Elements Of Your Quilting Design

You can transform your quilt from a Plain-Jane to an Exciting Quilt with simple design elements in your quilting design. Although books are getting better relating to this, often a guide demonstrating a beautiful quilt top design falls short when it comes to suggesting quilting designs.

Lots of the books have small pictures of the entire finished quilt top, leaving you guessing how it had been quilted. Others have close up pictures of the quilting design for part of the quilt top, but don't show how that part connects with the rest of the top.

Effective quilting designs don't have to be intricate and detailed to be effective. A quilter might choose a sample that simply echoes the pieced or appliqué design, outlines someone design feature, or creates a grid or series of parallel quilting lines.

In deciding how exactly to quilt your Summer doona, you ought to first look at some of the overall design components of the quilt top, and ask some basic questions, like: Are there design features I want to emphasize? Exist elements I want to have recede into the backdrop? Exist large, open areas the place where a quilted design, like a feathered wreath, could work? Does the quilt have movement that I would like to enhance (i.e. exist curves and waves vs. straight seams)? Can there be interesting fabric I would like to highlight or develop a contrast

Once you've some of those basic questions answered, it's time to look at some specifics.

A quilting design that echoes the fundamental design of the quilt has become the easiest to accomplish, yet choosing which design elements of your quilt you echo can, indeed, affect the overall look of one's quilt.

For instance, for an easy Irish Chain quilt, by quilting parallel lines of quilting through the diagonal lines of squares creates a type of channel affect, making the center squares stand out. The square in the middle may be quilting in a very different way, developing a new design element.

If your quilt is green and white, think about quilting a shamrock in each square? Quilting a center in each square delivers yet an alternative message. Or, mix them up, a shamrock in most other square, alternating with a heart.