Help! Don't know what quilting pattern to use.
 

I used a sashing and rectangle pattern to piece this Star Wars quilt for my son. This is my first quilt and I don't know what quilting pattern would be best. Any suggestions? TIA.

I plan to machine quilt. This is my first quilt, so other than what I've watched on youtube, I don't have much clue on the quilting part.

Wow... for your first quilt, you did an amazing job lining up all that sashing!

An easy quilting pattern would be to make vertical wavy lines. Start in the middle and then work right and left from top to bottom of the quilt. You can use your walking foot and just curve it to make the wavy lines. I've done them about 3- 4" apart for some quick, easy quilting.

hint: With every line sewn, take a look at the back to be sure you don't have puckers or any other problems.

My theory about quilting is that if it has a lot of straight lines, then use some kind of curvy design or something that illustrates the theme of the quilt. What about upsizing some of these coloring book designs? https://www.bing.com/images/search?q...book&FORM=IGRE

You could make the quilting as 1 huge design of the favorite character. Office Depot will print the picture on up to 24x36 paper (better check this out for sure) and you can pin that paper to your quilt and sew through it. Use a small stitch and/or dampen your paper after sewing to help rip the paper off. You can do some swirlies or sun's rays or what ever you want on out to the edge of the quilt after you have done the main pattern. You don't have to do every line in the drawing in your quilting, just enough so that you can tell what it is.

Edited to add: If your quilt is much longer than the size I suggested Office depot or Staples could print, then you can split the design on 2 pages and pin them to your quilt. You will need to stabilize your top, batting and backing well. In this instance, I would probably use some type of spray glue. Then pin the pattern very well, starting your quilting sewing from the middle out.

Hi and welcome to the board! Seeing as your fabrics are so busy and the quilting won't really show no matter what you do, and this is your first I would keep it simple and not even attempt FMQ. I would do straight line quilting with a walking foot. You have several choices you can do simple vertical or horizontal lines space evenly or you could do them on the diagonal. Or you could do a simple cross hatch. Or, (this would be the option I would go with) you can do a spiral using the edge of your walking foot as a guide for the spacing. Like the one in this picture: https://www.bing.com/images/search?v...x=0&ajaxhist=0

Here is a link to one of many tutorials suggesting how to do it. https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2014...-quilting.html There are also you tubes out there too. I think the spiral would be quite fitting with the Star Wars theme and look fantastic.

You did a beautiful job on this! I like the pattern. Don't think I've seen it before.

For your first quilt, I'd use the KISS principle. Straight line quilting with a walking foot. It will look terrific … it already does!

I hope you enjoyed the process and will want to make more quilts.

A relatively easy way to do something themed might be to trace some simple Star Wars themed shapes onto freezer paper and scatter them around the quilt top (ironing the freezer paper to the top). Then do meander quilting/stippling on the rest of the top. After doing that, quilt an outline of each of the shapes before removing the freezer paper. You could probably do at least some light sabers and some R2D2 shapes, and maybe the letters to form "STAR WARS" in the center. I used this technique to make turtles on a quilt I made for my son, with turtles about 5" by 8" in size.

Another possibility would be to do meanders/stippling with the occasional light saber shape. If you look for meanders that alternate with specific shapes (e.g. hearts, circles, etc.), you should get an idea of what I mean. But if this is your first time doing machine quilting, I think quilting around freezer paper shapes would be easier.

I would stitch in the ditch along the sashing seam lines - if your batting would allow you to leave it at that - that's all I would do.

The fabrics already have so much going on - why clutter up the patterns?

Since this would be your first quilting experience, use a walking foot by all means. And keep it simple. I think stitching in the ditch or doing a simple, relatively large crosshatch grid would be best.