Wall hangings and quilting -less- than the manufacturer's recommendation
 

I have a panel that I quilted and plan on using as a curtain/cold barrier in front of the window in my studio. This panel will likely only be washed if it gets really dusty.

I have done some basic quilting on it but there's one section where I'm just mentally blocked and was thinking of leaving it unquilted. It's a right angle triangle area with a long side and a wavy hypotenuse. LOL! At its widest points it's 6" by 15". Do I have to quilt it or should it be OK?

Obviously on the frame it looks stable but I know dangling from the ceiling it's a little different...

What batting are you using and what is it's recommendations?

Holy cow! How did I forget that? It's Hobbs 80/20 Cotton and Poly and the recommendation is no more than 4".

The recommendation Is at least every 4", more is OK, less is risky. If the item will be laundered and you have not done the minimum amount of quilting the batting will separate and ball up so there will be areas with no batting and areas with globs of batting. The recommendations are the minimum amount of quilting required. You ( might) be able to get away with less if you use a batting with scrim like warm & natural that allows up to 10" between quilting lines

Could you just tack it at points in the unquilted section?

Or maybe tack it with one of those decorative stitches (in other words, if the stitch is a flower, just put a single flower at various points) if your machine has them and that wouldn't ruin the look you want?

Could we see a picture? I'm not good with ideas without seeing what the item looks like and sometimes, even the fabric will make a difference.

I wish you would be able to post a picture. It makes things easier to envision the quilt then with a description.

What about quilting it with a series of lower case "L"s. Start at the smallest point and just FMQ the "L" loops, making them longer each time to reach the side opposite the right angle. Or start at the right angle and just to straight lines across to the long side spaced at whatever intervals. I did this with the inner circles of my American Beauty. I don't know if you'll be able to see the quilting.
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ckcowl - The option to change the batting isn't there, so that's why I was hoping if it wasn't intended to be washed or handled much it might be OK but it occurs to me from your statement that yes, there are situations where it will have to be washed. Thanks for that.

Barb in Louisiana and ManiacQuilter2 - Yes, I'm sorry, I should have posted a pic. I thought the question was generic but here it is. It's the corners giving me grief. I've quilted one of the corners 3 times and ripped it out 3 times. :( I tried outlining the flourish in brown and in beige but I didn't like it - I think I was too unsteady that day. I tried feathering it, I didn't like where it went over the flourish. I tried feathering around it.... didn't like it.

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mckwilter - your NYB is fabulous! I love that pattern but it terrifies me to try it. :) Your suggestion of "simpler" definitely has merit.... hmmm...

Thank you for your kind words. I love NYBs, and they are about the only PP I do anymore. I keep looking at the Judy Neimeyer quilts, but haven't committed. I have that same panel in teal. I like the idea of making it into a window covering. I don't think my suggestions will work on it, as I was envisioning something different, but I'm sure you'll decide on something lovely.

For now, I've bound it as was and put it up. It does seem to be controlling the climate down there a little better. I figure I can always add quilting to it later if I want. :) I love the JN quilts as well, they scare me though. I'm just not an accurate enough piecer to do one justice. One of the shops about 1 1/2 hours from us is JN certified and I remember being in there one day and the instructor (who was selling me fabric) said you can do that! If you can sew a straight line you can don one! I looked at him and said I -can't- sew a straight line that's why I free motion! The gal behind me almost spit her coffee out. ;)

I would echo the scallops until your about an inch from the corner scroll, then do an inside echo of the curly scroll.

If you gently hand wash it if/when it needs it, and lay it flat to dry, I bet you'll be OK. You could even add some temporary thread basting just before washing if you are really worried about it, and just pull it back out when you're done washing & drying.

I have a pair of those same panels that I bought for curtains too! But I haven't made mine yet.

Speaking as a quilter who makes mostly wall quilts at this point in my journey, gravity will most likely be more of a factor for your vertically hung quilt than laundering will be. Rotating it 90° every three months would probably do a lot to prevent batting sag if you want to try that.

Sparsely quilted horizontal bed quilts are much less apt to wind up with droopy pockets of batting than than sparsely quilted vertical wall or window quilts. And when a batting specifies a 4" quilting distance, that means in any direction, so those 6"x15" open areas would actually be 4 times over the suggested density. Just wanted to point out some other things besides the laundering for you to consider.

Joyce, I had been thinking something similar to that too or some swirls to echo the borders. It's possible that my main objection was to the thread color choice.

Sewnoma! You have great taste ;) The only reason I got to this one is because I was waiting on a quilt top that was supposed to arrive but ended up being late. I didn't want to start something big so I took care of a couple of smaller projects and that was one of them.

ghostrider - more points that I hadn't thought of. Thank you so much for that. The curtain can only be hung in one direction so for now until I finish the 2 quilts waiting for me as of tonight, I will just rotate it 180 degrees if needed and add some more quilting to it once I'm finished. At least by then I will have a quilting plan for sure! :)