Quilting the Bright Strippy Spiral

As a refresher, here's what the bright strippy spiral flimsy looks like. 

The plan for the quilting is to stipple over the bright strippy parts and quilt straight lines in the black. I started by stitching in the ditch all around the spiral. 

Notice that the spiral goes counter-clockwise from the center in the photo above? If I had known when I was laying out the quilt what I know now, I would have made the spiral go clockwise. When you sew clockwise starting from the center of the quilt, you get closer to the edge of the quilt with each round. Counter clockwise, you end up with more and more of the bulk of the quilt to the right of the needle, stuffed into the machine's throat. So, if you want to make a spiral quilt and you quilt on a domestic machine, be sure to lay out your spiral so it goes clockwise. 

After stitching in the ditch, I stitched parallel to the spiral seams in the black, using the width of the foot as a guide. Two rounds so far. I'll come back and stitch some more after the strippy parts are quilted, to even out the fullness. 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that backing! It couldn't be more perfect if I had used it as the inspiration for the palette! But if you follow my blog you know that I had completely made the top before shopping for the backing. 

After the SID and straight line work in the black, I switched over to FMQ and stippled over the strippy parts. I knew this quilt needed a lot of quilting over all those seams to hold them together over time and use. I wanted a medium color thread that would blend in with many of the strips but couldn't find one in a thread that my machine likes so I ended up with a brick color. It blends with the darker strips but contrasts with the lighter ones. 

Next I'll switch back to walking foot quilting and do some more straight lines in the black. One complete round around the entire spiral makes a line on each side of the black, so what's showing here is two complete rounds. I know I'll need at least one, probably 2 more rounds. I want a gap of about 1 to 1-1/2 inches in the center of the black, to disguise any unevenness in my stitching that isn't perfectly parallel. 

It's slow going, and also hot wrangling this quilt around under the needle, but this quilt is so worth it! I'll keep at it and before too long it'll be finished. 

Linking up with Mid Week Makers at Quilt Fabrication