Hi Linda...Just checked your site and blocks ...really nice work. I did a wall hanging with pumpkins and leaves. I quilted the sections of the pumpkin and all around them and also around the leaves. I didn't do a lot more around each block just stitched in the ditch around the borders. Looked really good. If I get a chance I will post it for you . Good luck with your decision. Nan F.

I still haven't figured out that Pumpkin BOM I asked for suggestions on This looks like a good one for a combination of 1/4 " and cross hatching. I think stippling might be too much and there really isn't enough space for a large meander. Decisions, decisions A class I'll be attending in October at Quilting in the Tetons suggests bringing a project that needs quilting to help figure out what can be done. This might just be the perfect project to take to that class.

Kathy, I don't know how far it is from Owego, but I rent time on a long-arm in Irondequoit, which is the northern most suburb of Rochester. I know a shop in Albion does too, but that's farther west. Maybe we are fortunate in this area and there are other shops closer to you that rent also.

Are you near Skaneatles? I love the shop east of there called Patchwork Plus. It's really new and in a hug barn style building with quilts hanging from all the rafters way up high. They also have yarn....

good luck with your move. Nancy in W. ny

Sherry, who sleeps?????????. We keep adding more UFOs and spend more time on the computer. Judy in AZ

I can sleep after I retire!

No, Lynn, like I've said before, I'm just blessed with the luxury of TIME! I have no idea how all you ladies with families and jobs and other obligations manage to get as much quilting done as you do!
KUDOS TO YOU!

Margo, I swear! Your brain must work like a printer - it just keeps spitting out the information we want! And NEED!

This has become a great thread with lots of ideas. I finally bought my sashing Friday while I was attending a Moda fabric showcasing here in Houston. So my colors are finally written in pen instead of erasable pencil! ha

Here is Pat Sloan's video if anyone is interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRF6mLfq7SU&feature=related

And here is a link to Karen McTavish's web site:

http://www.designerquilts.com/index.html

Check out her McTavishing.

FYI...Diane Gaudynski has been awarded the rank of "Master Quilter" by NQA (there are only 22 in the world! http://www.nqaquilts.org/masterquilterprogram.html) and has several top award winning quilts hanging at the National Museum of American Quilters Society in Paducah, Kentucky. Karen is also an award winning quilter, but not as accomplished as Diane.

http://www.dianegaudynski.net/

Another "Master Quilter" is Sharon Schamber. (It was just announced recently, and her name has not been added to the list on the web site yet.)

http://www.sharonschamber.com/

All this award winning quilting is wonderful to look at and something to work toward, but my BOM will probably be cross-hatching too!

I have really enjoyed the two links to look at ideas. I recognized Diane Gaudynski's Echo Feathers from the Jan/Feb 07 Quiltmaker. Last year after the Houston show I decided I wanted to learn to quilt feathers. I went back through my magazines and found this article and a few others and gave it a try....I need a lot more practice. For this project, I would like the quick results of machine quilting (as compared to the needleturn method I am using) but I am not sure my machine quilting will do it justice. Lorna

Sally, you "jump" over the applique to the next quilting area. Pat Sloan has a video of this technique on her website. I will probably hand quilt my top if it isn't too hard to quilt through the batik fabrics. I've quilted on leaves by hand before and it always adds a little more to the block. I'm not experienced enough at machine quilting and I'm afraid I'll ruin my blocks. Too much work has gone into them for that!!!

I like the McTavishing idea! Diane Gaudyski's work is beautiful, too. I can only aspire to either, but . . . I like the idea of "doodling" in the leaves, the flower petals, and even inside the berries with circular, fluid motions. Maybe the leaves can have stems sewn in, etc.

The background will be some sort of dense quilting. I'll probably resort to my old favorite, the stipple. I have tried bouncing bananas, and I didn't have much luck thus far.

I would love to take a longarm class & rent some longarm time after we move to NY, anyone know any shops that offer that service near Owego, NY? I have quilted thus far on my domestic machine, an 8-year old Bernina, and she's doing her best but not keeping up.

Kathy

I have a question about doing crosshatch quilting on a long/mid arm machine. How do you go about this on an applique quilt? I get the measuring and layout/marking part, what I want to know is I quilt along in a straight line up to the edge of the applique (which I do not want to quilt on top of), what do I do next? Carrying the thread over the applique and start quilting on the other side? Quilt up to the applique and then quilt beside the applique to the place where the next adjacent line of quilting is and do the next crosshatch line?? Some other unknown technique? Need your input please. Sally in thundering NE Ohio

I think I may cross-hatch. There's so much going on in every block that I think cross-hatch would be the best...but by the time I get to that point I may completely change my mind. The two web sites that were given showed some fantastic quilting!

Nancy in NC