Probably a "duh" question for people that do FMQ - but I don't know the answer
 

Do you mark the designs on the quilt top before you begin?

Feline Fanatic once posted that she "maps out" what she plans to do ahead of time and then sort of "blocks in" the outlines for her designs. It sounded like she spends almost as much time planning on what to quilt as doing the quilting.

Do you mark every line - especially for something repetitive so that they all look the same?

Do you plan ahead?

Do you just start in and keep going until it looks "good" to you?

When do you know when you should stop? (Enough quilting in the area)

Just wondering -

Second to last question first- if a quilt begins to feel like wood (ie:stiff) that is too much quilting. I favour less not more. I don't mark anything unless it is new to me and I want just land-marks. I try to plan ahead but only in my mind. Don't say it is the best but it is mine.

I think this will be different for everyone, because everyone's experience, confidence, level of willingness, etc is different.

For me - it also depends on the quilt. If I'm doing something easy like loops, double loops, meander, or something easily replicated all over, I won't mark it. If I'm adding in a motif like a large flower, I will usually mark the flowers or butterflies. If I'm doing Baptist Fans, you betcha I'll mark every darn line! :D

If I'm doing custom quilting, I'll take a long time to draw out some possible designs on paper, then decide if I need to add any marks. Usually I can just eyeball where the center of a block element is, or do dot to dot type things, but if it's something like 1/3 of the edge of a rectangle, I'll mark where it is since I'm much better at judging where the center of something is vs 1/3.

I'm also inherently lazy, which makes me wonder often why I enjoy quilting! If there are steps I can leave out, I'll totally try it! After I'm done planning, I'm definitely in the jump in and do it boat. I also rarely rip things out so unless it looks horrendous, I'll just keep doing it and it becomes a design choice and the quilts have always washed up fine.

I always check the quilting requirements on my batting to make sure my quilting fulfills the requirements. I don't normally quilt my quilts super closely because while I love how it looks on the quilt, I don't love how it feels when you cuddle up with it. But again, different for everyone.

It depends. I do a lot of what I call “doodle quilting” where I don’t mark anything, just start quilting and quilt whatever I feel like quilting as I go along.

For more formal designs or things I do with rulers I try to mark as little as I can get away with. I’ve only done a couple of quilts that I marked extensively.

Rob

Sometimes. I really prefer not to mark, but I have found that based on my artistic abilities I have to, especially if I want my quilting to look consistent. Meandering, stipple, loops, flowers that sort of pattern definitely not. Marking dark fabric is my nemesis, so I try to use a quilting motif that I can just do if I am quilting on a dark fabric. As my FMQ has evolved I find I prefer to quilt like Tartan; SITD around the blocks and something fancier for the open areas or alternative block. Just my personal preference. I use stencils and my walking foot a lot. Blue painters tape is a quilters friend too. I usually only plan the starting point, and then the rest usually falls into place; as far as stopping, I try not to quilt too densely, but once in a while it happens. :p

I don't mark anything, anytime. I just meander along and around. I don't do any heavy quilting. It is beautiful on other's quilts. I just don't want on mine.

For edge to edge or border to border, I rarely mark. I'll mark registration marks (chalk) on the border so I can get designs spaced consistently. Same with marking the middle of a block that I will be going into and want consistency. I use a lot of rulers so I don't mark actual design lines as much, but I do lots of practice sketches beforehand. When I'm doing lots of negative space where I'm quilting a modern design, I will mark (either chalk or water soluble blue or air soluble purple) some motifs or use a stencil; and then mark some "pathways" (a'la Krista Withers). I get lazy and think I should do more marking actually! I have used press n' seal and laid out a whole design--but that's rare.

I do no mark my quilts when free motion quilting. I do mentally plan my start and stop places so I don't have to tuck in ends of the thread if I don't have to. After a number of years of FM success and a few disasters, I am confident enough in my of skills to know how much quilting is enough. As mentioned before, to some extent it depends on the quilt. Somewhere I read about quilting in quarters. Meaning that you divide you piece into quarters mentally and deal with that amount of your quilt top. For me, that works beautifully.

Since I have a designated sewing machine on a frame I only have a small area to quilt in. This leaves me with loops or small meandering, so there is no need to mark anything. Haven't advanced further yet, but would love to be able to do flowers. Those I would have to mark and have them small enough to fit into the small I'm allowed.