Landscape quilt - large area without quilting
 

I'm doing a landscape quilt from a photo that has a perfectly blue clear sky. I would like to not have any quilting in the sky area because I don't want to take away the look of that clear, clear sky. Would anyone have a suggestion about how I can get the sky fabric so that it will remain smooth, and not have wrinkles in it. The sky area is about 30" wide x 9 " high. I was thinking about fusing something to it, but I'm not sure what would work best.
Thanks for any advice!

is this going to be a wall hanging or a bed (usable) quilt?
if it's a wallhanging it is not a problem- you can use a fusable & not wash the quilt- if it is going to be a bed/used quilt that is a whole new matter- if you plan to use batting the largest area that can go unquilted (using warm & natural or like batting) is 10"...otherwise you run the risk of the batting separating & balling up- creating areas of no batting & other areas of balls of batting.
you could use a (pre-washed) flannel or layer of fabric in place of batting- but using batting that large an area will have to be quilted if the project is ever to be laundered.

This is for a wall hanging; it will not be laundered. What type of fusible would you recommend? Like fusible web, or fusible batting? Or just a fusible interfacing.

Even wall hangings need to be laundered. I would quilt it and I do a large stipple. I don't trust any batting enough to go any further apart than 3-4".

You might have to experiment to see how the end result looks .... do a minimum of quilting on it then after quilting, fuse your fabric choice over the quilting. I suspect that unless you use a fairly thick fusable and fabric ... the quilted lines will still show through even slightly.

An organza overlay (not fused ... just laid over it) might hide any quilted lines and give a nice shimmer effect as well (the shimmer effect overpowering the background and any quilting lines).

I think you have some experimenting ahead of you :)

have you posted the pix..you cut cloud shapes out of freezer paper iron them in place if you like it you can machine or hand quilt around the paper then remove it...I would do a practice piece first. the batting can pull away and slip down...also stitch in the ditch around the quilt...hope this helps you. go for it.

I like this suggestion. Gives you the options to try out several ideas so you can pick the one that appeals the most. I also would not leave this area unquilted.

i have quilted wallhangings that are very very old (one made in 1883) that have never been laundered...they are dusted, vacuumed, one was spot cleaned once...never laundered

(This is for a wall hanging; it will not be laundered. What type of fusible would you recommend? Like fusible web, or fusible batting? Or just a fusible interfacing)
there are a number of choices- heat n bond makes a fairly heavy weight no-sew fusable that remains quite (crisp) firm- if you want to fuse to a backing- a pellon medium or heavy weight stablizer would also work- if you want it to have some (soft-loft) to it a fusable fleece type interfacing may be a good choice- giving body but not needing to be quilted. Joannes (type stores) carry all of these options-

You can buy beautiful sky fabrics