Need suggestions help!
 

This is my first quilt top finished. I have read and looked over everyone's beautiful work and encouragement. What a wonderful group out here!

I am doing this for my youngest GD, who will turn 6 next month. Now I am at a lost as to how to quilt it. Since I am such a newbie, just learning to sew, and want to FMQ quilt this with a very easy pattern. Didn't know if I should just do straight lines across the squares, stiples, or around each block.

I have completed two of these, but I need to finish this one up in a month - her birthday is May 5th. I have a llittle longer to complete the second one, for my older GD.

Any suggestions woulld be appreicated,
Milene

I also am new so I have been using some of the decorative stitchs on my sewing machine and just cross hatching the blocks.

If you have never tried fmq.....this quilt isn't the time to start! I would do a simple STID, any further quilting would only be if the batting showed stitching requirements of 2-4" or less and then would only try a big X in each square. Cross hatching would be nice, but can be very time consuming if you haven't tried it before. Even stippling can be difficult / frustrating until you get the tension just right or teach your hands to move smoothly. If you want to try anything other than straight line stitching on this quilt, I would first put together several practice sandwiches of same fabrics/batting to get the feel of fmq....it takes lots of practice to make anything look like it's supposed to....don't ask me how I know! Your quilt top is very nice....love the colors!

you need to put together some small (practice) sandwiches with top, batting and backing and sit & practice for a while ---then you can determine what quilting you are able to do on your quilt- even stitch in the ditch takes a little practice- and if you want to free motion you definitly need to do some practicing to get the hang of moving your fabric around smoothly and getting your stitches even.
cute quilt!

This is very pretty. I would do a stitch in the ditch or cross lines in the squares. Good luck.

I did the same thing with my Sun Bonnet Sue. My Janome 7700 has a stitch that I was able to use across the water that made it look like waves. I actually DID do my first FMQ on the blue with a little white for the sky. I tried to make it look like clouds and it didn't turn out too bad. It is not finished yet...still have to do machine applique around the appliques in the wide border. But I was so proud yesterday when I showed it to someone and they commented about how the water looked like there were waves in it. I FINALLY did something right. lol

But I agree that practicing first with samples before tackling a the beautiful quilt that you just finished and then look at it and say...WHY did I do that. Mine is just a small wallhanging.

In my opinion stitch in the ditch is harder than FMQ. Hard to stay in the ditch and looks kind of sloppy to me. If I do straight stitching, I do it about 1/4" away from the ditch. Just please yourself and ou will be happy with it. Granddaughter will love it whatever you do.
Very pretty, nice color choices.

Thank you all so much, I guess because of timing for this one I should try straight line stitching, and perhaps use one of my decorative stitches in the border.

I can't believe how fast you all jumped right in, Thank you so much, I'll be sure to post when I'm finished.

Milene

I think it would look very nice with a diagonal cross hatch through the centers of all the squares in the center of the quilt and straight lines maybe 1/2" apart, starting 1/4" into the border. FMQ takes practice,

I would do a large stipple.......can't hardly make mistakes with a large stipple but practice on a small piece first.