Originally Posted by
PaperPrincess
You have a fabulous quilt for a newbie!
Yes, when you go around an applique, that's echo quilting. You can echo as many times as you want.
If you're pretty sure about the batting info (2 to 4) then I would make the assumption that 4" would make the quilt secure enough. Again, this means that you need to have a line of quilting no more than 4" apart in any direction. So take a tape measure and measure from your echo quilting to the sitd around the squares. If it's 4" or less, then that area is OK.
but it has to be 4" in ALL directions, so from the cup handle to the edge of the block might be ok (horizontal) but if you measure vertically, next to the cup, you have 10" or so with no quilting, which is not. So you need something across this area to secure it.
I would make a paper mock up of a block. Sketch the cup and steam echo stitching. Use a sharpie for this, then doodle a bit with a pencil and measure to see what the unstitched areas are. Erase and try a different idea. Your additional lines are good, and I would also try connecting the mid point of each side and connect them. that will give you a diamond, then maybe echo this.
I would do a heart inside the cups.
I agree. With the straight lines I am still left with a few open spots and I'm going to get brave and try a squiggly here and there. And small free motion squiggly or back and forth inside the cup handle should take care of it the five inch problem without having to stitch over the applique. The echo I did around the applique I found extremely hard to do and had to rip out stitches and try again a few times. Just don't want to do that again right now.
Thank you to everyone for helping me learn how to quilt. I guess if you have to ask, "have I quilted enough?" you probably haven't.