Need advice on how to outline picture in panel
 

My sister gave me this wonderful panel, and I have decided to leave it in one piece and quilt around the cats and such.

The problem is that I have never done this. I will practice first and all, but is there a secret? Do I leave the feed dogs up? What foot do I use? Do I just sew like normal, feed dog up and regular foot, and sew really slowly?

I really don't know, and my sister is not in town to ask.

I hope it is simple enough that I can do it. I have been quilting 3 years, but mainly SID.

Any advice? Thanks. I'll include a picture.

Dina

Oh, my word! I love that panel! Does it have a name on the selvage edge? It would be perfect for my DGD. If I were quilting it, I would just outline the cats, flowers, etc. but I'm sure others will tell you to FMQ it.

Yes, I would love to know a name of the panel too - it's adorable.
I just did my first FMQ on a panel quilt. It wasn't fabulous, but not too bad either. It's scarier than it seems.
In my limited experience: If you FMQ, you will need a darning foot and your feed dogs go down. If you are going to outline, use a regular foot (or walking foot) and leave the dogs up. :)

if you use the regular foot or walking foot, there will be LOTS of turning of the quilt under the arm. do to my limited skills in sit down fmq, this is how i do it, though. if you use the darning/fmq foot, there's not so much turning, but you have to keep your stitches even with the movement of the fabric. IMO neither is an easy task. i love your panel and good luck in whichever way you go.

I've tried quilting around shapes using a hopping foot and the feed dogs down, but it required a lot of concentration and the stitches were definitely not as I would have liked - some were long, some were short. Since the cats are large and they have long straight edges, I would definitely use a regular foot with the feed dogs up and just sew slowly while turning the quilt when necessary.

I love detailing panels. I use the hopping/darning foot and go at it like any other free motion quilting. You get your own speed/rythym going & it gets easier with the doing. Have fun with it. Embellish it. Enjoy!!

I'm not much help, I do FMQ in a large stipple, I think it is appropriate for all quilts. Just me.

1st L-O-V-E the panel....
Have you considered handquilting? It's not too big to feel like an overwhelming project.

Okay, thanks for the words of wisdom. I will experiment before I sew on my panel, but it sounds like several ways may work. My walking foot is built into my machine, so I can use a different foot. I have never done any FMQ, so will probably go with my regular foot and feed dogs up.

Let me look at the edge of the panel. It says A Cat for All Seasons, Cheryl Haynes of Prairie Grove Peddler for Benartex. I saw this pane in a small quilting catalogue (at the dentist office, of all places), so I know it must be available. My sister bought it for me while she was in New York last month, and the catalogue was a recent one. Here is the website from the edge www.Benartex

Dina

Better make that www.Benartex.com

found the panel at benartex, but can't seem to find a store near me that carried it, at least thru their store locator search.......boo-hoo.......how else can I find it????any ideas

I just googled A Cat For All Seasons panel and found it several places. Here is one.

http://www.quiltsandquilts.com/brows...el/4,4832.html

Dina

It's at many on line stores. Just google "A Cat For All Seasons".

Well I agree this is a wonderful panel to receive!!! Me personally I would hand quilt with some "echo stitching", and thus foregoing the sewing machine. You would have more control and manuveriblity (sp.?) that way. I think with a nice thin "Warm & Natural" batting with a plain muslin back would make it a wonderful wallhanging. A couple of ideas that might put in it the "pro" column is:

1.) If hand quilting, you can take with you to appointments to work on as you wait.

2.) Handquilting is portable. I do lots of hand stitiching in the van as most everything is close to an hour away from me. Helped me finish 8 UFO's that way and hand piece some pre-cut tulips together for an queen size applique quilt.

3.) It will keep your lap warm during the winter as you work on it.

4.) You can work on it while watching Tv in the evenings. You would be surprised how much you can get done as you "listen" to the Tv and spending time with the family as you can take it to the room where everyone hangs out together.

5.) You get the extra satisfaction of doing it by hand. Hand Quilting is another skill to add to your "treasure chest" of "preservation" of an art form that is not seen as much as most like to long arm or machine sew their quilts. It won't matter how many stitches you start with in an inch just that they be close to even in length.

