Overall quilting design for Birds in the Air

[Rita C.]

Would anybody have a suggestion for a simpleoverall pattern for this birds in the air quilt please? I am drawing a blank at the moment and wanted to get it done in the next couple of weeks if possible. Thanks.

[Renata L.]

Rita, I can't help you with a quilting design, you must know that... ops: but I have to tell you I really like your quilt top--very nice how you put your colors together. The touch of orange in the border and on the quilt top makes everything pop! Renata

[Nancy R.]

Hi Rita - What a beautiful quilt top! I love the colors!! I'll have to think about a quilting design. I'll let you know if I come up with something, although I'm sure someone else will beat me with the good ideas.

Nancy

[Nancy R.]

Rita, how about swirls? They resemble air and are not too hard to quilt. Let me know if you need a pic...

[Lois B.]

Rita, I love the quilt top. What comes to mind when Michele says swirls are the spirals on the rocks in Carole Moeler's slide show. The quilt top's colors and contrasts are lovely and striking.

[Lois B.]

[color=#FF0000]I would be inclined to quilt an overall pattern on the diagonal--reinforcing your setting. Swirls, or something with a rounded, soft sweep to it would be nice. And, I always love feathered borders--you can modernize the feathers if you wish or use a traditional feather design. If you are good at feathers then doing them on the diagonal as an overall pattern would be nice but I'd not make them too tight--something loose and flowing would be faster, easier and look better with this setting. And, finally, I do love your use of colors in this quilt. It is a happy quilt (which is my highest praise).

[Rita C.]

Ladies, thank you for your responses and Ladylisa for your highest praise. I wasn't sure about this quilt at all as I was just using up scraps - as usual :roll: . Swirls I think I can do but Michelle I would really appreciate a photo if you have one handy so that I can be sure we are talking about the same thing. Feathers, I am really crap at and wouldn't trust myself not to completely mess up the border with them. Oh this crisis of confidence every time I have to quilt a quilt! I know I don't want to do anything symmetrical as there is enough in the quilt already. I always just slip back into meandering and I really think the time has come to move on to a new path.

[Betty J.]

Love your quilt top. I like the idea of swirls in a diagonal, but I'm not great at choosing quilt designs for traditional quilts.

[Kathryn S.]

Rita, I love your quilt!

What about parallelish wavy lines along the diagonal formed by the "birds" triangle plus the mostly black triangles, and then swirlies along the alternate diagonal? Quilts that have strong diagonals are always exciting!

Kathy

[Eileen K.]

Rita,
When someone brings me a quilt with geometric piecing like yours, I suggest some kind of curved quilting designs. Michelle has a great idea with the swirls.

[Margo C.]

I like Michelle's idea of swirls, but I haven't mastered them yet! ops:
I like the motion I get with a "Terry Twist" with a little flair, and I would just stitch in the ditch around all of the smaller triangles.

[wendy w.]

Wow Margo I would never have thought of that. Stunning quilt Rita

[Rita C.]

Wow Margo, where did you learn to do that? I wish I could. That would be so much easier than trying to figure out something on paper. Thanks for the ideas everybody and the kind comments. I think I will have to do some practice on a sandwich before I try this for real.

And Margo, how did you manage to get the photo straight on? How did you do that? Were you here while I was asleep? :lol:

[Lois B.]

Wow Margo, where did you learn to do that? I wish I could. That would be so much easier than trying to figure out something on paper. Thanks for the ideas everybody and the kind comments. I think I will have to do some practice on a sandwich before I try this for real.

And Margo, how did you manage to get the photo straight on? How did you do that? Were you here while I was asleep? :lol:

I am with Rita. I want to know how to do draw on my quilts with my computer. I think being able to do that would take some of the anxiety out of the decision making process. I am usually so eager to get started on the quilting process and then trying to decide what to quilt undermines my confidence. I'll be watching for the answer to this one.

[Margo C.]

Glad you like it! The photo was "skewed and distorted and cropped" in PhotoShop Elements. http://www.photoshop.com/products/photoshopelements
It is a fabulous tool for auditioning quilting ideas, but I've got to tell you that it is not a user-friendly program.

And I used a Bamboo Pen & Touch Tablet to draw the lines:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UigPWJT_lFk
However, it looks like this model is no longer available, and I don't know which of the newer models to suggest. :?

I have taken two on-line classes to learn how to do this. The first was to learn how PSE works and the second one was a tablet design class to use it specifically for designing quilts. I'm not sure when Carla will offer the classes again, but you can send her an email here and let her know you are interested: http://moodle.steponpins.com/

Rita, this design is really easy to stitch once you get the rhythm! You can do this.