I had a hard time with this one as the stars were not evenly spaced so this is what I did.

Gale

The first thing that occurred to me was that owls need trees! They need a forest of leaves to live in and hide in so that might be an idea....and maybe quilt some sitting on branches among the leaves????

I take in consideration who the quilt is for, their likes/dislikes, possibly a theme in their house, then I start putting patterns together using a program called ProQ Designer so I can see what it will look like all put together. Then I take that running jump and go...................

I have been quilting for three years. It has been hard for me to choose the pantograph at quilting time.
Having used a number of quilts on my bed some are more comfortable in summer and others in winter. Making a study of this factor will help choose the quilting style for the next quilt. Questions I will ask are: how many seams are there? I the answer is many I know it will have weight and be warm on quilting weight fabric so no dense quilting. If the fabric is woven stripes I know the top fabric is light weight and a pantograph with a moderately dense pattern is needed for winter....perhaps a meander for summer weight. I never choose matlesse as the stitching it too tight for my sleep comfort. That thinking comes first then the design can be chosen. Well, after all, you know I am still a beginner. Another factor is I use 100% cotton.

I haven't done many, but love to free motion. If the quilt doesn't speak to me right away, I have a file of pictures with a variety of quilting I have saved mostly from this blog. Books are great, but seeing the quilting on an actual quilt can really inspire better ideas. I like to take my time with this and make sure every part of the quilt is just the way I want it!

Sometimes the quilt just tells you what will work best and other times I just sit and look at forever before I make up my mind. A lot of times if I just can't decide I just tie it.

All depends on quilt and recipient. Situation at hand.

I try to let my quilts speak to me. Some are very outspoken and almost 'demand' custom quilting, or alternating designs in open spaces, etc. Some just don't say anything and are done with an all over pattern--and they are happy with that.

When my new neighbor and new quilter was attempting her first quilt she asked me this question. I told her to lay out her quilt top, leave it for a day but look at it each time she passed and the quilt would speak to her. She called me the next day all excited. "It spoke to me" she said. With equal enthusiasm I asked what it had said. Her reply: "It said HELP!" We still laugh about that all these years later. She has turned into a totally amazing quilter with no problems listening to her quilts.

I just finished a quilt and redid the border three times. I normally do not remove stitching but every time I tried a new one here (for only about 3 inches) I would look at it and it just said no to me. After a couple of days I finally ended up with one that was o.k. So I would say that you just have to let the quilt sit "and think "for a while. To make you feel better when I do this, I usually am very pleased with the result.

As a new quilter with small harp my first thought was, can I stitch in the ditch? I do have a larger harp now and going to try QAYG so I have more options.

I'm doing the block of the month according to a video someone shared on this board where you quilt with the top and the batting, and wait for the backing till later, then you can stitch in the ditch.

So I did a couple of blocks that way, shadowed the design. I'm thinking maybe I can do some of them in the hoop since I have a new Janome embroidery machine with no idea how to use it.