Swirly Do Session 5: Finishing Up

So you've kind of got an understanding of the three or four basic steps that go into making this wonderful little swirly-doo tree, building the trunk, and then stitching the negative space, and then adding all of the branches and stems as well as the swirlies that make up the root system, and then adding the swirly-doos that make up the bough of the tree. Here, you know, our bough is finished, our tree is finished, and that's the only thing that is lacking on this one is all of our little swirly-doos. I've seen this in so many different color combinations, and I don't think I've ever seen one that didn't work. I've seen all autumn-colored swirls. I've seen a fabulous one done in neutrals that was just amazing. I've actually seen a white-on-white done that was just stunning. So I think pretty much anything works when it comes to color. You can also do lots of different things on the edge of your quilt instead of putting a traditional binding, or you can put a traditional binding. For this quilt, I was in a hurry to get it done, and it needs a little bit more finish work on the edge. I took some of the fabric left over, twisted it and twisted it along the edge of the piece. I need to go ahead back in there and do a final zigzag along there, 'cause there's a couple places where it didn't catch, but I really like this edge 'cause it's kind of rough, like the rest of the whole piece is. I also like leaving those excess pieces here. There are so many ways that you can play with this technique, and so many ways that you can build this. I had a student once who made hers only about 12 inches wide, and her trunk was really long and narrow, and the whole piece was about three feet tall. It was really cool. She just wanted it for a particular window in her house. So you can, all sorts of different sizes and different types of formats. There's a lot that you can do, and that's what I really like when I learn a technique that I can take just from that class or that project and take it and do other things with it and make it my own. So hopefully you'll do that with this, and that you'll really enjoy playing with these swirly-doos.