molly oldham

I'm making a quilt that has very plain 6inch off white blocks. Since my fmq is not good, I want to embellish it to spruce it up. Any ideas are appreciated.

Tartan

Appliqué or a couched design with specialty string/wool might work.

bjchad

How about appliquéing fall leaves, one to a block.

Bree123

Can you embroider it or take it to be embroidered?
I also saw these really cool iron-on color transfer sheets. You can cut them out in any shape you like, iron them on & the shape & color transfers over to the fabric. http://www.designdye.com/

You might also try some trapplique. Yes, it does involve a bit of FMQ, but imho, it's much easier than trying to FMQ the entire quilt.

ManiacQuilter2

Applique something in each block with any design coordinating with your fabric.

winia

If your sewing machine has decorative stitches, in a wavy line up and down the quilt use one of them. Maybe even use several of them. A wavy line is reasonably easy to do.

bearisgray

Sometimes "plain and simple" is perfectly wonderful and/or appropriate!

Quilter 65

I saw one from Charismah that was from a while ago. She had done the very same thing and then used earth-toned Dresdens, a few scattered here and there, and they weren't all the same size or alike in design. Very pretty and effective!

ptquilts

how about fabric paint? I had fun one fall using autumn leaves and paint to stamp fabric. Mix the colors of paint right on the leaf.

Becky Crafts

Appliques are nice & give you about any theme you want for it. I'm getting better, but started my FMQ with meandering because it just looked like puzzle pieces to me. I sometime find a design I like, print it out the size I want for the space & either tape the copies together and pin to quilt after which I just sew right over the lines on the paper, making sure to remove the pins as I go. After a while, you can do that design without papers I find. :-) At least it gives you options...