Online masterclass · for confident beginners with a walking foot
The Shimmering Headboard
Radical layered spoked quilting
Throw away the grid. Rings of circles, spokes radiating to the edge, and one unbroken walking-foot line that makes the whole quilt shimmer.
$45 CAD
One payment · lifetime access · 8 lessons
The real thing
This is the finished headboard.
From finished top to finished artwork
Let the quilting do more than hold it together.
For the maker who wants texture, movement and a finish worth hanging on the wall. Use a whole-cloth quilt or a pieced top you already love.
Your walking foot is enough.
For confident beginners who can sew a straight line and pivot with the needle down. A walking foot is required.
Plan before you stitch.
Explore ring sizes and nested spokes in the free planner. Inside the course, follow marking, stitching, layering and finishing.
Made a Biscotti?
This is a separate quilting course for the next stage: adding another layer of art to your finished top. No Biscotti purchase is required.
Explore the Biscotti method →Lesson 1 · free
What radical radial quilting is
Most quilting lives on a grid: straight rows, crosshatch, stitch-in-the-ditch. Radial quilting throws the grid away. Everything starts from one point and moves outward — rings of circles, and straight spokes shooting from each ring to the edge of the quilt.
- My headboard quilt is the example for this course: a big square hung behind a bed, quilted in layered circles with spokes radiating outward.
- Each new ring adds spokes in between the ones already there, so the lines get denser toward the edge. When light hits it, the quilting itself shimmers — that's where the name comes from.
- There's no fancy machine work. It's all straight lines with a walking foot, sewn as one continuous path that travels up a spoke, along the edge, and back down the next.
- It works on a plain whole-cloth top or right over a pieced one, and it's eyeballed rather than measured perfectly — the slight wobble is part of the shimmer.
- Who it's for: confident beginners who own a walking foot. If you can sew a straight line and turn a corner with the needle down, you can do this.
Free tool
Plan your shimmer.
Set your quilt size, add rings, split the spokes and watch the walking-foot path draw itself. Save it, print it, take it to the machine.
- Spokes
- 48
- Stitching
- 54.2 yd
- Thread (×1.2)
- 65.1 yd
- Time, roughly
- 2.6 h
Stitching = every spoke + the travel along the edge + each circle. Time assumes about 15″ a minute with a walking foot plus a pause at each pivot — yours will vary.
Inside the course
Seven more lessons.
Lesson 2
Tools
Compass, thumbtack, string, chalk — and the walking foot you can't skip.
Included in the course
Lesson 3
The centre warning
The one mistake that can ruin the whole quilt.
Included in the course
Lesson 4
Marking circle 1
Find true centre and mark the first ring.
Included in the course
Lesson 5
Drawing spokes
Radiate lines out to the edge with a tack and string.
Included in the course
Lesson 6
The continuous sew
The core technique: one unbroken walking-foot line.
Included in the course
Lesson 7
Layering for shimmer
Add rings and split spokes to build density.
Included in the course
Lesson 8
Finishing
Square up, bind and hang it behind the bed.
Included in the course
Package · save $15
The Biscotti Quilt + The Shimmering Headboard
Make the top, then quilt it into art. Both courses, lifetime access, one checkout — $95 CAD instead of $110. Or buy either course on its own.