lap quilt using a panel?
 

I am trying to make a few lap quilts using panels. one is a horse head , a snowman, Santa..I will be using my sweet sixteen machine to quilt them. My question is do I just go over the panel picture using a swirl stitch and go over the whole picture.. I did the horse one and not sure I like the quilting over the horses head. Any suggestions would be helpful.. Also I am just learning how to quilt so nothing fancy..

Quilting panels, I follow the outline of the objects on the panel. Then I quilt on the inside lines. If there's too much space left between my quilting after that, I quilt little things in the big space... curved lines, little clouds, snowflakes, or whatever fits the picture's theme. Or some echo quilting.

Have fun!

I usually use a "generic" looking panto - one that isn't too dense - just enough to quilt the pieces together. I want the pattern to show not the quilting.

I used horizontal serpentine lines on my I Love the Beach panel quilt.

I quilt most all panels all over the image. If you want parts of the image to stand out use an extra layer of batting, cut to fit the part of the panel and quilt around that part of the image. It has a fancy name, I think Trapunto.

I have quilted panels both ways. As a lap quilt, the actual panel picture won't be as obvious as if it was a hanging. I actually prefer a more all over pattern for a lap quilt. It has more even coverage and is much quicker to do than going around the shapes. However, panels and lap sized quilts are great for 'practice' because of their size. Have at it and have fun. And we love pictures!!