How would you quilt this?
 

This is the quilt top I'm getting for Christmas. It's one big cloth with applique. I am not used to marking my own quilts. I only own 2 stencils, and I don't think either would fit this style! However, I can't figure if I want to just quilt around the applique and do a cross-hatch or do something more dramatic in all that white space? I've always played it safe (because I'm usually working with customer's quilts) and love the fact that there's no seams to worry with and that there's all that "canvas" to show off on!

If I decide to cross-hatch, I'll probably machine quilt it. I am not good enough with the machine to do anymore than a straight line! However, if I do anything more than a straight line, I'll hand-quilt it.

I would for sure quilt around applique - can you maybe do some king of floral design or a leaf pattern I dont think I would do alot just because it may take away from your pretty applique cant wait to see finished project great so far!!!

Wow that looks like a fun quilt! I would quilt free flowing feathers, cross hatching would look nice too! But do what you feel comfortable doing. I agree wtih emsgranny to quilt around the applique and maybe echo more, since there is a lot of open space.

I would quilt round the applique and then using simple leaf and flower shapes cut out from card or plastic, quilt round them in a random fashion on the white areas. Good luck.

IMO, that one cries out to be hand quilted.

I personally would treat the open spaces as if it was a whole cloth and utilize those to do some fancy, but not "heavy" quilting. Something more than cross-hatch, but less than an entire whole cloth. It looks like the smaller flowers are set in a circular pattern around the large center flowers ... so perhaps a large feathered wreath that covers a lot of the space in between. Outline all the florals, then fill in with cross-hatch.

Cross hatching by machine is harder than you think. You either have to do all the lines going in one direction and then change directions or flip the quilt around, not fun! It does look like a excellent quilt to hand quilt on. I'd stitch around the applique center first. I'd stitch around the small flower outline and maybe quilt in a swag design to connect the small flower bunches into a circle/oval design. Then I'ds either do a larger crosshatch in between the center and small flowers or work out a large feather design in that area. You might want to look at some whole cloth designs to sparks some ideas. Good luck, it's going to be a beauty!

That's a beautiful quilt. Take a look at the quilting done on some of these: http://amishcountrylanes.com
(Be prepared to spend a lot of time oohing and aahing!)