Quilt It: Pointers for Choosing a Quilting Design

quilted the long arm quilting show is brought to you by handi quilter manufacturer of easy to use long arm quilting machines designed by a quilter for quilters yli you'll love it paintbrush studio inspirational fabrics welcome to quilt it the long arm quilting show I'm Jody Davis the scariest words in quilting are quilt as desired how do you choose a quilting design for a quilt the quilting can make or break a quilt joining me today is Susanne Michelle Hyland Susanne you've quilted many a quilt haven't you I have quilted a lot of quilts and I have seen quilting that really doesn't do very much for the quilt and I have seen quilting that just makes a quilt shine so how do you decide there's some questions that you can ask yourself because there's so many possibilities and that's what's scary about those three words yes just don't know what direction to go so if you ask yourself a few questions you can funnel down and narrow down those choices and then preview or addition the design so that you can be very confident in your decision great so you're going to give us kind of a roadmap I are thinking and we're going to show you lots of quilts which is what we like to see as quilters anyway so what does the first question that you ask well there's a set of three questions I really asked myself to narrow down the choice between an overall edge-to-edge type quilting design or an interpretive design and that is quilting that's applied to a very specific area on the quilt like a block or sashing or a border mm-hmm so the first question is how will the quote be used if a toddler is going to drag it around or maybe even worse you're going to send it to a college dorm room you're not investable you're not going to invest a lot of time in the quilting this is my daughter's quilt she made it when she was ten and we just wanted to get it finished fairly quickly and she's going to use it a lot and so we needed to hold those three layers together and this was a groovy board pattern that she could apply very quickly and feel like she had a sense of accomplishment to get the quilt done and finished that's it with kids you want to get them through the projects that they get that sense of accomplishment get something complete right I think I made this sometimes we want that too oh it isn't it true oh now this quilt is very intricate in the piecing but I knew that it was also going to lay on the floor of a cabin and so I chose not to put as much effort into this quilt yes so it's important to ask that question how will the quilt be used if it's an art quilt or a show quilt or it's an heirloom quilt that I want my grandchildren to fight over of course I'm not put a lot more effort into the quilting yep well that helps well this is a quilt where we would want to have a lot of detail right this is a whole different story it is a whole different story I mean you certainly wouldn't do an edge-to-edge type quilting pattern in this quilt people would look at it and say why exactly why did you go through all that effort for the piecing when you didn't do something to compliment the quilting mhm and you did many different designs of quilting within just this one I did I looked again at the individual areas of the quilt and this I would call interpretive quilting design okay interpretive meaning you chose different quilting designs for different parts depending on what that part is that's correct like the center of the flowers to make it look like seeds or of the sunflowers that's that's right oh the quilting complements and doesn't compete with the quilt mm-hmm what's another question you ask yourself well the next question is are the fabrics similar in value and value is colorblind it's not what colors I see it's whether I see light darks mediums and different areas in the quilt where I can apply a quilting design now this particular quilt is pretty similar in value yes it's blue and green uh-huh but the quilting is going to show equally across the entire quilt and so I chose to do an overall edge to edge type pattern and the same with this quilt this quilt also has very little change in light and dark in fact it's very similar in value and so an overall edge to edge quilting type pattern works very well and it has a variegated thread so you pick up a little bit of the quilting that you might not see if we had used a thread that disappears into the quilt but the quilt doesn't call for any specific quilting in a certain area it doesn't really have a place where the quilting would show extremely well yeah and so that's why that quilting works for that yep I've learned a lot already yeah let's look at the next quilts now that same question are the fabrics similar in value are they on this quilt no you're not there's light spaces and there's dark spaces and quilting really shows best in light spaces yes I could have taken this stencil and I could have applied it here and here to this log cabin it would be law it would be lost because it's a dark fabric and so because it shows the very best here I wanted to highlight the quilting in this space now when we talk about interpretive quilting you can see in this quilt I'm looking at the spaces where the quilting is going to show the very best and showcasing the quilting in those areas so the straight-line quilting in the red area accentuates the pretty quilting in the tan area that's right because it's so simple in the red it really does make that lighter area shine here's the next