I want to embellish on these quilt blocks but thought if I embellish on them before I sandwich the quilt I'd be sewing on just one layer but I don't think I will like the look of the back if I sandwich them first. Can anyone tell me a good way to do this technique?

How do you plan to embellish? With thread, yarn, embroideries, buttons?? :D

(Looks beautiful so far!!)

One way to do it is to baste the top to the batting only, add your embellishments, then baste to the backing and proceed with the quilting. Your knots and tails will then be between the batting and the backing and not show. Be aware that embellishing before quilting makes the quilting process much more difficult, especially if machine quilting, because everything you add must be avoided. The quilting looks much less fluid with this method and does not blend as well with the embellishments.

The other way is, obviously, to sandwich and quilt first, then add your embellishments by hand and bury the knots and tails in the batting. It takes time and care, but I find it results in a much better balance of quilting and embellishments because you can get them closer together and they flow into each other nicely..

Hope that helps, and good luck with whichever you decide.

I planned to use only colored threads to accentuate the designs. I didn't know if I should use cotton or rayon thread though.

You can embellish after quilting, you just have to be sure that you don't go all the way through to the back with your needle., but stop inside the batting.

I added beads and embroidery to an applique quilt and did it after the quilting. It's very easy to just sew thru 1 layer of fabric and bury your knots in the batting.

If hand sewing your fancy threads on, it doesn't really matter when you do it. For more elaborate machining, like thread painting, I'd do it ob just the top layer and use tear-away stabilizer. Good luck, and keep taking pictures of it as you progress.

I like to do thread painting and outlining stuff like that, that I want a little bit of "umph" to with just the top and batting! Exactly how ghostrider said baste the top to the batting and use the batting as a stabilizer and then stitch what I want stitched, then baste the whole thing to the back and acutally quilt it. You could also do kinda like tupunto, add a piece of batting just big enough to cover the area you want to "thread paint" in, do the stitching, then cut away the batting as close to the stitches as you can (using blunt nose safety scissors works best so you don't clip your fabric), THEN baste the whole top to your batting and backing and quilt. This will give whatever you thread paint a fuller puffier look!

How big is the quilt and what do you plan to do with it? If it is a lap quilt or bed quilt, I can understand why you don't want the threads on the back. It gets very stiff, but the good news is that it softens with time and Downy. If the quilt will hang on the wall, I wouldn't worry about it, since it is better stiff.

Maria

Wow, fantastic ideas, thank you! The quilt is a full size queen bedspread for my son. I really had no idea how to "thread paint" didn't even know it was called that, just knew I wanted to do it. I feel ready to start on it now. I will take more pictures, everyone on this site has helped me out tramendously. Today is a VERY BIG day for me. I will finish my very first quilt ever in my life here in about an hour. And I owe a lot of its' success to all of you. THANK YOU!