I already glued down.  Yes, they are unicorn tweezers, and they are the best.  I used a Frixion pen to trace the edge of the curved area onto my other pieces; easier than guessing what the curve is. I used varigated polyester thread to do the quilting, as it works better in my machine for stippling than cotton thread does.  What I really enjoyed about the process, of course, was using my bright & busy commercial fabrics and playing around with color values.  I admit, I was not keen about using tule over my quilt top, but it saved me from a ton of gluing little edges down and it makes my quilt look amazing.  Tulle is now in my tool-kit.  It is one more thing I can choose when deciding how to proceed on an art quilt with lots of small pieces. 

It is 24" X 24" and is hanging on the wall in my quilt room.   Thank you, Daria, for the wonderful gift.  Title: Life Spiral