How do you decide how to quilt a top?
 

My tops are piling up because I cannot decide how to do the quilting. I have a Voyager 17 midarm that I have been practicing on (have some thrift sheets on the frame with W&N batting). Precision is not my middle name, but I have discovered that using Superior Bottom Line helps my quilting look a lot better.

In the past I was happy just quilting loops (which I tend to make really close together) with Glide thread. They worked well for wonky quilts. I just want to make better use of my frame setup, plus I think now that I am not so tense about the quilting I can branch out and improve my skills. With the Bottom Line thread, my McTavishing actually looks okay, as do my loops, etc. -- not perfect, not great, but definitely okay.

However, now I have several tops I actually like and I cannot decide what to do!

How do you decide?

There is a book called "Quilting Makes the Quilt". It shows how different designs look on the same quilt. I know how you feel as I spend a lot (a really lot) of time trying to decide how to quilt my quilts. Sometimes I use an extra block to see how it will play with the block design. Good luck and happy quilting!

I first browse thru my pinterest boards that have fmq designs l saved there. Or my quilting design books. Then, l audition several ideas by placing a sheet of clear plastic ( like sold to protect table cloths) over the quilt top and drawing on the plastic with erasable markers. I take a photo before erasing. I compare the photos l took of various ideas, & select favorite. Be sure to outline the plastic with blue painters' tape so as not to accidentally marking the actual quilt.

Could you take pictures of the tops - and then make copies of the pictures - and then draw on them?

I main just do FMQ, my favorite. I think it looks good on all my quilts. Faster too than straight stitch quilting. Although it takes lots more thread.

That's a great idea, Bear. That way you could save them and use them as a guide when you did the actual quilting.

Very often my quilts "tell" me what they want. I hope that makes sense. If there are a lot of straight lines in the top, I like to put a lot of curves in the stitching.

I like to put angular quilting on quilts with curved piecing and swirly designs on more angular quilts. My 2 fav sites besides Pinterest for helping with quilting choices are:

www.theinboxjaunt.com cute motifs that she demos step by step. Lots on her site and a book if you want them all together.

Whirlsnswirls quilting on Youtube. She is almost done with her 4th series of 100 free motion quilting designs. not all of them are my cup of tea. I always find inspiration there!

Always the most painstaking decision for me is how to quilt the quilt.

In addition to the ideas mentioned above, sometimes I take a motif from the fabric. One time I was doing a doggie quilt, and so gave each block a simple bone-shape in the middle. I made a template for the doggie bone shape, but then discovered that it was easy enough to FMQ .

I also find star shapes linked with loopy-de-loops are fun. All different sizes. That helps me loosen up to tell myself that the idea is "all different sizes."

Stencils have also helped me. I use either chalk (white on dark fabric and vice versa) or Crayola Washable Markers (which I tested on--and rinsed out 0f-- a sample scrap block just to be 100% sure for my peace of me).

I probably spend almost as much time researching ideas as quilting them. I usually think about the "theme" of the quilt and work that idea around to get me started and search for other quilts that are similar and look at how they are quilted and decide whether I like it or can do something different. Pinterest is great for ideas and options and I save ideas that I browse through if I'm at a loss or recollect anything I've seen previously. Like stitch678 and bearisgray I test ideas out on the duralar plastic sheet with water soluble markers on the quilt top or print a b/w picture that I draw on to refer to for quilting later. I've also used You Doodle, a free app I downloaded on my iPad you can import a picture of your quilt and draw on it to try different designs. Lots of great tutorials on YouTube as mentioned earlier and inbox jaunt I've used several times for motifs. I think the key is to just relax and pick something to get quilting, often inspiration strikes just as I step up to the quilting machine!