Great suggestion Clara, thanks! Unfortunately, I finished marking the quilt last night and only saw this thread this morning. But it is in the brain for the next one!

Rita,

I have an idea. It may be out there, but possible. Since there is such a dramatic diagonal pattern here and the name Birds in the Air caught my attention. Why not play off the name. There are large half square triangles and then others that have one part full of smaller half square triangles. What about putting in silo silowets of birds flying upward in the large squares (large half square triangles-one bird per) and the rest could have a swirl motion that is playing off wind. You can get several photos and trace the outline (simplify) and enlarge to almost fill the space. Might want to leave a half inch or quarter inch all around in the space. Pick a few shapes 4-5 and trace them onto freezer paper. Iron them down and either quilt around or trace off with a marking pen. Change bird for the next one and repeat the process. You could even go over that line a few times or use a thicker thread. Have fun.

Clara

Ditto Kathy and thanks Margo

Margo, thank you so much your description on how to make the swirl, and I had completely forgotten about stitching in the ditch with monofiliment thread.

Kathy in No. Calif

Good for you Rita! I find using the stylus to draw with is much easier than trying to draw with the mouse!

I often use monofiliment on the top for stitching in the ditch, especially when there is a marked difference in the value (light vs. dark) of the fabrics, and I like to use MasterPiece in the bobbin.

And, I really like using Superior's VANISH to stabilize everything, and it just washes away the first time through the washer! Luv that stuff!!

Yes I would probably use invisible thread. But unpick it afterwards? Nooooooo! It can stay in there for posterity!

You could SiD with the washable thread or monofilament (or combination of both) if you want to remove it after the quilting. I just used the monofilament for the cable area and outwards on my SoTTTs quilt and then unpicked it afterwards - boring but much easier to unpick than cotton!

Lois, don't be jealous, I really don't know how to use it - yet! I also discovered that it had a DVD bundle with Photo Shop Elements 4, Corel Draw and Efex something or other! I will be all set up as soon as I figure out how to do it all. Time for an online tutorial me thinks.

Meanwhile getting back to the quilting design, I have been drawing those twirls Margo and i think I might be able to manage them. I suppose I should stitch in the ditch around the blocks first to stabilize and that will give me a little more confidence. If I make a decent fist of it I will post a photo. Thanks for the tutorials and I really appreciate the time you took to walk me through it.

Rita, I am jealous! But also happy for you!

Margo, Thanks for the info. I am going to have to find a way to get these tools and time to learn to use them.

I'm with Margo here. Take those classes and you are on your way. I can't say that it was difficult for me to learn PSE because I have worked with the big Photoshop for years, but for other things than quilts. PSE can be downloaded for 30 days trial and it is cheap when you buy it.
I have a Intous4 tablet which works on Windows but it has some buttons you should be able to program with often used commands. Keystroke commands just don't work with Windows, grrrr!
Rita, I know you have a Mac so you could profit from that. Look at Wacom's website and see what it is about.

Swing out, swing in:



Arc out, arc back/ swing out swing in:



Arc out, arc back/ swing out swing in:

{!-- ia0 -->Rita's quilting 6.jpg{!-- ia0 -->

If you practice this on paper, it will be easy to stitch it out! Have fun!

OK...PhotoShop Elements is one tool. Another tool, that you may already have on your computer is MicroSoft PAINT. I used that program to create this tutorial!

Here is how I would stitch the curves I drew. I think of each quarter of the design as a leaf shape. the spine of the leaf is stitched twice (backtracking) then the soft "S" shape is stitched to get to the next corner. I repeat in my head "arc out, arc back, swing out, swing in" to get the rhythm of the lines.

1, 2 and 3: arc out, arc back



4 and 5: swing out, swing in



Repeat the shapes. Arch out, arc back:

{!-- ia0 -->Rita's quilting 3.jpg{!-- ia0 -->

Glad you like it! The photo was "skewed and distorted and cropped" in PhotoShop Elements. http://www.photoshop.com/products/photoshopelements
It is a fabulous tool for auditioning quilting ideas, but I've got to tell you that it is not a user-friendly program.

And I used a Bamboo Pen & Touch Tablet to draw the lines:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UigPWJT_lFk
However, it looks like this model is no longer available, and I don't know which of the newer models to suggest.

I have taken two on-line classes to learn how to do this. The first was to learn how PSE works and the second one was a tablet design class to use it specifically for designing quilts. I'm not sure when Carla will offer the classes again, but you can send her an email here and let her know you are interested: http://moodle.steponpins.com/

Rita, this design is really easy to stitch once you get the rhythm! You can do this.