JLD

I am fairly new to long arm quilting and have a friend who has asked me to do a whole cloth quilt that will have a picture in the center. I know that I want to frame the picture out and want it to be the focus of the quilt but not sure what to do around it. Hubby says a meandering would do it but I feel that is to simple although not out of the question. Also think I might want a feathered heart or something similar in the four corners but not positive. Feeling intimidated by this all and have a hard time seeing the final quilt in my mind. Any suggestions? It will only be a lap size quilt. Thanks in advance.

thimblebug6000

Do you mean it will have a photo in the center or a picture of something? If it's a picture of something then maybe you could take an element of the picture & make a design with it? For example if the picture had trees in the background, you could do a leaf "meander" ?

dunster

I also wonder what you mean by a picture in the center. When I think of whole cloth quilts, I think of quilts in which the only design is made by the quilting stitches.

JLD

Okay sorry for the confusion - I have a hard time putting ideas from head to paper - So in the center I will be quilting a "picture" of the building these folks were married in. So it is stitched but I want it to be the focus.

ckcowl

sketch your whole cloth quilt design on paper- start in the center with the building- then perhaps put your feathered heart corners in---then (using a pencil so you can erase/change) start trying out filling in- you could cross=hatch, do a tiny fill stipple, lots of options- but since you need to draw it out (mark the quilt first anyway) start the design on paper- working on paper until you have exactly what you want it to be--then you can add/tweek/try different ideas until you have it just right...then from that sketch you can enlarge it to mark your quilt top for stitching.

feline fanatic

Wow, that is a very ambitious project for someone who says they are very new to LA quilting. However, it can be done. I would think if you marked the quilt out with your design you can then follow your drawn lines but the design you describe will have loads of starts and stops or backtracking (for the building). Traditional wholecloths usually feature a center design so you have that, your building. I would then frame it in someway to further emphasize it as you want this to be the focal point of the quilt. A double line about a 1/4" apart always looks nice, espeically if done as an oval or a circle. You can then embellish it with feathers or sprays. How historic is the building? Maybe you can look at architectural elements from that period to use as embellishment. Then you could do crosshatching to fill in your background. Karen McTavish has beautiful feathered hearts that you could put in each corner. I used her designs to do Creme Brulee pictured in the link below:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...e-t184706.html