How to quilt a gypsy wife.
 

Ok, who has done a gypsy wife and how did you quilt it? Have seen many pictures of them but they are so busy, I can’t make out the quilting pattern.
I call mine “Orphans no more” because I encorporated my orphan blocks into it. Busy, busy, almost done !
TIA

It's always easier for us to make suggestions when you include a picture.

To say the least about making the comments relevant!

I would just do an all over meander. The piecing is so busy almost anything will get lost. You could do circles.

Gypsy Wife has long strips at the bottom with lots of various blocks on top. I would think very simple stitch in the ditch with invisible thread. Anything else would detract from the beauty of the quilt. The blocks and the strips are the focus of all your attention. You don't want to take away from that.
Just my thoughts.

Sorry I can’t post a picture. I am soooooo technologically challenged !
Maybe I could do s meandering on the blocks and stitch in the ditch on the strips, or would that be too busy?

I did a repeat pattern up teh strips (sometimes over 2-3 of them) and then a block design in each block.

My stripes were pinks/beiges and the blocks were black/reds.

Terry -- you might be interested in another thread on the boards under Quilting Board Challenges & Contests. There is a wonderful thread about Jen Kingwell and her quilts. I remember several of the posters have made Gypsy Wife and posted pictures. In addition, if you ask there you will get great advice on how to quilt one of her quilts. https://www.quiltingboard.com/quilti...s-t297401.html Good luck -- I am hoping to do my first Kingwell quilt this winter.

Thanks Irish Mom...I forgot about the Jen Kingwell thread. I have also finished my GW top and as soon as I choose a backing fabric, will be looking for some quilting ideas as well. Good luck Terry...

I agree. If you go to Pinterest and look at GW quilting it appears most have used a fairly dense all over design, like meander, straight line stitching or cross hatch.

Here are some blogs with pics that I followed from links on pinterest
http://jenniesthreads.blogspot.com/2...inish.html?m=1

On this blog it is half way down the page. If you hit "CTRL" and "F" at the same time on your keyboard you get a search window and type in gypsy and the page should scroll right to it. This pic is just a simple cross hatch grid
https://theplaidportico.com/2015/03/...raditionalism/

Here is a link to one pic on pinterest that has elaborate custom quilting on it. While it looks nice, I am thinking you could get very much the same effect with just straight vertical line quilting
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/27092035242536238/

I know this is a computer driven pattern done on a LA but it gives you a good idea of what just plain vertical line quilting will look like. If you make them a little wavy as you quilt you can come close to replicating the appearance of this quilt:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/514677063656769745/

Horizontal quilting lines done organically and wavy
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464433780316133904/

I did my GW on the LA, and mounted it sideways since I was going to be doing long patterns in the stripes.