Around and around and around.......

[rubywishes]

70" x 56"

I lost count after winding the eighth bobbin and changing the needle 3 times but I went through a s--t load of thread and had to scrabble around to find new needles.

Things I have learnt quilting this spiral:
(1) Quilting around and around in circles is fun for the first hour and then.....nuh...
(2) I can rest my forehead on the sewing machine and weep quietly periodically and feel a lot better for it. 
(3) After stopping every so often to wind a new bobbin over the first few days it suddenly dawned on me that it was advisable to wind several bobbins at once! derrr!
(4) No matter that the stitching line width is the exact width of my walking foot...I still can't stay on a line to save myself.
(5) My Juki and its high harp space is "the bomb" and laughs at large spirals.
(6) Stop every couple of rounds and check your backing for creases and folds that you will have otherwise sewn into at least 18 rounds of stitching.
(7) Don't start to unpick 18 sections of stitching while you're still angry about having to unpick 18 sections of stitching.
8.   A quilt with that much stitching in it is very heavy and hard to manouever around in a circle and going faster will not improve things at all.
(9) My pedal foot goes numb after an hour or so, and a scotch doesn't help.
(10) Spirals and curves start to look flat and straight after an hour or so.....resist the urge to  freehand correct...it will not end well.
(11) It's best to make sure you have ample reels of the same colour thread before the shop closes on a Sunday afternoon.

[Vegegrow]

 12.But the result is worth the effort
Looks good Ruby well done... now you can finish the scotch 

[Acorn]

Wow - that's fantastic!

You have earned the right to do anything you want to for the next two days, with as much Scotch as you would like.   

[wrenkins]

Wow! Totally worth it. That looks fab-u-lous dahling!!! 

[b15erk]

It's wonderful Rubes! Worth all the aggravation.

Make it a double!   

Jessie

[Sewingsue]

It does look fantastic.
Rather you than me manoeuvring that amount of quilt through a domestic machine (at least I assume you have an ordinary machine).

[supergran]

Thanks for the heads up RW. I was thinking of doing the spiral, and even though it looks gorgeous, I've changed my mind!
 

[BrendaP]

Wow! it looks fantastic. Reward yourself 

I don't think I'd ever have the patience to keep going round and round like that.

[fajita]

Excellent job.

[Iminei]

[Lowena]

Lovely Rubes 

[Ploshkin]

What on earth possessed you to even think of starting it?  Well worth the effort though, it looks amazing.

[Deafoldbat]

the stitching line width is the exact width of my walking foot ...A quilt with that much stitching in it is very heavy 

The narrow spiral looks very good. As you say that much stitching makes the quilt heavier and also stiffer, though it should soften up again with a good wash and being used.

Quilting around and around in circles is fun for the first hour and then.....nuh...

Just asking...could you have made the spiral wider? Does your walking foot also have seam guides which would make you less reliant on the width of the walking foot?

[rubywishes]

Yes DOB I could've made the spiral line widths wider...I do have a guide I can attach. I deliberately did the spiral that close because after basting and griding this quilt the top was looking saggy in places. I'm guessing it was because I hadn't cut my pieces perfectly on grain and I was having some real stretch and bias problems showing up......(I really need to get better at cutting "on grain"). I had tried some straight line quilting on it but the stretch and bagging was screamingly obvious so I quickly realised I would need some close all-over quilting to secure it. The idea of an all-over spiral circle or square came to mind. I decided against doing the continuous"spiral square" as the eventual straight lines would eventually clash with the not-so accurate straight lines of my piecing making that stand out so the spiral circle was my only viable option. Next, when working out my spiral distance I thought if I spaced the lines too far apart, coupled with the constant twisting and turning of the quilt I would still most likely get bagging/feathers so I decided to stick with the tight spiral distance of just the walking footwidth which is about 1/2".
I think my reasoning was correct, the finished product looks very secure, and neat and is no longer feeling stiff....Mr.Ruby has deemed it his couch quilt and has become quite possessive of it!!!!

[Sheilago]

The quilting looks wonderful and it's interesting to hear how the close quilting solved the saggyness. Much as I love the quilting state, I'm not sure