You can lay a piece of clear vinyl over areas of your quilt top (make sure there are no holes in the vinyl, and stick blue painter's tape all around the edges first) and use dry erase markers on it to "try out" different quilting ideas. (The painter's tape prevents you from accidently marking beyond the clear vinyl onto the quilt top.) Whoops! I guess we were posting at the same time. Great minds think alike... lol!
I also recommend the book "Quilting Makes the Quilt". It is an awesome book! Such a remarkable accomplishment! Lee Cleland made 12 different quilts in that book, and made each one
5 times! (That's
sixty quilts!!
) Each quilt is quilted differently from the others like it, and it is really impressive to see how the quilting can affect the overall look of each identical quilt.