How do you choose?
 

How do you decide how you're going to quilt something? I took my quilt top to the store and tried all kinds of stencils on it and nothing was "right". I have looked at oodles of quilts similar to it for inspiration, but nothing is quite doing it for me. Is there a program out there that shows how your quilt will look with quilted designs on it? Do you print a picture and doodle on it?

I've been trying to figure out this very thing. I love your idea of printing out a picture and doodling a design on it....what a cool idea! :thumbup:

Curious myself, will follow this thread.

For me I let the quilt speak to me......I know this sounds strange but I look at many places such as magazines, on here, books and website for how others have quilted their quilts and in the end I study the quilt and the fabrics used and if its a customer quilt get the story behind it (who its for, what inspired the making and fabric choices, where its going to be used) and in the end use all of these factors into how I quilt the quilt. Also look at the designs within the fabrics used many times these are great ways to quilt and add to the quilt and not take away from it. I hope this helps as its kind of hard to explain at times how I come up with designs or once I start a project the next idea just comes to me.

I like to browse thru photos of quilts that my favorite quilters have done (Charisma and Green Fairy come to mind first). I also browse online at quilting stencils. I do take photos of my quilts and with a sheet protector and dry erase markers, I doodle some designs. Often what I come up with is a modified version of something I've already seen. Once I did recently for instance, the design was a cluster of 3 leaves. I did one larger leaf, but the same basic shape as the 3. It worked well with my block and I was very pleased with the results. One thing I am learning is that the busier the fabric, the less the quilting will show (based on the thread colors I choose). I am starting to opt for simpler designs for the quilting on busier fabrics.

I have a hard time with this also. I like to look at the work of others to give me ideas.

I'm in the midst of my first quilting and ended up meandering because it's all I'm really skilled to do at this point - and I didn't have a lot of time as DH has been pushing me to complete the quilt (it's for his elderly aunt).

In "preparing" myself for this, I watched tons of youtube videos. There was one group of videos by Golden Threads where she talked about auditioning designs and the elements she looked at within the quilt to choose some. Not a lot of detail, but worth watching. She also showed how you can audition designs on your quilt - using Golden Threads paper, of course. :)

I had so many ideas and so little time. I'm disappointed because I wanted to be more creative (even using my embroidery machine to quilt the designs) but I must say, the large stipple meander looks great.

Good luck.

for customers, i use a pc of clear vinyl, lay it on the quilt top and then use a dry erase pen to draw several possibilities... it helps a lot of them SEE what they can choose or design for themselves...then when they like one or another version, wipe off the rest, do a good sized sample and then take one picture on the quilt top for placement and one against a white wall for detail. Pin pix to the quilt top while waiting... Get a good big pc...it's about 54" wide so get a yd and divide in two.. just so you have another in case one is waiting for a set of pictures.

EQ does have a layer where you can add quilting designs. Granted, I haven't figured out how to do this but I know it's there. As to how I decide...guess I'm another one that I let the quilt 'speak' to me. Or I rummage through my stencils to see what will interest me for a given quilt. I have a tendancy to pick up different stencils when at shows. I can usually also get to Lancaster, PA a few times a year and there are a few of the shops there that have wonderful selections of stencils. And I have to say when I was Albuquerque last fall (sorry - forget which) one of the LQS shops there had an amazing selection. Of course, quite a few came home with me. I may not have a fabric stash (by choice) but I do seem to be developing quite the stencil stash!

Never thought of printing a picture either. Great idea!!!