snowball quilt, quilting suggestions please
 

I have just put together a snowball lap quilt, now I need to think about quilting it. I like to machine quilt cos of speed, but can't do free machine quilting so usually stick with Stitch in the Ditch ( or not, cos I can't sew a straight line either lol!!). I would like to emphasise the snowball shapes if possible. Has anyone else tackled this? Any suggestions very welcome, the simpler the better! Thanks in advance.

What about drawing a line to follow? I'd draw a line outlining the shape (echo stitching) w/ something like the Frixion pen - then once you put in your stitching, you take an iron to it and it'll disappear.

maybe you can go on youtube.com, look for free motion quilting im sure you can find something there

draw some (options) on scrap (practice) pieces & try them out until you find something you like-are happy with...it takes practice to machine quilt. a picture would help us think of designs - if you draw your design- then slow down you may be able to follow the lines fairly accurately.

When I did a snowball baby quilt, I just stitched along the inside edges of the snowball. I liked how it emphasized the shape of the snowball.

It depends on how much quilting you want to do. I like to do a free motion specific design in the snowballs to emphasise them. Certainly 1/4" out from the seam is an option. there are many stencils that would be easy and would work in spaces such as these. Several years ago i made a hexagon (similar to snowball) from print and matching solids. I machine quilted a motif in the solids and 1/4" in the prints as you would not see the design on the print. Check on line for the companies that sell quilting stencils and see what is available.

Rather than the ¼" stitching out from the seam, maybe you could try a gentle curve similar to the orange peel. Draw an actual size of your block out on paper & pencil in some "orange peel" type shapes. There would be longer ones probably on the arm of the block & a little shorter ones on the snowball corner seam.

Here's a couple of pictures of my snowball quilt. Just stitched a diagional line across the snowballs. Then did an acorn leaf design on the borders.

cross hatching comes to mind.Use painters tape and sew alongside or hold a ruler lightly next to your foot. once you quilt the first line make it as wide as the edge of your foot counting stitches then down the other side with foot alongside the line. You count the stitches over to next line to make it easy and equal mine was 5 stitches then down the line

Because I don't do free motion quilting I use a lot of decorative stiches either in the ditch or with cross hatching, they are more interesting than just straight stitches (also covers well if you don't always stitch straight).