A friend of mine brought over this fabric that she is making a bed cover out of. She wants me to quilt it, and I started by quilting straight lines down and across to separate the blocks on this pattern. But there is approx. 12 " blocks in the design, and I need to figure out what to put in the middle of each. Any suggestions? Has to be something simple - I am doing the fmq with a Sapphire 850. She has had this fabric for about 8 years, started several years ago, and now has brought it to me to do some quilting on it.

Follow some of the designs in the blocks? It would look pretty on the back too :D:D:D

Oooops.... I just looked again... Is that a crazy quilt? At first glance I thought it was the fabric... I take back what I just wrote... I don't have a clue of a suggestion for you :oops:

Maybe tie it in the blocks with a pretty ribbon. That is a tough one!

I guess this fabric could be considered "cheater" fabric. You know, with the design printed on that looks like it was pieced.

Wow I would have thought all that lace was sewn on. Very pretty but I am no help!

First question, what kind of batting? Second, can you just out line certain motifs, like that beautiful bird, say in a 1/8th inch echo. Depending on the batting, it could be enough,Usually the package tells you how close you have to quilt it. lot of battings have scrims and can be quilted farther apart. It sure is a beautiful quilt.

It is Warm & Natural batting, bought by the yard at JoAnn's. She works there. The designs remind me of handkerchiefs, doilies, and those embroidered dresser scarves from back in the 50s-60s. The backing is a solid pink fabric. So, of course, whatever I do, will show up in the back. I am just trying to make it as simple as I can as I am not perfect at fmq. Did several things, but nothing like what a longarm would do. I know she would be happy with anything I do for her. Just cannot seem to make up my mind on what to do.

That is really pretty fabric.

The fabric is beautiful. Good luck on your decision./Regards, Dorothy

I would sure love to have that fabric!! How about a fan design? Could use an open fan on the larger blocks, and smaller 'semi-closed fans on smaller ones. Fans could have tassels????

The fans sound pretty good. Simple, but big enough to fit in the squares. Half fans in the smaller squares. Pretty good. I am going to hold onto this idea, too.

very pretty, thanks for sharing!

I don't have any idea how to go about quilting this, but I have the same fabric. I bought it at Hobby Lobby's several years ago!! I haven't decided what to do with it yet.

Boy that's a tuffy!! What about outlining the butterfly and then do the cross-hatching below. I would try to do outline quilting of the more prominent designs and see how much area it covers. With W&N I believe its 10" between quilting.

Cheater fabric or not, that is really COOL! I know what ever you do on it will be pretty!

Quilt around the larger squares. But, use french knots to tie the rest of the quilt. Most crazy quilts were tied.

Beautiful quilt and I have no idea how to quilt it. It will still be beautiful, however you quilt it.

kat,
What if you chose a color... say
pink since the back is pink... and
fmq on all the pink in the quilt?
On the pink rick rack lines, around
the pink flowers, stipple on all the
solid pink areas, etc. There looks
to be enough pink that the quilting
would be evenly spaced over the
surface of the quilt and then the
design would look nice on the back also.
I don't know how difficult that would be,
but it's an idea.

I agree with sewcrafty, outline what you can as you would with applique, then cross hatches or fanning lines to the corners. I love the fabric.

Ok, Ladies, thanks so much for the input. I knew I could count on you all for ideas. I have some scrap fabric of this print and I will practice on it to see how it comes out. If it doesn't look too challenging, then I will go for it and post the final product when I am done! Thanks so much. I am not a perfect FMQer but I sure enjoy doing it. So what the heck!

Well, here is what I did with this "cheater". I only had to quilt it, my friend is going to bind it herself. She picked it up yesterday and was quite pleased. I suggested she tie each square center since crazy quilts were originally tied. But I did the quilting and if you see on the back, it came out pretty good. I feel good about it and she really likes it! PHEW!!!!

I would never have guessed it wasn't actually pieced!.Try to have fun with it....I am sure you will come up with something that fits the design!! :D