Now what? Help please!
 

I am making 12" blocks, some with rather large white areas. I thought I could use those for practicing my FMQ, using templates. So I did. Now I'm stuck at what to do with the blue areas. I'm not that good at free motion feathers, I'm practicing but I'm too scared to just go ahead. The blocks are on my design wall and I'm staring at them, not knowing how to proceed. Any ideas?

Those are beautiful feathers you did in the white!! Wow!! I think in the blue I'd do a vine with large leaves to go along with the flowers. Also, the FMQ isn't as visible in the print so I don't think you'd need something as detailed as the feathers. Wow--I can't believe you don't think you can do feathers. That's going to be a very pretty quilt.

Thank you Jan :D
I used templates so they're not my free hand feathers! These were 'easy' but now comes the hard part! The vine with large leaves is a good idea, I will pull out a practice piece and see how it goes.

You can do feathers for me anytime - they're beautifully done! Since the white areas are so intricate, maybe just stitch in the ditch around the blue ones?

Thank you ArtsyOne :D

Sometimes when you look at pictures of blocks you've made it hits you: I thought what if I just stitch around the flowers in the blue fabric. So I did that on one piece and it's looking good. I don't know if I want to do that on all blocks though.

Beautiful work. I really like the idea of leaves and vines.

Beautiful. Whatever you do will be wonderful:)

Beautiful quilting, you keep it up. I was going to suggest outling the flowers in the blue connecting them with vines of leaves.

outlining the flowers is a great idea! love what you've done so far

The quilting is fantastic and I think the vines idea is perfect.

Oh wow, gorgeous! Your work is fabulous!
Maureen

I'd go with the leaves and vine too. Your quilting is superb!

Beautiful I agree with the idea of out linging the flowers.

Outlining the flowers is exactly what I'd do. Quilting's not going to show up much on the print, and it'll give you practice hitting the lines you are aiming for. Even if you don't follow the lines exactly, as long as your lines are smooth and flowing, not squiggly, it'll look great.

This will be a beautiful MOD Quilt when you are done. If you don't belong to a MOD Quilt Guild you can join them on facebook and post it there and they'll be more than happy to give you ideas and even teach you how to do it if you need help.

A MOD Quilt Guild is known as Modern Quilt Guilds. They are not traditional, nor contemporary, but more of a free spirit creating there own designs and they primarily use a white background or gray for there canvas.

Here is the facebook link if you want to check them out.......
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/249856086765/

They started online about five years ago as a group of fiber art friends and it has evolved into an international new type of quild guild. There are chapters springing up all over the world and quite a few springing up in the U.S.

Your feathers are just stunning. I wish I could do that. Keep going no matter what it is.

Beautiful work - use a template on the blue if you are not comfortable winging it. You do amazing feathers.

Can't you find a template to fit the blue blocks? I have never used a template...how do you make these feathers with a template? I know it is transfered to the fabric, but don't you FMQ on the lines?
Elaine

J my opinion but I think your work already is fabulous. I think you could just do stippling in the blue areas and that way it wouldn't detract from your great white block work. I am sure others will have ideas, too. I think you are really great at it already. Or...practice on a scrap piece until you feel comfortable.

I vote for vines too

Templates or not those are lovely feathers. I like the idea of vines in the blue. Remember the FMQ will be more "hidden" in the blue pattern portion.

Very pretty.

Your quilting is beautiful. I don't FMQ so I can't help you. Sorry.

Love your quilting it is beautiful. I like the vine idea also.

Very nice!!

I would use something linear to sort of "frame" the feathers. The feathered squares need to be the star of the show. Perhaps two narrow lines on each of the edges with one more line down the center - like a matte inside of a frame.

I agree with joyce888!

Thank you all so very much for the wonderful compliments and great ideas! This is such a great group of people, I love this board!

@Treasurereit and Tartan: I do it the hard way. I draw the lines from the template on paper, draw the whole design with a black line and trace that on the fabric with a silver pencil. I can do that because there are no seams so the lines are visible. I do have blocks with lots of seams and I think I will use WSS on top of the fabric. I'm not very fond of using WSS though as I don't want to wash it out but I don't have a lightbox yet.

@clsurz: thanks a lot for the link to facebook. I never heard of a MOD Quilt Quild, I'm going to check it out!

Beautiful feathers. Anxious to see the finished quilt.

This is what I was thinking...
 

Those feathers are beautiful!!! I know how scary it is though to free hand with nothing to look at...I think going around the flowers is what I would do. : D. Liz

My first thought was, if I could do feathers like those I wouldn't care what I put in the rest of the blocks! Have you been quilting long? What kind of machine are you using? Sorry I have only questions and no answers! What you've done is simply lovely!

Wow.....you did a beautiful job so far. Can you send me a pm with what kind of marking pen you used with the templates? I can't ever find posts again after I respond.

@wishfulthinking: No, I've been quilting for under 2 years and doing FMQ for about 1 1/2 years now. I'm using either my Bernina 440 QE or Brother Innov-ís 1500D. It's ok to ask, most of the time I don't have answers to questions either LOL. I'm doing ok with FMQ as long as I can use templates or just simple stipling or meandering with curls, stars, leaves and flowers. When it comes to feathers I'm lost! Somehow I can't get it right, I should practice more I guess.

@Quilting Angel: I sent you a PM.

I agree, quilting around the flowers would really work (your templete is already there!). Beautiful work!

Beautiful quilting!

Wow! For somebody who is just practicing, you're doing great!!! They are ALL absolutely gorgeous!!! I'm totally impressed! I don't have any suggestions for the blue part, since I don't do FMQ, but no matter what you do, I'd say it's going to be beautiful!:thumbup:

Your feathers are wonderful! I like the idea of outlining the flowers and connecting them with vines and leaves. Your quilt will be beautiful!

I would stipple around the flowers on the blue to make them stand out.

Beautiful work.

I get so confused, when you say you were practicing your FMQ do you mean that you actually FREE MOTION QUILTED those designs? Or did you use a stencil, patterns, etc?

Anything you do in that blue will be LOST...BUT you have to get the same amount of stitching to keep the piece from puffing! I would use a contrasting thread and shadow the designs in the fabric!

I really can't give you any advice on what kind of quilting to do with the blue, but your quilting in the white is great, so I don't know why you're saying that your feathers aren't all that good. They look great, I'm lucky if I can do a basic meander. LOL