quilt and you see it does have different areas that are light medium dark but it's a very simple meander all it really does is hold those three layers together serves the purpose of quilting the definition it well it does but that's pretty much all it does because there's no style or flair to it all now look at this quilt it's the same quilt whoa look at interpretive quilting it's not the same clothes Suzanna it's not this is quilting makes the quilt yeah but you can see that I've looked at individual spaces and put an element into those spaces where it doesn't cross in the dark into the light and so you see the elements of the quilt you know the third question is really important and that is are there fabrics in the quilt that are busy prints so how much quilting do you see in the borders not as much as in the white space that's right and now look at the back how much quilting do you see in the borders oh my goodness quite a bit of quilting on the front you don't see that much and the reason is is this is a very busy print you just cannot see it and so had I done a simple line maybe out to the edge it would have simplified this pattern and it really probably would have worked a little bit better but we're going to illustrate you know you may not want to knock yourself out against a busy print because you can't compete with it yes so you're not gaining anything you're not gaining anything Suzanne once you've made the decision between an all-over quilting pattern versus you interpretive what's the next thing that you think about well there's a few more questions I do want to ask myself to narrow down maybe the style of the quilting design that I'll choose and maybe where I'm going to put it on a quilt mm-hm so let's look at this quilt here pretty what is the style of the quilt it's a log cabin it's very it's very traditional so I think when I look at a quilt is it traditional is it contemporary is it artistic is it playful and then I'm going to look for motifs and designs that are going to be complementary to the quilt the next question I ask myself is are there places in the quilt where the quilting will shine and we talked about that a little bit where quilting really does show best in light spaces in fact if you look at a quilt from a distance you will see white thread on white fabric where you will not see dark thread on dark fabric Oh true it's very different true so look here see this red area mm-hmm look at how much on the back how much quilting there is in that red area but you don't see it right as much as this I was a little light yes is dark yep so there are places in a quilt like a medallion quilt or an art quilt where you maybe might have a natural space for the quilting to show the very best and I would gravitate towards those areas and really make the quilting shine in those areas so take advantage of those spotlight areas that's right another question you might look at the fabrics that are in your quilt and look for cues in the fabrics such as flowers swirls waves if you have an animal print you might consider maybe a paw print in the quilting so look at your fabrics for cues and then repeat those in the quilting design yep and people love to look for those those are so much fun well it's just it's really a good art tip yeah to repeat a design element that's already there it's a theme it's a theme and that's the next question are there motifs or is there a theme to the quilt that you should follow the blue and green quilt that we saw earlier it reminded me of two oceans and so naturally I thought about putting fish and waves and things on that or if you have a fall colored quilt what would you quilt on a fall colored quilt leaves leaves ferns something like that so we've talked about whether to do overall edge to edge whether to interpretive design look at the style and then I have one last tip for you that is that opposites create visual interest and what I mean by that is if you're piecing has a lot of straight lines I want to add curves in the quilting to soften those straight lines so if the quill has straight lines add curves now what about when you have applique in a quilt well appliqué I would do just the opposite applicate already has a lot of curves in the piecing and so there is one element that really shows off that the curves very well and that is cross hatching uh straight lines create contrast with the curved lines in the applique and really make the applique pop you know when you look at quilts and now with that knowledge in mind it will really become clear because I'm picturing it yeah yeah you can look at quilts and you will see that that is very true if your cool has a lot of straight lines add curves in the quilting if it has a lot of curves in the piecing add straight lines for quilting Suzanne thank you that was so much great information oh it's really fun to look at quilts and decide what to do with them as it is yes Suzanne we'll be back with more on quilting your quilt on quilted the long arm quilting show we are the handi quilter studio educators and we want you to know why we love our handi quilter quilting machines handi quilter fully machines are innovative check out the color touch screens two kinds of stitch regulation and computer guided quilting handi quilter quilting machines are intuitive and easy to use and they come in a size that fits your quilting style handi quilter offers training service and ongoing education we care about your quilting experience handy quill the quilting machines are designed