Has anyone any ideas to how to quilt a beautiful pieced top. |I am fed up of stitching in the ditch or normally (ditch hopping).
I love these free flow leaves and swirls you all do. I use a janome and a brother or a juki for free motion. It depends what I am piecing.

Without seeing pictures, it's hard to suggest any particular pattern.

Have you been over to Leah's site? Her whole "mission" started because was looking for something other than loops and meandering.

She has over 300 quilting designs to use on your quilt. You can make them small or dense or larger and less dense. ;-) Whatever you're comfortable with sewing and fits your quilt top.

Fair warning - if it's your first visit, you can easily spend hours over there:
http://www.daystyledesigns.com/365project.htm

Yes, I always have plenty of ideas. I do this for a living, help quilters finish their work. This is my FAVORITE THING!

I think a quilt has its own personality. There are thousands of possibilities for quilt designs. But they need to match the personality of the top or we end up with a schizophrenic quilt, where the quilting design just doesn't suit the top. It depends on the colors and fabrics and pattern and setting of the top.

Some need curves to soften, some need straight lines to define the graphic effect. Some need a little quilting just to hold the layers together. Some have lots of plain open spaces just begging for fancy dense quilting.

So... may we see a photo?

Draw on the quilt top with chalk. Look at what you've done. If you want to change it, brush off the old line and draw a new one.

thanks for the great link!

ava

MTS-fantastic link! Thanks!!

thanks for the link very helpful cant wait to try some of the designs

Practice meandering on a small quilt sandwich. You will have it down quickly. It is fun. I can't do large quilts on my machine, but love to do baby quilts and wall hangings.

No idea without seeing a picture.

A similar option - I have a piece of heavy-gauge plastic (like used for protecting tables) - that I have put blue painter's tape around. I put this on top of the quilt and audition quilt designs - use washable markers.

This gives you a preview of what the design will look like, and builds muscle memory for the design :)