Back in the beginning, when I was just learning to quilt, I spied a colorful bundle of fat quarters in my LQS. I had no idea what I would do with it since some of the colors were not at all 'my' colors, but it was so bright and cheery, it came home with me. Then I participated in an online progressive quilt(round robin?) on Prodigy-now that's a blast from the past! My colorful bundle made the 4 pinwheel blocks that form the center.
The other ladies who participated were wonderful and kind to this newbie, it took me years to realize just how kind they were and just how clueless I was.
Anyway, that quilt is one of my UFOs since I could never figure out how to quilt it. Now that I can do it on my PCQ, I'd like to get it done. You can still see some chalk lines from differenct ideas I was considering. I had wanted to make the pinwheels stand out, like they were whirling. Now I just want to get it done, but don't want to do all over stippling. Any ideas?? I have to be very careful since the center of each windmill is several layers with beads to look like hubs (and to tactfully disguise my poorly done points!) Whoever had the embellishments to do also added some ebroidered patches of bees and butterflies, which might break the needle. Also, the person who had the applique did a wonderful hummingbird that needs to be emphasized, not flattened into the background. Then there are several rows of borders. What would you do?? (besides give up on it! LOL)
11 comments:
I would quilt circles or spirals over the pinwheels. I think it would give them even more movement.
Well I'm not going to be any help at all with quilting ideas as that's not a strong point of mine. But I do like it so I hope you finish it and not give it up as a lost cause.
I'd look at an all over stipple, on a large scale, created using zig zagging striaght lines with points when you change direction. Its a fast and easy filler, that has a real sense of movement when complete and would let you "bypass" the centres of other spots you couldn't/did not want to quilt....
What if you stipple the background and do the pinwheels in the ditch ?
How about quilting a 1/4 inch inside each pinwheell and then stitch in the ditch around the perimeter? Then outline the hummingbird and do a medium to small meander in the background. You can treat the multiple borders as one-use the seam line as a spine and feather the borders.
Hope this helps.
Oh, and one more thing-do a continuous curve inside each diamond in that border. I think I'd ignore the yellow border altogether.
Sounds like Eileen really knows what she is talking about concerning quilting. I can't give advice on quilting, but I will say that I think you should finish the quilt. It is cute and fun and interesting and makes a good "first quilt" story.
If you still want the pinwheels to move, there are freehand designs that look a little like a ratchet that would probably work nicely in there. Like you, I don't stipple often. With the pinwheels and the floral in the middle, some kind of vine twining in and out in the borders might fit. In that floral, a close meander that's pointed. Or not. It's a great-looking quilt.
I like it. Looks complicated to me though. When I start piecing a quilt I never bother to think of the quilting pattern, I always decide on that after i'm done piecing.
I'm not very experienced at quilting either - but it's interesting to see what other people are suggesting!
But now I want to know what *you* did.
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