ruby2shoes

I had a similar quandary with a quilt I made. I wanted the centre motifs of dark batiks to be the focus of the quilt and had quite a large area of negative space around it. Like you, I didn't want to detract the eye from the focus point but wanted to be sure I had adequate quilting in the negative space. I decided to quilt the entire quilt in a close spiral approximately 3/4" between lines. The closer the spiral lines, the less they "stand out" at a distance...they tend to blend into the background. I used several different coloured threads so that I could match the areas I was quilting through. I think I achieved the look I wanted......the centre motifs "stand out" and the spiral quilting adds texture, interest and stability without competing with the motifs. Doing a continuous spiral on a quilt 70" x 70" is an awkward process at the beginning but once you start to move outwards it does become easier. One thing I didn't consider is that with the close quilting I was adding quite a bit of weight to the quilt so manouvering and turning the quilt took some effort at times. I quilted it on my Juki TL2010Q. I hope this helps you come to a decision, your quilt is lovely.