by a quilter for quilters we'll be at a quilt shop near you or a show come give one a test-drive to learn more call or click for a free demo DVD or follow the truck to Headey quilter welcome back to quilt it Susanne Michelle Hyland is here to tell us more about choosing designs for quilting patterns and you have a wonderful way of giving a sneak peek so we can get an idea of what the pattern is going to look like and the thread on the quilt top that's right because you you think you might know what pattern you want to use but how do you really know now this is an example when I was a very novice quilter I thought you know it's a tree quilt I'm going to use a leaf design but I really didn't know about placement and so here it looks okay here but it really would have been more effective had I put it in this light space right so if I had had the opportunity to preview our edition where the quilting lines were going to follow my quilt I would have been able to make a better decision about the quilting you would have more information because you'd see it didn't work that's wrong it's exactly right so here's how to make it a little more fail-proof and it's called quilters preview paper and it's a clear plastic and I drawn it with a sharpie marker because it dries very quickly and it's not going to smudge onto my quilt and the sharpie marker can be removed with a little bit of rubbing alcohol so it is reusable you can reuse the paper right and we also placed a line along the edge so that you didn't write off onto your quilt with Sharpie I need to know where your boundaries are when you're drawing or auditioning your designs so this is a stencil and Jody tell me what you think is good or bad about this quilting design for this particular block well I think it's pretty how the hearts where they fall and where these little loops fall I think that looks really nice right and it doesn't quite fill up the whole block and so I might have to echo out to the edge now here's another really important thing when you're looking at your quilting design on your quilt first and that is what color thread would I use I don't know if this quilting changes from the white right to the purple to the white to the green and so if I use a white thread it's going to disappear here scream here disappear here scream here right but then you can't use like a beige because that wouldn't look so good what would you use well I would probably use monofilament and I'll show you a little bit more about that okay so you want to see where the quilting path falls on those light and dark spaces in your quilt ha now here's another pattern this is from a pattern pack and by itself it's a great quilting design but it doesn't for this quilt nothing it doesn't speak to what the shapes are in there at all know it and it really competes with it does it you you wouldn't know where to look you just it doesn't do anything to complement the light mediums and dark spaces okay here's another design what's pretty design that fits much better it does fit much better and this what I did was I looked at maybe some intersections of the seams middles and remember that if there's a lot of straight line in the piecing what do we do we've had piece wet quilt with curves well - that's right and what's nice about this particular design if I want to use white thread do you see that the design stays within the white area so I could use white here white here I could use green here or I could use monofilament thread so previewing the thread path I think is just as important as looking at scale appropriateness of the quilting design for the quilt and whether it's going to complement or compete with it and the preview paper does all that for you the preview paper does all of that for you I don't know how to choose a quilting design without seeing it on the quilt can you I don't know something then I know you're a lot more confident if you can see it yeah where you quilt it yes we are visual that's right so threads really make a difference Suzanne they do quilting design really impacts the quilt but the thread color is so important now look at this quilt here from the questions I asked you earlier are the fabrics different in value well this isn't and so we would think about an overall design right but how did I get away with interpretive design on this quilt I don't know what did you do I used contrasting threads Oh contrasting threads not threads that scream but at least show in all of the areas of the quilt so you can see the quilting so rather than it melting in that's right so I was able to break the rules on this quilt now let's look at this quilt and it's got lots of light mediums and darks so you should have done an interpretive pattern I would have thought about an interpretive pattern but how did I get away with an overall edge-to-edge on this quilt well we don't see the thread you don't see the thread it's monofilament Oh it's clear thread Wow so it doesn't change a whole lot from the medium to the lights so let me show you a little bit more about that I'm learning so much about threat I love this Susanna all right here's a square and I've made the square for time so you can really see how thread impacts good your decision light areas dark areas busy print medium print and I've used light color thread and it really screams on the dark this just jumps right out it does so much more than what you see on the light and so you don't really see the whole design and now look at this oh that's much better you can see