coffeebreak

I need some advise. I am making a quilt for my 12 yo gd for christmas. SHe loves Orca Whales so this has to be perfect...okay, at least pretty darn good!

The back is 12 shades of blue/greens/teals/white (solids and prints) for a look of ocean water and in the bargello style pattern trying to mimic waves; which didn't come ou t that great in that respect but stille really pretty in the color area. She already saw this part and said she thought it was really cool!

The front is a panel with the scene of Orca whales in the ocean..2 under the water with coral etc, and 3 jumping out of the water. Then it is framed with about a 1 inch border of tiny whales in lt/dk blue..then a larger border about 4 inches of dark blue and then I added a royal blue (matching the blue in the panel) all around the sides to make it big enough to match the front piece. And she has seen the Orca panel and loves that too.

Now I have it all assembled and ready for the top stitching FMQ. I do meandering and will be doing about 2 inches between the stitches as I want a soft, cuddly quilt...not one that is stiff and hard and won't even fold around her legs when she wraps up in it.

I want to make the whale stand out as much as possible ...if possible. I was thinking to outline each of the whales and the coral...basically the whole ocean panel...and then meandering everything else..all the dark borders and the extra I added to make the back big as the front. If I do this...I can see it'd look good on the whale side..but...how would it look on the bargello sides? in the center would be visalbe hte stitching of the outline of the whales, and the meandering elsewhere. Would the outline of the whales on the bargello look silly or like I missed some meandering in the center? If I meander all over...that'd look good on the bargello side, but it'd I guess be ok on the whale side, but I was hoping to make the whales stand out a bit...as she loves Orcas so much.

Any suggestions, comments or likes on how to do the top stitching...what and where? Or any thoughts, comments or suggestions as to how to make sure I get a soft cuddly, wrappable finished quilt? I have 100% poly batting...I think it is 8oz weight..not that really thin thick style. I heard that was better for softness...in addition to the wide meandering.

I have a pic of the panel here..but haven't got a battery for camera so I can't show the bargello side. Thanks so much for any help anyone can offer!