This was the first "real" quilt I started. The only problem was that my mom wouldn't let me buy any batting or backing for it at the time. But now that I have a job, I'll be saving a little each week until I have enough to buy enough material and batting. I'm thinking about going with mountain mist fatt batt, but I don't know how easy that will be to quilt. The plan is to make it a comforter so there won't be any binding on it.

I've been thinking of sewing around the center diamond and the inside of the light blue strips that go around them. And if I have enough ambition and my hands don't hurt too bad, maybe a little diamond in the pink squares.

Also, does anyone have a name for it? I can't think of anything and the magazine called it 'Jonathan's Choice' but I'm not Jonathan, it's not for a Jonathan, and I don't want to call it Sarah's Choice.

Thank for the help I'm relatively new at quilting!!

very pretty, that will take a lot of hand quilting a big project for your first.... I used to hand quilt years ago... now I send to a machine quilter.

Beautiful quilt. I'm not sure about using a fat batt. That's pretty hard to quilt through unless you do a Big Stitch. But I really like the colors and pattern. Good job.

thank you! and I've hand quilted a sofa quilt before only because we ran out of needles when I broke the last one, but I rather enjoy it because I can sit downstairs with my family instead of upstairs in my room/mom's sewing room.

and as it was my first time using a machine, there are some not so great looking squares, but they're on the bottom and sides and the best blocks are along the top and in the center

The quilt is supposed to be a twin comforter, but I found that it dragged on the floor, so it's now a full sized quilt instead

You have a great idea already. You could put just about anything in the "on-points", feathered scrolls, hearts, but diamonds certainly compliment your piecing. Love your design and colors.

What a pretty quilt. Well done. As a newbie I found it much easier to handquilt the thinner cotton battings but the more expert members may give you different advice.

That is going to be a beautiful quilt! Good job!

very pretty quilt..you are truly talented

Hi Sarah,

Welcome to the board. As Grammashel said, Fat Bat is really not the best batting for hand quilting. That type batting is more suitable for tying the quilt which will also look lovely as well on your pretty quilt. You could tie it with a mix of blue and pink embroidery floss.

I think what you first need to do is decide on your quilting so you can guage how far apart your quilting is going to be and base your batting selection on that. All batting states on the packaging how close your quilting must be for that particular batting. I find polyester battings are the easiest to needle but have also handquilted 80/20 blends quite successfully. Wool is supposed to be the best for handquilting but it is very expensive. I myself have never splurged on a wool batting.

As far as brand is concerned, My experience with Mountain Mist polyester batting has not been great. The fat bat is fine but the lower lofts tend to be a bit inconsistant in thickness and pull apart very easily they are easy to quilt but fragile and I have had the batting come apart near the outer edges of a quilt in the sandwiching process or just from handling the quilt in the quilting process, very disappointing. Fairfield is a bit better but when it comes to polyester bats I really, really like Quilter's Dream or Hobbs. These bats are more expensive than Mountain Mist and Fairfield and I have never seen them at big chains like JoAnne's or Walmart. So you may have to go to a quilt shop or buy them on line.

As far as quilting ideas, the sky is the limit and what you feel comfortable doing. I would do small feather wreaths or a flower in the center diamond if this was mine. Then echo stitch 1/4" away from seam lines on the other pieced elements like the triangles that form the points of your stars. In the blue sashing I would quilt a leaf and vine or a cable design. You could go to your local library and see if there are any quilting books that give patterns so you can trace them to mark your quilt top. Please make sure to post pictures as your progress.

I actually miss seeing some quilts tied. This would be great quilted but also tied