Please advise
 

Hi all! I’m an enthusiastic beginner, and am loving the whole learning process.
if I can figure out how to post a picture, I’d love to pick your collective brains as to how to FMQ quilt my latest quilt, a gift for my 2-year-old grandson. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated,

your quilt is amazing. sure this will be loved.

you did a great job beautiful

Beautiful quilt! A walking foot is the surest way for even stitches. But the easiest FMQ for me is a loop de loop. Since threads cross over each other intentionally, if I get caught in a corner, I just curve my way out. Practice first on placemat size panels.

No suggestions on quilting, but I love your quilt! That panel is so cute. And welcome to the board.

I wanted to say hi, I'm a bit south of you in the Seattle region. Also a big grats for getting the picture posted! It took me months when I first joined :)

I freely admit to being quilting design challenged and even more so with panels. I see what other quilters can do to enhance tops, but I generally lack the vision. I'm improving my skills and my equipment but I can only go so far in that direction -- I still have quite a far way to go, however.

What I've been learning, especially with "use" quilts (those that will be washed and such) is sometimes we can let the design or fabrics carry the quilt and sometimes I just have to concentrate on quality but nondescript quilting down. A simple meander with a neutral thread will be loved by the grandson just fine.

Beautiful quilt.

This is a lovely panel and your Bear's Paws blocks are perfect around the panel. Well done. As far as the quilting I would make swirls that do not cross over one another (if possible. I still make a mistake or two there). They don't have to be to close together. Maybe 1-2" apart. Go easy your new and the important thing is to have fun.

Thank you for your ideas! I think I will try my hand at outlining the bears as you suggest. I’ll practice a lot before I take the plunge!

Thanks for those ideas. I just remembered I have some placemats that I can practice on!

What a great way to frame that panel, and I really like your fabric selections. I'm also very new to fmq so can't really offer much help there, but wanted to say welcome to the forum!

Hi Gemm - Thanks for the encouragement but I can’t really take credit. I saw a kit that looked like this, but it was all paper piecing, which I don’t have the patience for. So I just bought the coordinating fabrics and figured out a much simpler design for the edging. I must admit, I was pretty surprised when it all worked out!

If your skill level will support it, Ithink trees would be a fun quilting design on this quilt.

Perfect for a little guy. He will love it no matter how you quit it.

I love this quilt and I'm sure your grandson will treasure it. I would outline the bears and then do stippling on the rest of the quilt. That will build your confidence with FMQ.

My favorite fmq pattern on a detailed quilt is a simple loop de loop. I cross over lines like a wild bee flying in the air. It's impossible to get trapped into a corner, I can just swoop my way out. I think a random plattern places emphasis on the fabrics. Love the bear panel.