Having finished sewing the ditches on my quilt I’ve started the decorative quilting. I decided on a combination of heart motifs and what I think is called stippling, aka scribbling in thread.
I’ve completed the centre. The hearts are sadly, but not surprisingly rather wonky.
I’ve also quilted one of the four borders around the centre, but I’m wondering about the other 3, which is where I need your advice.
They’re so thin, I’m considering not quilting them. Here’s another pic with none of them quilted…
What do you think? Any ideas on what to do if I don’t leave them unquilted?
Bekki x
I know nothing about quilting so I can’t help – I just wanted to say how pretty it looks!
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Thank you 🙂
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Have a look at tying with some lovely threads. Great to see you back on line xx
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Hello. Thanks for commenting – I was thinking you were just the person who would know and wishing you weren’t so far away, for all sorts of reasons. Hadn’t thought of doing anything by hand. Thanks that’s sparked a whole new train of though – plus a small groan that it doesn’t involve my machine. I did wonder though about just doing a decorative stitch and using the walking foot. Assume that would work?
lovely to be back. Glad you’re still reading xx
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I’m very impressed with your stippling and nobody minds a wonky heart.
As for the borders – how many inches are we talking between the border where you’ve quilted the line of hearts and the edge of the quilt? Personally, if it’s no more than about 3 inches, I wouldn’t do any more quilting. If it’s more, maybe just a line parallel to one of the seams. If you do the former, just run a line of basting stitches round the outside of the quilt – I do it on the machine ‘cos I’m lazy like that – which will hold the edges together nicely while you put the binding on.
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Thank you. Less than 3″ and doing nothing does appeal 🙂 That’s not the final edge though – three more ’rounds’ of stuff to go. AKA loads!
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Ah, sorry, I got the wrong idea about the size of the whole quilt and thought you were showing us the very outside of it.
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Oh no. It’s massive. 🙂
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I really like your hearts and stippling and applaud your efforts. I’m terrible at free motion quilting. You asked for our opinion, so here it comes. 🙂 If there are four borders around the center that are alike and you have one done, I’m the boring person who would do all four alike. And, then I might be doing straight stitching on the rest if I’m tired of it which I certainly understand on a large quilt. It’s a beautiful quilt.
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Thank you. And thank you for being honest – it’s what I need. As you can see I’m not great at free motion either, but I’m not a perfectionist either, so can live with what I can do. Also figuring I’ll get better if I keep at it. I think that’s kind of what’s going on in my head: I’ve done one so the rest need doing. They are so much thinner though, they’re going to be much harder. The really skinny one is especially scaring me!
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I don’t think you need to quilt all four borders… the one you’ve done won’t look odd, after all they are all different anyway, and they are narrow so it’s not as if the quilting is necessary.
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Do nothing is definitely the sort of advice I like. Thank you. Have left them alone today, while I way up opinions 🙂
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You might try quilting every other one. Since I seem to understand these are not the outside end borders I think there needs to be some quilting in them to balance the look.
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Thank you. I hear where you’re coming from, but thinking if I do one more then the other two may look more odd 😦
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First up I have to say it’s looking fabulous. The wonky hearts is just fine and fun – wonky hearts are a thing you know. And the stippling looks great to my eyes too. I have a quilt that is stippled all over and I’ve never actually studied the stippling, it’s just the effect that is pleasing. Being me I look for balance, if that is off then the thing won’t work for me – I think we are all like that, so the first thought you have to have when you lay it out and look at it is do I like it as is, does something bother me? I wonder if you stippled the wide bands and left the narrow ones stitched in the ditch only, if that would allow the eye a slow transition to the edge? Listen to the quilt it will tell you 🙂
xoxo
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Thank you. Great to hear wonky hearts are a thing 🙂
I guess what’s making me ask at this stage is that you’re supposed to quilt from the centre out – so I don’t feel I can listen too it fully until I see all the other quilting. But i guess those bands are so thin it won’t matter if I do quilt them at the end.
Thanks again xx
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I think it looks very pretty, but am certainly not able to make a sensible suggestion.
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Thank you anyway 🙂
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Another no opinion, but it looks pretty!
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Thank you 🙂
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🙂 You know me, I am not very good at stitching, so all stitching is amazing and stunning.
I do like the wonky hearts and I think they work well and lend a beautiful look and charm to your fabric as well. They really work.
I would probably not stitch or quilt the bands, or maybe some hand stitching, if you are in the mood to work on it in that way.
You are definitely on the right track, and I love each time you post about it and we can see how you are doing with this. 🙂
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Thank you. Hand stitching is definitely sounding like too much hard work and the longer I think about it the less likely that becomes. 🙂
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I like the hearts, but completely understand the urge to do nothing! As long as you have stitched in the ditch, the layers will stay together, so for the skinny strips, doing nothing is OK. But if there are wider ones, I would quilt them somehow. Hearts or stipples, or diagonal straight lines, whatever you think will look good on the whole.
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Thank you. There aren’t any thicker.strips, it is just anout the way it looks. I think I’d like to do something, but they are so thin plus it’s going to be time consuming!
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Yes, whatever you choose will be time consuming! And no matter what you choose, it will be beautiful.
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Aw! you’re too kind.
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