How would You Quilt this, stumped
 

The pattern is called Bare Branches, I am doing it for my sister. She does not want leaves or bare trees quilted into it. She wants the piecing to be the focus. I just can not seem to come up with a design.

could you do an all over wood grain design to give the feeling of trees without taking anything away from the piecing?

I tried drawing that on some preview paper over a picture of the quilt but didn't like how it looked.

It would be very time consuming, but you could stitch 1/4" inside each of the shapes, and that would keep her shapes prominent.

Sometimes good ole stitch in the ditch is the perfect choice when they want the focus on the piecing. If it were me I’d echo the shape inside the triangular part a few times. Can’t wait to see what you choose!

I have a lot of problems choosing my quilting design. My brain just doesn't see what others do in terms of what others see.

Usually when I stitch in the ditch, I'm actually stitching in the ditch, for this though I would be over 1/4-1/2" away from the branch part and using a background color thread, just stitch those diagonal channels first, then see what else it needs from there, whether to go both horizontal and vertical, or maybe just one.

An all over edge to edge swirly meander design would look nice too. Can be leafy-inspired maybe without being too noticeable, maybe a vine with an occasional leaf sprouting off it would be ok??

I would do an all-over panto or meander in a lightweight thread like Bottom Line, which is 60 wt, or Microquilter, which is 100 wt, in a color that blends with the background. If you use a finer thread, it will recede into the background fabric and let the piecing shine.

I would probably just do FMQ. Another reason I don't quilt for anyone else.

I'd just squiggle all over it... a medium size stipple. There are bound to be lots of heavy intersections, and this way you won't have to deal with them.

do you FMQ? if so, how about a meander that you then backtrack to make into ribbon?

It depends on how big the open areas are, but if they are small enough that you don't have to actually cross them with quilting to hold it together, I'd outline quilt.
If she just wants the shapes, I would do an outline stitch, 1/4" around everything. It wouldn't be too time consuming....follow up the underneath of one leg, pivot and go down the next leg, stitch in the ditch to hide your stitches going across to get to the next leg and start up again.
I'd use a ruler for it if you're familiar with that technique and a lightweight thread that matched the background. I think it would quilt up nicely.

Watson

Ask your sister what she wants, show her some examples, there are hundreds of quilt photos on Pinterest. She told you what she doesn't want, but that really is no help to you. She probably doesn't know what she wants so the photos will help her find out if she likes modern designs, folk art, traditional, etc.

I would stabilise the quilt by SITD along side the tree trucks which go diagonally.
Then only quilt the white areas with a simple infill of lines going parallel to what would be considered the tree trunk. The parallel lines be parallel to the SITD Lines. This infill would give definition to the branches by making the coloured fabric stand out.

I would most likely stipple it too. This, giving it a nice finish without drawing attention to any single area.

For starters, I would SITD the tree trunks and branches. Then think about some infill in the background.

Jim

I was thinking pretty much the same ting. It is so geometric that a curvy design wouldn't look good.

I agree with thimblebug. This way you would not lose the look of the blocks. Very pretty quilt.