Looking for quilting ideas
 

Where do you find ideas or diagrams to plan your quilting on a project? I have looked at plenty of pictures of finished quilts for ideas, but have you found a particular book or website with a good variety of stitching diagrams for inspiration? I quilt on my regular machine, so I can't do really intricate designs. Currently am using a walking foot, but a FMQ foot is in my near future.

I would love to hear where some of you find your ideas.

I have ONLY quilted on my Bernina 1530 and I like the look of hand quilting so I find myself crosshatching and quilting like hand quilters would do. Don't limit yourself because you are quilting on a DSM. I won many awards with my quilts and they were all done on my Bernina. I found it easier to learn FMQ by following lines from quilting stencils. Then you are not having to decided in which direction to go. It is hard, but you need to learn to hit a speed on your machine matching that speed and know how the machine feeds your quilt thru at that speed. On last thing is to learn to look down the road to where you are going and not where the needle is at the present. It does take practice but Julia Child probably burnt a few meals teaching herself how to cook, it just takes practice. :)

I like Angela Walters books, especially Shape by Shape where she gives ideas of what to put in specific shaped patches:
http://www.amazon.com/Shape-Free-Mot...angela+walters
Then there is the Leah Day site. Lots of how-to info and at least 365 designs:
http://leahday.com/pages/quilting-design-gallery

You can Google quilting templates also.

I find inspiration everywhere. My go to sources are Pinterest and google images. I also like looking at coloring pages for adults, Zentangles, Tattoos, Wrought Iron work, architectural ornamentation, Stencils (and not just stencils for quilting), decorative tile work, Floor mosaics and parquet wood. I also love to go to quilting blogs. Once you start seeing quilting ideas in mundane daily things you will start to see quilting design potential everywhere. From a cracks in the sidewalk to tree bark.

I have also collected several books that focus on quilting rather than piecing. Karen McTavish really unlocked a lot of doors for me with her books Elemental Quilting and Curved Crosshatch. The books are pretty much her own designs but she elaborates on how to make a small unit of a design then mirror it or flip it and connect it. Sue Heinz also does this and has tons of wonderful ideas. Other authors I like are Gina Perkes, the aforementioned Angela Walters, Judi Madsen of Green Fairy Quilts, although they are all longarm quilters. And let us not forget the queens of domestic machine quilting Harriett Hargrave (Heirloom Machine quilting) and Diane Guadynski.

Thanks everyone - you have offered some great suggestions. Will definitely check out Angela Walters, Leah Day and Karen McTavish for more ideas.

Craftsy is having a sale on their classes right now. There are several instructors teaching quilting including Leah Day.