Originally Posted by
tymia
Did you draw on the material first? Otherwise how in the world did you do this?
Actually I do very little drawing on my fabrics. On this one, I marked generally where the spine was to be, marked the rectangle around the feather area, and marked the center lines of the borders so I'd have some reference points to work from.
However, I do practice my design on paper until I am happy with it. It usually takes me at least a half a dozen times (sometimes a lot more) to work out how I want to stitch it and get comfortable with it. Then I do a small test piece on scrap to be sure my thread choice and my tension look OK. If my design is complex or feels 'unfamiliar', I may even stitch out at least part of the design to test it and to get the motion of the design down. After all that, I'm ready to start stitching on my actual quilt.
When I was in the early stages of learning, I bought some DVD's from Sharon Schamber where she talks about and demonstrates her quilting. Even she (who has won Best of Show at Houston several times) says she draws designs on paper first, does some marking, and does practice pieces before she stitches on her quilts! I figure it this process works for her, it is certainly good enough for me. The time I spend doing this kind of preparation helps me to do better, more consistent work.