It does look a lot better with the markings gone. It's not award-winning, but it's less... less... choaking? Smothering? Whatever it is, I can't put my finger on it. I do love the curlies and I do love the stained glass but together they are like pizza and hot fudge

It's too easy to get carried away when longarm quilting. Quilting should enhance the design; the overall quilting of most LAQ seldom does.

It's lovely, enjoy your beautiful creation.

LOL, I'm going to take that as a compliment?! It's not LA, just my regular machine

I think the quilting is great. I think the problem will resolve itself when the pen marks are gone. IMO, that's what is making it look really dense.

Your quilt is very pretty and think it looks good. We sometimes are our own worst enemies.

I had a similar experience with a flannel quilt, probably almost 1/2 very over quilted, what was I thinking. So I spent the time and with my hand dandy seam ripper, I picked it all out. I was glad I did, much happier with the 2nd time around.

I would read "Quilted to Death".

I agree wash it and I think you will be happy with it..I think it is just beautiful...what pattern did you use?

Dont judge it until the marks are gone. Right now it still looks a bit raw. I bet you'll love it when it's clean and pristine.

I agree with everyone else's comments; remove the markings and you may be happily surprised that the "QTD" look will be gone. Then, choose another motif to quilt other areas. Even at that, it is not as densley quilted as some I have seen in shows.

Thanks for posting with that info. I'm sorry that happened to you.
I find many quilts to be over-quilted and I think they do lose a lot of their character. For me, less is more.

With that said, I DO like it better now that some of the markings have been removed!

they are very lovely work so pretty,too.

I agree, once you remove the marks it will look even better-it's beautiful!

Its pretty except the marks-they need to go.

I think it will be beautiful. Don't rip it out.

Beautiful anyway!

Your quilt is beautiful, colors are great and you are doing an awesome job. I was hoping for a picture of the dogwood quilt. As you can see I love dogwoods and am always looking for ideas and patterns for it. Is the dogwood one also a stained glass type? Will watch for pics. Thanks for sharing.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...t-t178721.html there are several pictures of it if you keep scrolling. A stained glass dogwood would be pretty, wouldn't it?! I ordered both of these quilt tops off ebay from the same seller.

I agree...once you wash out the blue/purple pen marks...it will be just fine...those are what's making it dull the quilt.

I love it. I don't think it took anything away.

The best advice I can offer for the future:

1. Take the time to audition your quilting. I literally redraw the blocks on paper. Then I take tracing paper and audition different designs. Clear vinyl and wet erase pens work too. Here is a thread I did on the design process

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...r-t121493.html

Too often we are in a rush to get to the fun part, the actual quilting. Unfortunately lack of forethought and planning often show in the end product. So take your time and audition NUMEROUS designs in your quilting space.

2. Quilting in contrasting thread is best left to when you have honed your skills to a knife edge. Many times a darker thread on a light fabric can look "spidery" and every single waver, hesitation and mistake shows. So choose a thread that totally blends in with your fabric, it hides a multitude of mistakes as well! Really quilting is all about the texture you can create. You enhance a quilt with quilting by complimenting the piecing with the quilting. Sure sometimes the quilting ends up being the star and that is great too.

3. Let the quilt speak to you. Study it and listen to what it whispers. Many times it will tell you to leave certain spaces unquilted. That is OK. It is always much easier to go back and quilt a place that was left unquilted then to frog stitches.

Great advice! Thank you!!

I love the pictures you posted; I see absolutely nothing but beauty. froggyintexas

I think it is just awesome, love the work.

I personally think it's stunning! And "quilted to death"? What a way to go... LOL!!!

thank you all so much! I haven't even touched this quilt in a week, I'm afraid to work on the white area now! Oh well! I have others!......

Yes, this!
I was ready to agree with you that it was quilted to death untill I read it was the marks. I think it will look beautiful once the color is washed out.

Update
 

The machine I have been using for FMQ is down. My sewing machine doesn't like to FMQ, so I added some lines in the white area today. Here's what it looks like now (Again, ignore the blotches of color, that's from the marking pen. I'm spraying it with water only to try to get it out)

I think it's pretty, will look better when markings gone.