How about a simple daisy flower.

How much detail do you want to quilt. How much time do you want to take to quilt it. How special is the quilt. Do you want to make it heirloom or utility. How skilled are you at quilting. Will you hand quilt or machine quilt. There is much info needed to give useful suggestions.

She said she was hand quilting it.... In fact the title for this post is "handquilting".

Maybe diagonal lines through the brown/cream squares forming x's like you usually do, then quilt a heart in each pink square?

I really like your quilt! It's amazing how good fabric selection and layout can make even a simple pattern special. Whoever receives this will be a very lucky baby.

I agree with jennifer23 on the quilting pattern. Unless she has a dog or a cat. then you could do dogs, bones, cats mice. easy to see animals for her to learn the names to. Or do Lucky Charms.

I corrected my oversite. However I believe the other questions are valid.

I also hand quilt and I usually did the circles, etc but decided I wanted something else. Found LOTS of hand quilting stencils on quiltingcreations.com. I've found several I want to buy and will do that soon. Am sure you will find something that catches your eye on that website.

Thanks everyone for your advice, suggestions, and links. I work more than full time so it took me a few days to get back to you. I have been quilting for years...but somehow still feel like a novice. I almost always hand quilt. I have tried machine quilting but just cannot get the hang of it (other than straight lines) - plus I love the weight of the quilt in my lap while quilting.

This quilt is for a baby of a woman I babysat for thirty plus years ago. I've had a lot going on the past several years and wanted to make quilts for their babies and I just got caught up - even though their children are a few years old now. I just want them all to have something handmade by me. This baby will likely be an only child and arrived after a miscarriage...so the quilt is extra special. The baby is already two months old and I have to work in what little spare time I have. I found these stencils going through my box and think I will use them. One flower in each square and maybe the little flower stencil on the border. I will be sure to post when I am done. I will attach the stencil and the other baby quilts I just finished. Thank goodness for charm packs because I am terrible selecting colors and patterns. : )

Thanks again for all your help!!

Rachel

PS...the little quilt with the deer was machine quilted...though the binding was handstitched on. The other two quilts were hand quilted.

What do you prefer to use to mark your tops?
Thanks.

I use a blue quilting marker that I get at my LQS. I keep an old toothbrush and a little cup of water nearby and erase as I finish as each stencil that I've marked.