I'm finally getting the courage to break out of stippling everything :) My question is how do you determine what type of quilting to use - for example, I have a feathered star and a Pineapple quilt tops completed but am stuck as to how to quilt them. I've been looking through old magazines at the pictures for inspiration...any other ideas?

I find that I enjoy the piecing process more than the quilting...but want to get going actually completing something :wink:

You might get ideas at theses websites:

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/
http://www.patsythompsondesigns.com/
http://quiltingstencils.com/

Also, Connecting Threads has a nice selection of books on quilting designs, usually on sale, too.

Good luck and be sure to post photos of your creations!
Karen

If your love is creating quilt tops, you might consider sending your tops out to be machine quilted. That's what a lot of quilters do now so they can continue to make more quilts.

I run a machine quilting business - "JuneBug Quilting" and would be more than happy to quote you some prices. Or you may know someone in your area.

In general, a machine quilter will either use a "Panto" design, or "custom" quilt a unique design of your choice, or theirs. There are so many choices, but in my experience (30+ years of quilting), the simpler the design, the more beautiful the result.

If you're looking to hand quilt, there are tons of books out there with quilt designs. Echo quilting - 1/4 " from the edge - is always beautiful.
Let me know if I can help any further. Good luck.

I FMQ'd my second time using hearts with a little curly-q between each one. For some reason it worked out really well for me. I purposely made each heart a different size and shape and it turned out so cute!

Thanks so much for the help and the links! Love this forum!