the quilting but you can also see the fabrics you can see the fabrics and what I love about monofilament thread is that you see the thread path because there's the needle holes but you don't see thread color yeah it doesn't jump out at you that's right now most the time when I'm teaching this people will inevitably ask me well what about variegated threads let's look at the effect of variegated threads by doing some quilting oh boy we get to quilt yay well it must be time to quote because Suzanne has her zinger on yes I want to show you the effect of the thread on this square and how you might be able to even preview it further now we're at a sit down quilting machine this actually is the same machine that can be on a frame well I notice that's the HQ 16 and I've seen that on those big frames that's right you could add a carriage to this and put it on a frame but for some of us who have a little bit less space this is a great option because you still have a lot of room to quilt your quilt without having to be on a frame way more than a home sewing machine absolutely okay let's look this is one way that I can look at thread I can just puddle it pool it maybe in the different areas of the block and see what it's going to do but I really think the best way if you're unsure is to do a little test first the perp is in the pudding or the quilting that's right and I actually probably would even do this right on my quilt and I'll show you why let's go so on the quilt I would do this on the quilt she's got nerve you might wonder why but you'll see here okay when I quilt on a sit down machine for an extended period of time fabric takes oils out of my fingers and so I lose grip and so I'm going to use some gloves machine Gers quilting gloves and they have some grip there at the ends see those fingertips yep all right I can set my speed on this machine because the difference between the being on a frame a frame you can have a stitch regulated mode but when you're sitting down you are the stitch regulator right and so you can adjust the speed of the machine to where you're comfortable now what I want to do with this is I want to quilt across the different areas of this particular square so you can see how the thread looks light medium and dark that's right it doesn't matter what I quilt that's a good time to practice it is I'm just going to take some kind of a motif and move it in the different areas it looks pretty so far it's real good on the dark pops okay that's enough now if this is really on my quilt and I'm not going to use this quilting design have I just sabotage myself let's take a look so I've significantly loosened the top tension so this can be pulled out very easily but let's look and evaluate what this thread might do to this quilt it does have yellow and red and greens which are in the quilt but do you think it might be the best choice remember the squares that we saw before and we had light thread mediums read and modify element and variegated mm-hmm you can pulled it let me show you this here this is another variegated thread yep it does have the light the media the dark and I don't know if it's the best choice my particular I think it'd be monofilament because you with variegated you can't always control where a particular color is going to cross a particular fabric here it's dark here right but it's the light over in the same color but in another place so yes you can't control where it's going to end up I think it's all about value and I think variegated works very well when you have a lot of the same value type fabrics across mediums across all lights across all darks but when it shifts from a medium to a light it doesn't show equally well so great for some things maybe not so much for a quilt that we're going to use a lot of interpretive quilting so now what are you going to do because this is your real quilt is my real thing to mess it up I don't have to sit here and pick it out for ages I sure hope not this is what I do and this is why I loosen the top tension if I just go to those intersections and clip the threads that whole piece is going to come up as a you see how quickly that bobbin thread came out yes and then I can pull those threads out quickly but now I'm even more confident in my decision because I've seen it first excellent so quilting design thread choice you've made the decision in advance you auditioned the quilting design you've auditioned the thread and you're ready to go great Thank You Suzanne I love that tip you're welcome Suzanne we'll be back with more I'm choosing your quilting designs on quilted in the meantime check out one of our short takes on long arm quilting this short take is all about backings and joining me is Vicki Hafiz an educator with handi quilter Vicky's made a lot of quilts in her times so that means she's made a lot of backs which kind of makes you an expert would you say kind of now Vicki so many times our backings are like an afterthought we just throw together some fabric but it really makes a difference doesn't it when you plan your backing well yeah you need to kind of decide are you a confident quilter and if you're a confident quilter maybe you could put a plain solid fabric on the back but it should walk well that's right but if you're not then choose something that's busy result I don't even see the quilting that's right but it also complements the front it matches the fabric uh-huh but if you are a confident quilter have this really wonderful fabric choose some minke or some solid