spiderweb quilting tutorial and giveaway

*This giveaway is now closed*

Have you heard about the Ghastly Gathering hosted by Alice at aldiza?


She is running a fun little link up of all things Ghastly over at her blog, along with tutorials and such.  You should stop by!  And to top it off, she is giving away bundles of Ghastly fabric to participants (and I was lucky enough to win one- thanks, Alice!)!  She asked me if I would do a tutorial for the spiderweb quilting I used on my own Ghastly quilt.  

And as an added bonus, she will be awarding this bundle of the Ghastlies to someone who comments on this post!

So, here goes!


First of all, RELAX.  It is very freestyle, i.e. impossible to mess up.  The less mapped out and linear, the better.  But it helps to do a bit of preplanning.

I took a piece of paper and roughly sketched my quilt size, and decided how I wanted the web to extend.  Instead of centered, I found it was more dramatic offset to one side.  I placed the epicenter at the top right of the quilt.  Then I mapped out the radiating lines from that point.  I liked it best when lines did not cross through the center and keep going...made it a bit more wonky, which suited my quilt.

I basted my quilt and then chose my thread.  I opted to use a thicker thread, Aurafil 12 wt ("normal" is 50 wt), in a coordinating orange/yellow shade so that my quilting was very pronounced.  This thread reminds me a bit of the Perle cotton thread that I like to use for hand quilting, though not quite as thick.

Next I took some time to mark the radiating lines with dressmakers chalk and a ruler.  This will wash out completely so it is great for this purpose.

I started my quilting, following along those lines.

Once my radiating lines were placed, I started the webbing.  Beginning at the epicentre, I made c-shaped connections between the lines, turning the quilt as I went, the curve dipping towards the centre.

Continue until the entire quilt is covered in a spooky spiderweb!

Remember to leave a comment here to enter Alice's giveaway. Winner will be drawn on Sunday October 31!

*This giveaway is now closed*