Please give me impetus to proceed
 

My cat quilt--applique..it's been finished for several weeks and I have been putting off quilting it because I just can't decide how to do it. I do not want to hand quilt..just finished a BIG Q size and I'm tired. Want to machine quilt if I can come up with a simple pattern or should I just SITD? And should I use blk thread or select a variegated? I would appreciate all the ideas put forth by members before I settle down to actually working on it. It's only a good size lap quilt and I started it for charity..but I love it so much and I'm a cat lover too, so I want to keep for myself. Thanks to all.

oh those are so cute. I've not seen those patterns before. You can do some straight lines in the sashings but perhaps some echo quilting around the kitties. what ever your batting says for distance apart. love your quilt!!

This quilt is adorable! How about a meander in black thread on the background so the kitties stand out? You could echo quilt around them? Whatever you do,it's an outstanding quilt.

What a cute quilt! I definitely wouldn't quilt over the kitties. They do need to stand out. I love the idea of straight lines in the sashing and if you didn't want to echo quilt, a simple criss cross would look good.

You guys are making it sound so easy! Thx a lot. The pattern was free from http://www.syverkstan.net/catbom.htm a while back and there are crazy dogs also. It is raw edge, and I used clear thread and applique stitch on the machine. It is all fused down also before stitching. I had fun creating all the cat bodies, but the legs took some imagination. Some are ribbon, bias tape, and fancy stitched. I can't wait to toss it over a chair (and have my big ole tabby make a bed on that black! haha). OH, I cheated a bit and made the cat faces with my embroidery machine.

Oh, I just love your quilt. I am a kitty fan. I agree with Tartan on the quilting.

Wonderful, wonderful quilt!!!

I think what I would do is use my walking foot to outline stitch around each cat. It would be a slow process around the curves since you have to stop every few stitches to lift the presser foot to readjust the position, but it can be done. I like the walking foot because it keeps the stitches an even length for me.

I personally don't do SITD anymore because it wrecks my nerves and I am never happy with the result because every little deviation shows up. For this quilt, I would consider using a zigzag stitch to make straight lines over all the sashing seams (that is, go from one side to the other doing the zigzag over the seam).

My next step would be to do a medium meander on the black around each cat. I also might do a medium meander inside the sashings. However, instead of that, I might use the walking foot again to make rows of gently waving straight lines from side-to-side and top-to-bottom through the sashings. This would create cross-hatching in the cornerstones, which would be nice. As usual, I am having trouble finding a good photo online of what I mean. If you want, though, I will look more later and see if I can find a good example of the wavy lines. It's easy to do them with a walking foot, and they are not meant to be perfectly parallel; each line can wave a little differently. This means there are no slight deviations to catch the eye.

My preference would probably be for a colorful variegated thread throughout.

The cats are so cute. Remember, done is better than perfect. So, just go ahead ad do it.

Too cute cats!!!! And I love Prism's ideas for quilting.