How do you decide what sections of a quilt should be background quilted and what should be quilted with a certain motif? How do you decide if it is to much or not enough.
I have seen some quilts on here that the quilting seems to be minimal and other that seem to be every square inch covered in quilting. I'm confused. Is there a general rule of thumb on deteriming quilting? Did these questions even make sence? Thanks for the help in advance.

Usually (remember, there are no rules!) we want the density of the quilting to be consistent. But, if you have areas you want to pop, you quilt heavily in the background to make motifs stand up. Every quilt is different.

Your questions made sense, but my answer probably won't help. It's entirely up to you! Some people enjoy quilting, some people don't.

My preference is to quilt rather densely, even by hand. I use backgrounds that I feel will compliment the main design without overwhelming it, but will still allow me to finish the quilt in my lifetime. I also choose solid fabrics, or nearly solid fabrics, so the quilting will show up.

The only rule of thumb is that the quilting should be dense enough for the batting you're using...in other words, if the batting package says there should be a quilting line every 2 inches, then you know you have to do at least that much quilting.

Janet

For me it depends on which areas I want to really stand out, and which I want to kind of sink in the background.

your batting choice needs to be part of the quilting decision- some batts allow up to 10" between quilting lines- so a large- easy going all over design is going to work well-some batts need to be quilted every 2"...which is quite dense-so a fairly dense quilt design would be appropriate.
some people really like to highlight the quilting- others just want enough to hold it together. each quilt is different and deserves it's own finishing appropriate for it-individually- the batting choice should be made by how you want to quilt it...there are so many different batts to choose from- with all different quilting requirements- and all different lofts- some very thin- 1/8" others 1" thick.
flat batts (like warm and natural) do not show the quilting as much as a lofty wool batt.

It's also very often dictated by price! I think most people send their quilts out to be longarmed... and what you can afford often decides how dense the quilting is.

You have received some very good advice on how to determine how densely a quilt should be quilted. That, and what you like should determine how your top is quilted.

In all honesty I never even looked at the batting bags enough to know that some have recomendations on how far to seperate you quilting. That is really good to know and I will have to go and take a look at the batting I have when I decide what i'm going to be using it on. Thanks for the tip.

I agree on it being a preference. As long as the quilting is balanced, heavily or more sparse, it is up to you :D:D:D

I agree with everyone's posts so far and wanted to add that the denser you quilt the stiffer the finished product, so if you want something soft and cuddly, you may want to quilt farther apart.