How would you quilt this one?
 

I prefer hand quilting, and my machine quilting is limited to stitch in a ditch. Given that, I look at this quilt and wonder if hand quilting would take away from the overall design. Each of the curved seams is actually raw edge and will be a little fringe after washing. The individual squares are 7" finished. So if I use a batting with a scrim I can easily just stitch a grid in the ditch of each block. If I hand quilt I'll need to quilt a little within the blocks.

So many of you have a good eye for quilts and do beautiful work I thought I would ask for feedback. Handquilt with a pattern or machine quilt in the ditch??

I've been machine quilting for more than 10 years, but this quilt (may I add this very beautiful quilt!) would have me stumped on qulting ideas other than SID across and up and down. I do know that whatever you choose to do it will be lovely!

Love the quilt. If you stitch in the ditch - you'll be done sooner.

Not that I'm a great quilter .... but here's my 2 cents worth
I'd emphasize the circles .... 1/4" or so inside and outside the circle.

Can you use a batting that allows for larger spacing of the quilting?
If not, then do some SITD for the remainder as it will be more subtle and let the circles pop out.

Great looking quilt and unique!

Your quilt is beautiful. Sorry can't help u with ideas on how to quilt.

Very pretty quilt!! I'd like to see this after it's quilted and laundered to see the frayed effect.

If you can SID, presumably you can do straight lines - yes?

How about a fan effect of straight lines on the circles only? Like fingers reaching out from the center.

Great quilt top

I don't know how to quilt it but it sure is pretty.

That's beautiful...sorry, can't help with the quilting though

I don't know anything about the quilting part, but the colors are just beautiful.

First, I love your quilt so far. I quilt with Thermore batting, which says to quilt it every 10". I would begin by ditch stitching and stitching over the stay stitching. That would actually be enough, although I would probably quilt a flower in each of the quarter circle ("pie") sections and perhaps 1-3 leaves in the opposite corner. Of course, now that I know how, I love free motion quilting using the embroidery/darning foot of my machine. There are too many quilts in my life to hand quilt, although I admire those who do it.

Beautiful! I made the same pattern and just meandered the whole thing and I think it looks good.

*W*O*W* Your quilt is absolutely breathtaking. I would do a 1/4" on each sie of the curved seam...perhaps even a 1/2" to really make your curves pop.Please post a picture when finished.

i would stitch in ditch if handquilting its a beautiful quilt

Absolutely beautiful!

That is a very stunning quilt, great job

The quilt is beautiful. I love batiks! I did one similar to this one that was paper pieced. If it were mine, I think I would free-motion arcs in all of the melon shapes and pebbles in all of the corner areas. Leave all of the raw edges free so they will fray when washed.

No recommendations, but it is gorgeous!

Beautiful quilt! Please post it again after it's quilted ...sorry don't have any suggestions.... Debbie

Beautiful! May I ask what is the pattern?
Leslie

The pattern is called Crazy Curves. It came with the template I purchased. I did modify the pattern slightly. The plain blocks were actually suppose to be a 4 patch of 3" curves and I repeated the pattern to make it as wide and long as I wanted by adding a couple of extra rows (80"x90").

I am curious about hand quilting it also. ITS a batik and has a high thread count. I am wondering how easy it would be to hand quilt through batik.. Your quilt is beautiful..

I'll be honest, I've never hand quilted on batik fabric so this will be a learning experience. I've heard that the high threadcount causes challenges, but I'm going to give it a whirl anyway. Maybe I'll sandwich a sample piece to try before I start the whole quilt?

wonderful quilt! sorry, no suggestions on the quilting

I don't hand quilt, I work on a long arm, but I've made quilts like yours before. Here is how I did them to help get you ideas. The first one I did years ago. The second pic is a newer quilt.
Can't wait to see how you decide to quilt this one. There really are many ways and no matter how you quilt it...it will be gorgeous!!!

Beautiful work. The first one is stunning, though probably more detail than I want to take on, but the second one gives me great ideas! Thank you for sharing your work.

I would do a large meandering stipple type thing all over, that is what I mostly do on all my quilts.

Beautiful batiks you've chosen for your quilt. The pattern is large enough to show them off nicely. Sorry, I am stumped as to how to quilt it.

I also made this quilt...and meandered it...looked awesome!

I've never hand-quilted batiks either, I don't think I'm up to the challenge :), but I have quilted with sheets, and you're not supposed to, for the same reason...

However, with this quilt, the top is so busy, I don't think hand quilting would show, so I'd probably machine quilt. I only hand quilt on very um, "blah" quilts, for lack of a better word. Whole cloth quilts, applique quilts with lots of white space, etc. I want that hard work to be the "star" of the quilt.

I like to take my top to my fabric store and audition stencils on it. On your quilt, I would keep the quilting simple.. SID the straight lines and echo the curves, maybe. You have already put so much work into it and it's so pretty that it doesn't "need" anything else to make it "pop". This could also be a good time to try one of the decorative stitches on your sewing machine and just SID. It will be lovely!!

I would quilt by machine, the hand quilting would not show up on this quilt. Could you try echoing the curves in the quilt, perhaps on a practice piece? If you had a guide on the foot and stitched 1 inch inside and outside each curve that would emphasize the circles. You could SID first to stabilize the quilt if needed.