fabric yes that it'll show on the back so you kind of have two quilts there oh that's a great idea it's a cute designed by the way perfect for kids now Vicki what happens when your fabric isn't wide enough and you have to seam your fabric well you know there are fabrics that you can purchase that or wide enough yeah but sometimes they don't match your quilt tops okay so if you have to seam then you know every fabric comes with a selvage yes cut it off uh-huh see this one yeah and what it does to things doesn't it I've found that it makes the seam pucker and also it's there's it's so thick than your Ridge there yeah yeah and a lot of people don't know that so this one we've matched it up with our fabric see how nice that matches with the fabric it does okay then let's pull this out here and you can see you see how I seem that an inch oh it's really wide but I clipped off about half of it to get rid of those you're the salvage and then press open that seam okay alright the problem solved that problem now let me show you something else what if you have a lot of fabric left over mm-hmm so let's take the fabric from the quilt we have the fabric here in the quilt you all those different fabric we had these fabrics leftover make a quote for the back o P something he's something oh then you've used up your fabric that's right so this one has been pieced from all the fabrics from the front that's much more interesting than just a plain piece of fabric that's right you've got two quotes in one almost right then looking at the back the salvagers are cut off mm-hmm and then it seemed it's pressed open to make it like slaughter life ladder and doesn't add bulk as it stitches if you're doing ham stitching or on long arm curling machine you know you want less bulk on that vaccine well the Blessed bulk the better always always well I learned so much Thank You Vicky and welcome for more information on backings go to qnn tv.com you should choose the best thread for your quilt because you're making an heirloom that will last for years while I mix thread for every need choose while eyes long arm Pro thread and Waialae machine quilting thread for your long arm quilting projects both are 40 weight and coming gorgeous solid and variegated colors for a different look try yli fine metallic or yli silk 100 thread in solid or variegated colors both perfect choices for long arm machine yli thread we designed it for you pink brush studios brings the high quality and experience of a 40 year old fabric company and a friendly Midwestern attitude to your local quilt shop with our exclusive fabric lines from the staple group of blenders to the exciting new collections introduced paintbrush studios fabrics are created with the quiltmaker in mind visit the paintbrush studios website to download the free pattern for Crystal rainbow and create your own treasure welcome back to quilted we're here with Susanne who has taught us all sorts of things to think about before you actually sit down to quilt that quilt and now Susie on you're going to put it all together for us we are we're going to look at real quilts and come up with some real solutions yay we have covered a lot of ground we've asked ourselves some questions about whether we're going to do an overall edge-to-edge type quilting pattern or whether we're going to look at individual spaces an interpretive design we've talked about style of quilt patterns and what you might want to use there well this is the fun part and I'd love to get together with quilters and have them bring their quilts and then we look at them together and it's almost like quilting by committee because to decide yes we do that with our bee and I love it you spread a quilt out you talk about and everybody gets ideas that's right and we come up with something wonderful that you never come up with on your own and you can also because you see so many different quilts it starts to get you to think about maybe quilts you might be making in the future so that's right right well it exercises your brain so that you learn more because you go through the thought processes that's right I'd rather work together than alone anyway yes a lot more confident so quilting is all about so I have some quilts here we just taught a retreat and some women were willing to let me keep their quilts so don't look at them this first quilt is called take five that's the pattern it was made by Deanna of Alden New York and let's go back to the questions how look won't be used she said it's a lap quilt okay and so I would naturally lean towards an overall edge-to-edge yes what about the values are they similar different in value with the fabrics well it's they're similar they are and the third question is a busy print you hoped I'd say so yeah that's a little bit busy so I traced out this design this is a pantograph on the preview paper and it really is going to complement this quote well because kind of a busy funky fabric and so a busy funky quilting design would really work well for this quilt all that motion unless a lot of motion and as far as thread color I think I might be lean towards that royal blue might look for a variegated that would work as long as you could pick up the orange the yellows the purples and the blue I think it would be great mm-hmm then that would lend some more funkiness to it being a funky quilt yeah yeah I think a variegated thread would work really well okay let's look at the next quilt this is from the same quilter very different very different this is called