Well those are my thoughts.... hope they help you in your decision making.

Tricia

Thanks again for the suggestions. I have never hand quilted. Not sure I am ready to try. Got to think about that. I had planned on stitching around the frames already. I know I can do that. I am not quite ready to experiment, but I am getting closer. I have about two more hours of work on the binding of my current quilt, then I will have to make some decisions. I may even wait until my sister gets back in town. She has been quilting for 15 years....I have only been quilting for about three. :)

Dina

Here's what I would do, I think. I'd outline stitch all the straight border/sashing looking parts and any other shapes that have enough long straight lines, and there's a lot of them. The other shapes you'll have to do with the darning foot. Feed dogs up will allow you more control when you do this and you can do it with practice. Then, I'd do a small stipple in the negative space around each motif which will make the cats and flower pots and flowers really pop. Good luck with it. Looks like a really fun project.

This would be my choice too.

I would use basting spray on this one.

I have done a lot of panels and this on does not look to complicated. If you can slow your machine motor down it will work easily, if not you can practice going slow on some scrap first. Draw some gentle curves on some fabric and practice following them keeping the machine running slow. On some projects I even take one stitch at a time.

You will have to turn your quilt alot just take time and don't rush it. Be sure to have the needle down when turning corners or sharper angles.

One thing to make this an easier project is to not even try to outline every little thing on the quilt. Stick to the major parts that you want to high light. All those small leaves in the bowl of flowers don't need to be quilted, or those small white flowers or the bee. All the other parts look very do-able.


Take your time and have fun with it. It is a cool cat panel. I would like to do this one myself!
peace

I no longer drop my feed dogs when I quilt on my domestic machine. Instead I loosen the pressure on the pressure foot so the material will move easily underneath the needle. I go very slow and it seems to work well for outlining. By not dropping the feed dogs, I have stitch regulation.

Question: What thread color would everyone use? varigated? shade of gray? change thread colors for various sections?

Go to website called quiltshops.com and type in A cat for all seasons in search area. Brings up quiltshops that have the panel.

I agree that FMQing around the cats and flowers and then straight stitching the lines with a walking foot is the way to go. I have done several panels this way. One is the header for my blog right now.

judee

You can get the panel and coordinating fabrics from this site:
http://www.ericas.com/fabric/acatforallseasons.htm

Since it is so small, I would hand quilt it. That way you have total control of where your needle goes. The panel is so cute, I would want to hand quilt it.

Thank you sew much for finding the name of the panel for us. I just ordered the panel from Erica's. It's only $6.75 plus $3.15 for shipping first class mail.

http://www.ericas.com/fabric/acatforallseasons.htm

Ditto!.I've done many, many panels as ArtsyOne suggests and had great results. The key is to have the back and the batting really smooth and pinned down. froggyintexas

For thread, perhaps black around the cats and the bowl if it's black and then maybe a variegated orange thread around the orange objects including the rectangular panels. Just my opinion. I'm a variegated thread gal when quilting both front and back usually so get other opinions or strike out on your own.
Chris

Again, thanks for all the help. I am going to practice with my feed dogs up and a regular foot and see how that feels. I need to figure out what fabric I want to use for the back, but think I better practice first on something that doesn't matter :)

Dina

I think if I were quilting that panel, I would do the 1/4" outline or SID of each seperate section, square or rectangular and skip trying to detail the cats and flowers. If your batting requires closer quilting, then I'd pick one or two items in each frame to outline, rather than trying to do everything. It's a great panel!!!

cute panel--good luck!

What kind of machine do you have? Some machines have a walking foot, which might work, but there are a lot of curves. The curves mean you probably want to have the feed dogs down and do FMQ as a simple echo quilting around each curved area and a straight line quilting for the straight edges.

I agree with HillCountryGal - the quilt is gorgeous and I too would hand quilt it.

I sew on a Pfaff, which does have a walking foot. Whatever I end up doing, I certainly plan to practice first. I don't want to end up messing this up.

Dina