Hi Karen, I am glad you are getting it done. I would do the same thing, tying off the ends rather than do a few tiny stitches and backstitching in place. It does look so much better all though it is a bit of a pain and takes a lot longer. I look forward to seeing the photos.

I was wondering the other day how it was going. Must be a pleasure working on such a lovely quilt

it is very beautiful quilt top!!! it remind me of kathy k. wylie work, i assume that if you quilt by machine i would look at her site to see how she quilts her tops.
good luck!!

After a couple of weeks of quilting, I thought I would update with my plans. I have completed quilting around the applique and have started grid on the center part of design. It is taking FOREVER, but it does look nice. I did quilt another stem coming off the blue leaves and that gives it an unexpected look. Once I get a bit farther I will post a picture. I am choosing to tie off the end of my lines of qulting at each stop instead of using a few stitches in place and really like the look, but I do often wonder if I am crazy or what. Will keep plodding along and hope to post something soon.

Karen

Karen,

I'm no expert, so I always look to the past. If this was my quilt (I wish it was), I'd try to find similar vintage or antique quilts of a similar design to see how they were quilted. I'd probably start with a search of the quilt pattern or design on one of the online quilt collections, such as http://www.quiltstudy.org/collections/search.html

rehak wrote:
This comment is making me think. "There is something more elegant about diagonal cross-hatching for some reason." ummm!? I seem to remember that when you hand quilt the stitches on the bias just show up better. Is that right? Is the same true of machine quilting on the bias? I am asking all you experienced machine quilters. Is it that the stitching on the bias has a different quality, or is just the the diagonal seems softer?

Karen - I like the grid better, too. I think I would do it on a diagonal, though. There's something more elegant about diagonal cross-hatching for some reason. At least, it looks that way to me.

Like others said, I travel over previous stitching to move from one line to another. With a finer thread, this really doesn't show. Where I do decide to stop, I've found that I don't like the look of the tiny stitches at the beginning and end of my quilt lines, so I've started tying off and burying the ends instead. It takes a little longer, but I like the look better.

I can't wait to see this quilt finished! Your quilt samples look wonderful and I know the final quilt will look even better!!

Nancy

Yep! The grid looks the best. When I do grid work around applique, I will just "travel" or stitch over previous stitching to get to the next line of stitching. I always stitch around the edges of all my applique first, then echo a scant 1/4" from the edge, and that echo line is what I use to travel on.

Karen, I like the grid better too. As for ending and beginning a row, I try to continuously quilt so I would use a fine thread like silk and stitch the line again when I travel to the next row. In other words, I avoid stoping and starting as much as possible!

I like the grid better, like you said...it sets off the applique better.

Sat down this morning to do a quick mock up of the two ideas for background quilting, cross hatch and basket. I am afraid the basket was more of an attempt at a basket. I am not good at micro stippling and the over under thing on the basket was driving me nuts. When I actually got something done, I am leaning towards the grid and practicing the basket for another quilt I have in mind. See pix.
I think the grid sets off the applique better since it is simpler and I feel comfortable doing it. I have tried a lot of ways of ending and beginning a row, what do you use? My most successful has been to do 2-3 tiny stitches, especially when I will have so much to go over and around. Again, thanks for all of the help, this has been a most enjoyable experience. Now I just have to find that hour a day to sit and quilt.

The grid is easy to mark with these templates: http://anitashackelford.com/quilting_templates.html
(scroll to the very bottom of the page)

They are available in two sizes, either straight lines, or curved lines that look like a ribbon weave.

That is mindboggling!

Thanks Margo, I looked up the website (was a nice interruption to some engineering drudgery) and had never thought of doing it that way, I am going to try a sample this weekend. Karen