day and night it's a pattern from Eleanor burns and what you see at least what I see naturally is that they're stars yep and then there's also another element here and that's this kind of circular yes and there's a contrast in the colors big contrast there is a big contrast in the colors we've got kind of a medium color here and a very dark however I still think I want to look at an interpretive design but I don't have where's the space that the quilting is going to really show what do you think well it would show either maybe around a motif yes but it's going to show more in that orange I think it is going to show more in that orange and so when we talk about thread color I think I would lean towards uh maybe a smoked monofilament and monofilament aliy clear and there's also a color called smoke which kind of blends better with darker fabrics okay and here's why I think I have an idea for this quilt pull the preview paper out oh good we're starting from scratch we're starting from scratch and I really like this this is a process like when you write a term paper you don't always get it right the first time you might have to go back and rewrite so think of this as a process so that you can be comfortable with your decision I think that on this quilt I really want to accentuate the star and this space here and so first of all I would ditch stitch this area here outline the star outline the star and then to draw more attention to the star I would split the middle right here see how the piecing is here yes I would split a quilting line right here in between oh look how that just amplifies it it will it will really draw some attention and then another here just this is in the ditch stitching I'm going to kind of leave that middle alone for just a minute now let's look at this space it's naturally a round space and so there's two things that I could do I could start in the middle and spiral out oh and accentuate that circular pattern or designed to a shape that you will really wouldn't see because it's so angular that's right and remember we talked about two opposites create visual interest yes and so you have the curves and you have the straight now I left this alone just for maybe a decision do you think that it might be better to do another straight line here or can we draw this element into here that that is a great idea either I could spiral yes I like that see how that just just brings these two together mm-hmm okay so damnably I love it yeah oh that you figured it out for sure yeah that's what they enjoy the very most this is a really fun quilt mm-hmm because it's got lots of different elements it's a 2009 golden thimble mystery quilt and so usually you're piecing it in different sections and the whole quilt doesn't come together until you see it well because it's got so many different areas we need to highlight those areas but we also need a unifying background right otherwise it could just be wouldn't go together that's right I wouldn't go together so sue from Greeley Colorado let me use this quilt I'm so glad that she did because it really we could really illustrate a lot of things here okay so I roll out the preview paper okay first of all one rule I have it have a lot of rules but this is a rule and that is any applique needs to be outlined and these are pieced in yeah but if you don't outline them and let's say you were to do this let me illustrate over here I think a stipple in the background would look really great and then it accentuates the words it does accentuate the words if you don't ditch stitch then the the pattern here what you're going to see is this awkward shape in between so when you ditch stitch you interrupt that shape and you really make the word show make that letter stand out as one letter rather than as the shapes that's right so any applique I try to do that so stippling in the background now this stippling is going to be something I'm going to apply to the entire quilt that's the unifying background that makes sense okay now let's look at maybe another couple of sections here a star same thing for me I just think I would ditch stitch this you won't see the ditch stitching but it will define the star now lots of straight lines and so let's add some curves pretty and it accentuates that it's a star since you guys see that that would be really great there yep and then with the stippling all behind stippling all behind now let's look at a certainly going to stipple into your but I think I'm going to stop my stipple here this is a very dominant stripe in the middle of the quilt and so I think it would be better rather than trying to for example take the stippling into here I think it would be better if we do this simply and that is to just X through these days as a separate element from the rest of the quilt and if it weren't so dominant I probably wouldn't be so worried about it but I think because it's such a large part of the bottom portion of this quilt and it's repeated in other areas of the quilt I think that that straight line quilting would be great let it stand alone that's right so unifying background individual elements let's look at the border okay now she has on this border I think that this is too narrow of a border to worry about and the other thing that this red here is actually dimensional you can lift up this red it's not piece down it's folded in it's folded in and so that's really difficult to quilt around and so I don't think I would try I think I would just leave it last what about this border remember