Sooo out of my league.
 

OK. I have this wholecloth quilt sandwiched, at the machine, needle down to start and I seemed to freeze. I can not come up with how to quilt it. I have watched tutorials until I am so confused. Guess I will just start the needle moving and see where it takes me. I really tried to plan it but nothing seemed to fit. Just tell me it will be alright, I need the encouragement. OK, here goes. Deep breaths, breathe in, breathe out. Wait, I think I will have a cup of coffee and finish reading a book first.

Joy,

Breathe....in and out, slowly....we don't want you hyperventilating! The one thing you didn't say that you had done was to practice with the same materials. If I were going to put it off for a bit longer, I'd like to think that I would practice....but a cuppa something and a book does sound safer....however, you've come this far, I'd say go for it! You will do exactly what you need to do.

Blessings.

are you just going to free motion a design on it as a whole cloth? difficult. I would mark it. take 1/4 of it and mark and quilt , then continue to the next 1/4, etc. Good luck.

Part of it is marked and part will be free hand. The problem with the marked areas, some of the pattern is large. I don't know what to fill in areas with. Oh well, I will have to wing it and hope for the best. I can always trash it if necessary and chalk it up to experience. Thanks ladies.

I am a bit confused. You don't indicate your level of skill in doing machine quilting. I am not sure of your success in " winging it". To me just putting the needle down and hitting the peddle is not the way to learn machine quilting. Is there something you are not telling in your post.

I really don't understand your question. There is nothing to tell. I have been taking Craftsy classes and trying to learn machine quilting for some time. I guess I would be at the lowest level. I have done several quilts, but certainly not at the level some of the LAQ are at. I just love to try for the challenge of it, which is why I decided to do this wholecloth. I have always been one to try anything, thus this quilt. Yes, I am winging it but it seems to be coming along ok since I broke the ice. Thanks for your inquiry.

Well Joy, we all started somewhere. You have taken the classes. Now it is time to start your learning curve ... something that varies widely among quilters.

I am guessing that this is a practice piece. In that case, you have nothing to loose. Remember to pull the bobbin thread up when ever you start and finally stop.

If you love to read like I do you might like the book: Outliers. It gives new meaning to overnight successes. I became much more realistic after reading it and I still had/have fun with my craft.

I would do the marked areas first and leave the fill in areas for last. When you have finished the marked areas, put the quilt on your design wall and look at it for a while. On most whole cloth quilts, a lot of the "negative" space is simply cross-hatched, but there are also areas where you could do stippling, feather motifs and echo quilting. Mark the areas where you want to do different techniques (if you don't want to mark the top, pin post-it notes on the top).

Should I just do the center designs and fill the negative space before doing the outside? Or do the all-over marked designs and then do the negative space? Thank you.

I agree, you (like me) are a person that must do some marking. Once you get something quilted it gets much easier to keep going.