Quilting the BOM?

[Lynn K.]

Has anyone out there decided on how they might quilt this one?

I was just looking at it and thinking I might like to begin and do it 'quilt as you go' as in Georgia Bonesteel, and thinking, hmmmmm. Now what would look good.

Course my old standby is 'cross-hatching' and Alex Anderson as she often does that in the background of blocks. Then of course there is 'echo' but it is a bit too busy for that I think.

Any other ideas?

I actually haven't even determined my sashing fabric yet! ha

Lynn in Houston and thankful for the rain brought by Dolly!

[Donna N.]

I have thought a little about the quilting on these blocks and it's not going to be easy to decide. Cross-hatch and close stippling or other close filler have come to mind. I'll be really interested to hear the other suggestions that come out of this forum discussion.

[Donna N.]

Well, believe it or not, I am all ears on how to quilt this quilt! The first one I made, I let a friend quilt for me. She did large stippling in the background behind the applique, and then did a beautiful feathered vine in the outer white border. I have made the blocks for a second quilt , and will be quilting it myself. Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment - my quilt is committed to be in two places at once, so I decided to just make another quilt. I am leaning toward echoing or cross-hatching the second quilt, as you all have mentioned -- but I'm still trying to figure out if cross-hatching across those big background stars will look good... or should I just do the cross-hatching outside of the background stars? Sigh... decisions, decisions!

Sue Garman

[Judy M.]

I'm thinking about cross-hatching, too. Sue, I will probably cross-hatch outside of the stars. I think I'm going to try to find a design that might look good on the points of the large stars. Lynn, I like the "quilt as you go" idea. Judy in Torrance

[Judy M.]

Okay, I am NOT really an overachiever--really I'm not! I have already quilted Jan-July on my machine appliqued blocks. Here is my thinking--if I am going to get both quilts done before next fall--I have to start now. Since the black background one is all done on machine, I decided that machine quilting would be perfect. I have gone around each piece, close to the piece with either clear or black thread. Then I have done a cross-hatch (diagonally) behind everything (I did not go over the applique pieces). I may do the same on the other but it will be done by hand.

[Patti P.]

I've been collecting pictures of quilting designs I like. I am needle turning and now I've seen someone who quilted lines on leaves and flowers on their applique that I love. I've never done that on my applique so I'm thinking of doing that. And then I saw a teardrop shape that had 2-3 echos as background quilting on an applique quilt. The teardrops molded around the applique in different sizes and was really beautiful. It was on this blog which I probably got from somewhere on this site so Esther if you are a TQS member, I hope you don't mind me sharing this.

http://estheraliu.blogspot.com/2008/...ics.html#links

[Judith T.]

I really like the way Esther did her quilting using the teardrop echoing. Judy in AZ

[Sandy F.]

I'm known for just doing grid quilting so on one hand I want to step out of the box but on the other, I think the blocks would look fantastic quilted in a grid but I also want to do some quilting Love the way Esther did hers.

[Lynn K.]

Esther's whole blog is worth spending some time reading. And her quilting is magnificent. Looks like a little McTavishing going on there, doesn't it?
Lynn

[Lynn K.]

She has some beatufiul work. Thanks for positng. I am always very interested in quilting. Diane Gaudynski has something similar that she calls bouncing banannas http://www.dianegaudynski.net/workshops.htm[/url]

[Lynn K.]

I think I may cross-hatch. There's so much going on in every block that I think cross-hatch would be the best...but by the time I get to that point I may completely change my mind. The two web sites that were given showed some fantastic quilting!

Nancy in NC

[Lynn K.]

I have a question about doing crosshatch quilting on a long/mid arm machine. How do you go about this on an applique quilt? I get the measuring and layout/marking part, what I want to know is I quilt along in a straight line up to the edge of the applique (which I do not want to quilt on top of), what do I do next? Carrying the thread over the applique and start quilting on the other side? Quilt up to the applique and then quilt beside the applique to the place where the next adjacent line of quilting is and do the next crosshatch line?? Some other unknown technique? Need your input please. Sally in thundering NE Ohio

[Lynn K.]

I like the McTavishing idea! Diane Gaudyski's work is beautiful, too. I can only aspire to either, but . . . I like the idea of "doodling" in the leaves, the flower petals, and even inside the berries with circular, fluid motions. Maybe the leaves can have stems sewn in, etc.

The background will be some sort of dense quilting. I'll probably resort to my old favorite, the stipple. I have tried bouncing bananas, and I didn't have much luck thus far.

I would love to take a longarm class & rent some longarm time after we move to NY, anyone know any shops that offer that service near Owego, NY? I have quilted thus far on my domestic machine, an 8-year old Bernina, and she's doing her best but not keeping up.

Kathy

[Judy M.]

Sally, you "jump" over the applique to the next quilting area. Pat Sloan has a video of this technique on her website. I will probably hand quilt my top if it isn't too hard to quilt through the batik fabrics. I've quilted on leaves by hand before and it always adds a little more to the block. I'm not experienced enough at machine quilting and I'm afraid I'll ruin my blocks. Too much work has gone into them for that!!!

[Lorna B.]

I have really enjoyed the two links to look at ideas. I recognized Diane Gaudynski's Echo Feathers from the Jan/Feb 07 Quiltmaker. Last year after the Houston show I decided I wanted to learn to quilt feathers. I went back through my magazines and found this article and a few others and gave it a try....I need a lot more practice. For this project, I would like the quick results of machine quilting (as compared to the needleturn method I am using) but I am not sure my machine quilting will do it justice. Lorna