what we learned it's real busy so the quilting if you do some a lot of quilting on it it's wasted right so I don't really want to compete with it so here's a way I can bring it in - still compliment and be a part of the quilt do you notice that I had some spacing up here in this area the quilt I see where you're going but I could come right down through to here and use that spacing to be an Okie this border yes okay if I didn't do that because this is so close to this let's say that I used a random out of inch I think that your I would not it just wouldn't be congruent and so it's much better to complement these two areas rather than to try to have them be different different shapes that's great so you're taking your cue and bringing it out here that's how you bring a quilt together especially a sampler quilt okay let's look at the last quilt this is a quilt made by Mary Bell of Winslow Arizona and she actually designed his quilt from a panel called bluebells and I think it's really neat how she fussy cut all of these different flowers and then showcased them in an Irish chain block let's take a look at what we might want to do here now this Irish chain is a really important element we don't want to ignore right because it's a very distinct diamond shape the quilt is actually set square but the Irish chain makes it look like it's on point exactly but we don't want to ignore that what would be the applique and right right so this is the fun part too about quilting is this is a square this is a square you see the square piecing but watch what my quilted line can do if I start here and I take a quilted line and I'm going to take it through just on the edges of all of those colorful blocks there oh you're accentuating the OnPoint look I'm accentuating the OnPoint look yeah the other thing I want to do too is I want to somehow I want to unify this Irish chain so I would do this on all sides it's going to create a diamond shape around each one of the flowers but what do you think I should do in here well you don't want anything straight I don't think I don't think so either I think that it needs something and so let's consider this this is how she could do it actually in a continuous line watch me for just a minute ah now when she comes back so she'd do that all the way across all the way across the iris chain ah watch what's gonna happen I think this is really fun it is and it's leaves which is like the Rose its leaves and so remember we talked about style of quilting and motifs mm-hmm well look at that it still almost has a diagonal effect don't you see an individual element in each one of those little squares works really well perfect what would you do around the rows then well I think that the roses need to be accentuated and so definitely I would go and outline the rows and I would certainly recommend that she do some thread painting in here where she would go and choose which elements to really make pop veins in the leaves for example and then what about the background something just kind of simple and all-over pattern that's small yeah do you remember we talked about dark threads on dark fabrics is it yeah show very much anyway no I wouldn't knock myself out maybe just a sniffle and you might consider if she's really ambitious she might do something like a McTavish aware you took a lot of lines but I don't know as I look at I wonder if he I wonder if it might be too busy and it is stippling is just a better way to go mm-hmm I think so I think so too let's talk about the borders quickly because you do have borders you've got to address those certainly I would ditch stitch this and I was kind of debating you know should we maybe take the flower element the leaf element and put it out and so I was thinking repeat it or is that too much if it might be too much but here's a way to repeat it okay let's look at this black border I think that she needs to look at the borders and find a repeat where she can take a diamond shape like this aha whatever that repeat may be and of course hers is going to be very even mine's just quickly drawn but do you see how then that Irish chain element comes out into here yes and if she wants to if that's not enough quilting then this is the place where she could repeat that flower I like that everything gets pulled together you've taken an element that's in the quilting and the interior and you've brought it out to the border I think it's going to look great I do too well Suzanne this is a perfect example of quilting makes the quilt doesn't it help to just ask yourself these basic questions then you take all those limitless possibilities and you narrow them into a little funnel and then you look at them on the quilt and you feel really good about the decision that you've made before you start quilting your quilt gosh Suzanne I have stated it any better thank you so much this has been very very helpful you've given me huge confidence thank you it's been fun to be here for more information on everything you've seen on the show today including Suzanne's products go to qnn tv.com we'll see you next time I'm quilted the long arm quilting show for information on how to sign up for this and future episodes visit qnn tv.com

Channel: Quilt Videos

Views: 129,167

Rating: 4.8992248 out of 5

Keywords: baby quilt patterns, free quilt patterns, how to make a quilt, how to quilt, patchwork, patchwork quilt, patchwork quilts

Id: 33N5X1GqzFw

Length: 38min 32sec (2312 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 02 2012