Need advice for quilting kaleidoscope quilt!

[Beth A.]

I just finished piecing a kaleidoscope wedding quilt and now have 3 weeks to machine quilt it at home on my home machine before the shower. You can see the quilt at /

But I have no ideas on a good quilting pattern for this particular quilt. (My imagination usually ends at the piecing.)

The backing is aqua / teal flannel.

Any suggestions? I generally don't like my quilts TOO heavily quilted because they seem too stiff, and I want this quilt to be USED.



BethMI

[Kathryn S.]

Woohoo! You finished the top! Way to go-----

When I made one I ended up quilting it heavily, because that's the way my quilting usually goes! I quilted different designs in the different sections. I think I might have ditch quilted between the wedges. My border was 60 degree triangles cut from the leftovers from the quilt, so I did a continuous line of rounded zigzags, changing direction in each triangle. The triangles were about 3 inches wide.
I did spirals, wavy lines, sharp zigzags, leaves, outlines of some of the motifs in the fabric. The corners had a large sunflower with trailing leaves. I didn't plan much except for the sunflower design. I was consistent at putting the same design in the same section around the quilt, though, if you get my drift. I used Bamboo batting, I think, so it's pretty drapey.

If you want, tomorrow I can post a couple of photos that show the quilting. It's too late for me to take any photos tonight but in the daylight I should be able to get some detail pics for you.

Kathy

[Beth A.]

Thanks, Kathy - I'd like to see yours.

Any others?

BethMI

[Margo C.]

Beth, if you just want basic quilting, stitching in the ditch of all your piecing would be sufficient to hold it together nicely. If you don't want the stitching to show, use a monofiliment thread like Superior's MonoPoly (polyester) or Maderia's Monolon (Nylon) or YLI's invisible nylon.
I would definitely add "ghost" kaleidoscope shapes in the border (but NOT stitched through the narrow border) and maybe use some kind of a decorative thread there if you are confident about your quilting stitches. A large fill to complete the borders, and maybe a swirly motif between the kaleidoscope blocks.

I love how your quilt looks and know it will be well received!

[Margo C.]

I just finished a kaleidoscope quilt last week. I did a simple petal design in each one.
It was easy and fast. When I get to this point I can't wait to get them done so I can
see the finished quilt.

[Kathryn S.]

Hi Beth, I took pics of the corner, border and center of the quilt. (Plus some lint I didn't notice before!)

here they are:

I used King Tut variegated thread for most of it except the sunflower.

Kathy

[Margo C.]

Kathy, I love the quilting motifs you used!! Thanks for posting your photos!

[Margo C.]

Margo!!! How do you do that? How do you mark the design on the pics? I must of been asleep in class if you explained in the forum before. Those are some pretty quilts and quilting too. I have a kaleidoscope on my design wall and need to finish putting rows together and the borders. Sandi

[Margo C.]

Margo!!! How do you do that? How do you mark the design on the pics? I must of been asleep in class if you explained in the forum before. Those are some pretty quilts and quilting too. I have a kaleidoscope on my design wall and need to finish putting rows together and the borders. Sandi

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Hey Sandi! Glad you asked! It's a great way to try out quilting motifs, and anyone can do this! Follow these steps:

1) "Save" the desired (JPEG) photo to your computer, and remember where you filed it!
(You can do this with a photo you see on the Internet by right clicking on the photo, select "save image as", and designate the location on your computer where you want to save it.)
2) Open the photo you want to draw on in a drawing software program. You can use a fancy one (JASC or PhotoShop Elements or something else) or if you have a PC, it probably came loaded with Microsoft Paint.
On my PC, if I open any photo from "My Pictures", there is a task bar at the top of the page. I select "OPEN" on the bar and choose "PAINT" from the drop down menu. That will open the "PAINT" program with the desired photo on the screen.

You can choose the pencil tool to draw free-motion lines, or you can choose the line tool to draw straight lines.

You can also resize photo files in this program, or just use the slider tool at the bottom right of the screen if you need to maintain a large file size but just want to work on a smaller scale. You can also "crop" a photo so that you eliminate unnecessary stuff!!

Be sure to "Save As" from the drop-down menu accessed from the upper left corner if you want to save your drawing.

It takes some practice to draw with a mouse, but if you decide you want to do a lot of this kind of thing, I suggest you consider getting a "tablet" so that you can draw with a device that is more like a pencil. I am using a Wacom Bamboo Pen/Touch tablet:

http://www.wacom.com/en/Products/Bam...nandTouch.aspx

Mine came with software for PhotoShop Elements software and cost less than $100. I haven't used the "touch" feature, but absolutely love the pen function!!!

Try it! You will like it!! :wink:

[Beth A.]

All great ideas!

Keep 'em coming!

BethMI

[Beth A.]

Margo, thanks so much for the explanation. Will play with that some. Sandi

[Beth A.]

You can also resize photo files in this program, or just use the slider tool at the bottom right of the screen if you need to maintain a large file size but just want to work on a smaller scale. You can also "crop" a photo so that you eliminate unnecessary stuff!!

Margo, I cannot find this slider tool thingy on the bottom right of my screen in Paint, could this be an agism thing as I am working on Windows xp 2003. If it is, it is a total nusiance because it sounds like just the button I could really get some use out of

[Margo C.]

Sorry I can't offer more help, Rosemary. I'm using Windows 7 and it shows up on the bottom right of my screen. :?

The scaling tool is below the red arrow:

[Margo C.]

Yep - as I thought it is a 'Windows ageism' thing, my system is too old and simple for a neat button like that :?

By the way, how do you manage to take a 'photo' of the whole page?

[Margo C.]

This may be another "ageism" thing. My PC laptop has a button called "PRTSC" which means PRINT SCREEN.
When I push that button, it places everything showing on my screen onto my "clipboard" and I can "paste" it into a design program (like MS Paint or PhotoShop Elements) and work with it....like adding the arrow, or text!!

However, I've just learned about a feature that my computer has that I wasn't aware of called "Snipping Tool". It's under "Accessories" and basically it allows you to just crop and snip out a part of anything on the screen and save it! I have a feeling I'll put that little tool to some good use!

Like this!