Sunday, April 28, 2013

Marking Spirals On Welsh Quilts

Spirals patterns are one of my favorite patterns on Welsh quilts.  Spirals may seem to be a very simple, ordinary pattern but like other patterns on Welsh quilts, the magic happens when the spirals get combined with other  patterns into the overall design. 

When I started working with Welsh quilt patterns, it took a while for me to relax and just draw spirals without trying to make them all perfectly round or matched to each other.  In the early 90's, quilting stencils were still in wide use here in the States and American quilting was overly dependent on them.  I had used the stencils but didn't like them because of the limitations of the stencils and this was a big part of my attraction to Welsh patterns... they seemed so free.

Over the years, I've generally marked patterns two ways.  The first was to make my own custom-fit stencil and the second was to just free-hand mark patterns.  In my early years, I mostly used the stencils, partly because it speeded up the marking but still looked like a hand drawn pattern.  When I was teaching workshops, it was much easier for students to adapt to stencils because they also had stencils in their quiltmaking background. 

The basic steps for making a stencil was to draw the design onto template plastic with a black Sharpie pen and then cut along the lines to leave a gap big enough for the fabric marker to get in and mark the pattern.  I used narrow strips of masking tape (on front and back) to bridge the gaps and stiffen the stencil.  Sometimes, I did a whole pattern but often I marked the whole pattern but only cut and taped half of it.  It isn't the way the original Welsh quilt patterns were marked but it works.
These are stencils from an earlier quilt, laid out on the current quilt to show the marked lines and how the gaps are bridged with narrow strips of masking tape to hold it all together.  The stencil would be flipped to mark the other half.

My favorite way to mark patterns is by hand.  I do the dividing of the main parts of the design with rulers but I've come to really enjoy the hand marked patterns which are more consistent with the old quilts. 

In the picture below, part of the patterns were marked with help from stencils and some free-hand.  The spirals were marked free-hand with a little help with the spacing.
The picture below shows how a circle can be divided up for spirals or any other pattern.  I took a sheet of printer paper and cut a basic curve for a quarter circle and then folded the circle into 3 sections from the corner out (the folds barely show in the picture).  The folds are nipped at the ends to help with seeing them and the remaining square corner of the paper is positioned into the center of the circle and the circle border can be divided up for the spirals.
 
 

Now the curved border has been marked using the paper shown above and a ruler was used to finish the marking the spaces.

This picture shows how the spiral was marked with soap but the quilting doesn't have to exactly on the marked line.
 
 
I like patterns that fill the space so when I go to mark a spiral, I often put soap marks where I want the lines to go as is shown in the center of the picture... then I just connect the marks for the spiral.

Another tip for spirals is to know which way you prefer to hand quilt spirals because some quilters have a definite preference.  You can try marking samples of spirals going both directions and see if one direction is better than the other.  If you like clockwise spirals better than counter-clockwise (like the ones above) then it'll save you time to mark them for easier quilting,  The best way is to be able to quilt in any direction with different fingers.

May you have many happy hours quilting spirals.

8 comments:

  1. Thank you for showing this, hand-drawn patterns have so much more life don't they?

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    1. I really like the hand drawn quilting patterns, they have a softer, more interesting way of working together into designs. I love spirals (snails) with interesting shapes. The first quilt I bought from Jen Jones has a border of spirals in the center circle design and all the spirals go one direction except one. I've always wondered what that was about.

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  2. Have love hand drawn and hand quilted quilts. So happy I found your blog! What kind of soap do you use for marking??? Those are nice lines :) Kathi

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    1. the soap I mark with is regular hand soap such as safeguard. It works great as a temporary mark and it's easy to audition patterns and if I don't like them, I brush them off and go again. The most important thing with marking with soap is not to use one with moisturizing oil in it. I doubt if there's enough oil to be a big problem but why take a chance.

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  3. I was wondering if you still sell copies of your book on Welsh quilting? I am very interesting in doing a Welsh whole cloth. Love your work!

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  4. I have some lad welsh quilts and Durham quilts and now want to make a welsh quilt myself. I have some sateen. And several books on welsh quilts and am nearly ready to start working n a design. I have just found your blog and it has so much help on it it is wonderful you mention a handbook. Is that still available. I am in Sydney Australia Best regards. Maureen

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    1. Maureen, regarding the Handbook, it's a simple, self-published help for students that I put together years ago because there wasn't anything out on Welsh quilts at the time. It's called THE WELSH QUILTING PATTERN AND DESIGN HANDBOOK and is available via Amazon.com here in the States or through Jen Jones Welsh Quilts in Wales.

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  5. I landed at your site because you left a message on my blog about my quilt that I FMQuilted and I wanted to say thank you! Now that I have perused your blog I want to come back and learn some of your marking and stencil making techniques. Some of these ideas would have assisted much when working on my quilt. I did a lot of improvisational and depended on my somewhat limited drawing skills. Anyways your Red Welsh quilt is awesome. I am not sure I would have the patience you must have to hand quilt another one. I hope you are enjoying your time working at the quilt shoppe. I would think that would be so much fun learning and seeing all the new quilting ideas.

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