Originally Posted by SueSew
I think that most people in this posting have remarked on heavy quilting rather than the feather pattern in particular. What technical choices can we make in quilting which increase the enhancement?
I saw a couple posts about choice of batting and threads. How about more thought on how to choose an appropriate design? We can't just stop this discussion at 'personal choice'. There must be some design principle informing the choices.
What do you quilting pros think?
I'm not a pro and perhaps we should start a new thread about 'reading' a top but I just wanted to add my thoughts to this. (Sorry to edit you, BTW, hope you don't mind!) In an ideal world, the quilting pattern will be designed at the piecing stage, particularly in an original design. It shouldn't be an 'afterthought', it shouldn't detract from the piecing it should enhance it, whatever it is. Also, how I plan to quilt can affect how I piece, for eg how I press my seams. I may even piece a top a certain way to specifically fit a quilting pattern I want to try. Quilting and piecing are the two elements that create a quilt, art or bed and are of equal importance. Someone posted earlier that quilting is to bind the 3 layers together - the earliest quilt in 'captivity' (the Tristan Quilt, 1300s) is a decorated wholecloth so this is not true - quilting was always a decorative element in it's own right - and feathers are NOT new! I've been googling some to find a timeline but not been successful. I'll persist however and share if I find more about their history.
Anyway, about 'reading' a quilt top - I wanted to recommend this book - Machine Quilting Solutions by Christine Maraccini. Using several quilt patterns as examples she shows 3 different ways to quilt them - light, medium and heavy. It is an excellent book for teaching how to look at a quilt in terms of designing complementary quilting and also in how different densities of quilting decorate the tops.
And a final word (for now!) and I'm sorry, I'm going to shout - DENSE QUILTING DOES NOT MAKE A QUILT STIFF IF DONE CORRECTLY AND USING THE RIGHT BATTING. If you don't like it, fair enough.
:? :lol: