Background quilting ideas needed!
 

Good Morning everybody! My son is getting married in December and I am making them a queen size quit as a gift. The fabric I chose is a new fabric called, "Ancestral Antique" in the pinks. I've decided to do a pinwheel pattern. I have a beautiful stencil for the border, but I'm at a total loss as to how to quilt the pinwheel blocks. I've thought about simply outline quilting each block, but I'd love to hear your suggestions! By the way, I'm a hand quilter. Thanks so much for your suggestions!

i'd be tempted to use a cross-hatch surrounding the pinwheels to help them stand out

Depending on the size of your pinwheels and how detailed you want to get, I'd probably try to do a small design in each pinwheel...a small heart maybe??? I did a pinwheel quilt for my young niece last year but had a directive of 'no hearts Aunt Kim!' so I was kind of stuck! And the pinwheels on hers were kind of small. I think I just did an outline stitch on hers. Do you have any single elements in some of your stencils that might work? I have a NY Beauty that I'm having a dickens of a time trying to figure out how to quilt. Have to take my own advice here and look at my stencils with a fresh eye and look at some of the individual elements in them....hmmm.

Nan, I have attached a link to the quilt I'm making. Obviously, I'm making it much bigger! I will be using white material just as shown. I like your idea of cross hatching, but where would you put it?

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/03/...quilt.html?m=1

Thanks for your help!

I love crosshatching on white fabrics and especially vintage looking quilts. I would probably crosshatch the borders and stitch triangles in each of the pinwheels, both the print fabrics and the white fabrics.