quilting ideas for English Paper pieced & applique quilt

pix always help us with ideas. j.

"Lobo" wrote... I am finishing up an English paper pieced and applique quilt. I have no trouble putting all that together, but am stumped as to how to quilt it. I've googled and found nothing except one photo of McTavishing which would work well. Am wondering if anyone out there has some other ideas though. The quilt has a Grandmother's flower garden, a fan, a fern and a fish, so it's not typical English paper piecing throughout. Thanks.

Lobo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Delete the obvious to reply to me personally. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can you post a photo or two to help us think? :)

I have a quilt my great grandmother made with most of those elements, and it is a treasure! The quilting is all hand-work, and is stitch-in- the-ditch, plus some lovely embroidery here and there -- french knots in the center of the flowers, lines detailing leaf veins, etc.

Totally in the ditch? What about the areas around the applicques? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Delete the obvious to reply to me personally. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

how about echo quilting around appliques, like in hawaiian quilts. j.

"Lobo" wrote... Totally in the ditch? What about the areas around the applicques?

Mary" wrote...

how about echo quilting around appliques, like in hawaiian quilts. j.

"Lobo" wrote... Totally in the ditch? What about the areas around the applicques?

Mary" wrote...

Yes, it is totally in the ditch, and around the applique pieces, which makes them appear a bit "puffed up" -- or at least, I expect that they once did! It is a very old, much-loved, and often-washed quilt, and a bit tired now. . .

OK ... here's a photo. This is supposed to be a public link ... I guess some people have not been able to get to some I've sent to them though. I'll come up with a different way if this doesn't work.

I don't have suggestions on quilting but just wanted to say that it is lovely!

Echo quilting. Are you going to do the quilting by hand or machine? As the border is a 'busy' pattern, you could just 1" square grid it, say, on the diagonal. It's lovely. Bronnie

love the leaf in particular. leaves are my favourite shape of all time. no idea why that is, just is. could be the variety of both shape and colour in the leaf world. also very fond of hexagons at the moment. nice work indeed. is the leaf your own pattern? only people who are logged into facebook would probly be able to see it. tho i could be wrong on that. j.

"Lobo" wrote... OK ... here's a photo. This is supposed to be a public link ... I guess some people have not been able to get to some I've sent to them though. I'll come up with a different way if this doesn't work.

No, J., I saw it just fine! . In message , J* writes

I agree with Bronnie. As soon as I saw how it was arranged, I thought echo quilt the appliqué, with gentle swirls over the background. As you are hand quilting it, a diagonal grid would be good, too. (machine quilting a diagonal grid would be a royal pain!! with all the stopping and starting - that's why I thought swirls). The quilting on the background won't show up very much on that lovely fabric, so simple is good. . In message , Lobo writes

I like the idea of sort of echo quilting the fern and the fish, but I think the other 2 would be too static. I'm also thinking I would do the echo quilting sort of abstractly, loose and floaty, rather than precise echoing. That still leaves me puzzled about how to do the fan and flower.

I agree with you on that Lobo. As for the flower.... one of the traditional ways to quilt it would be a quarter inch inside each seam line. So you would have smaller hexes "echoed" inside the piece. The fan could be done similarly, perhaps emphasizing some of the parts only. A bit of echo quilting around them would also be possible. Lovely quilt and good luck in the challenge.

Pati, > I like the idea of sort of echo quilting the fern and the fish, but I thi= nk

I'm trying to stay away from the traditional as that is the expected thing, and I always like to do the unexpected whenever possible! I can imagine doing curvy lines outward from the center of the flower, but still am stymied by the fan.

Lobo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Delete the obvious to reply to me personally. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pati, > I like the idea of sort of echo quilting the fern and the fish, but I > think

using a fan creates wind. any ideas from that. j.

"Lobo" wrote... I'm trying to stay away from the traditional as that is the expected thing, and I always like to do the unexpected whenever possible! I can imagine doing curvy lines outward from the center of the flower, but still am stymied by the fan.

Lobo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~