Wanted...help....opinions...advice
 

I have been commissioned to hand quilt this quilt. Shown is one of the blocks, which is about 24 inch square, made up of four 12 inch blocks. Set on pure white, very beautiful piecing. The customer had a not so pretty sort of coral for the backing...I suggested maybe something else might be better. I'm looking at a white on white small print for the back, and maybe the binding. Or perhaps a small pink print? The center of the blocks and outside borders are pink( not a pink person:).
Any comments on ideas for backing? And ideas for quilting. Should I just quilt in the ditches or some design in the big pieced portion, another design in solid center and solid corners.Thanks for any help!

As to the quilting, I'd go with your initial thoughts. While as a fellow hand quilter it is somewhat defeatist to me to do SITD, sometimes it just makes the most sense. But the other open areas should definitely showcase your work.

And yes, since the background is a very bright white, I would probably go with a WOW for the backing as well. Not sure I'd go with a pink binding though. Maybe one of the lesser used dark shades in the blades????

I agree with all that is said above. I think a darker binding is the way to showcase the quilt.

I am having a problem with your background fabric as it looks beige on my screen. Which would question white as the backing. If the front is white I would go with the same on the back. Make sure the plates don't run or all your hard work will go down the drain. For the binding I would go with a med colour used in the plates.

I think if you SITD around the wheel wedges in a dark color, that would really give them a lot of definition & could improve the look of the piecing! I agree that a design in the pink centers & in the background fabric would look very nice.
As far as a white on white backing, I guess that depends how it will be used. The downside of white is that is gets duller with time & eventually just looks dirty even straight out of the wash. On top of that, white cotton when it absorbs sweat is very unattractive & difficult to clean. There are so many options to choose from in the wheels besides pink & peach that I think you'd have a hard time going wrong. Personally, I'd go with a red or blue, but if all that pink indicates this is for a little girl: (1) there is no such thing as "too much pink", and (2) purple makes a nice alternative to pink to keep it girly but still keep it from being to monochromatic.

In the bottom block there is a print that looks pink and purple. At about 4 o'clock and again just before 12. Something along those lines would work for the backing.
A feather wreath would work nicely in the centers.

Have you looks at any traditional hand quilting of this large Dresden block quilt?? I would crosshatch the background, stitch 1/4" inside each blade. I am not sure how to advise you on the center circle.

The one thing to consider with WOW is the painted on whites. I am not sure how that is to hand quilt through my

cjsews you are correct. WOW for a backing is a little harder to hand quilt through. Not impossible though.

How about a black background since the darker black/blue/greens have print. Then do a circular winding stitch on the Dresdens which would make the Dresdens seem to float and move.