Dolphyngyrl

I have not done FMQ yet just practiced, but I have a lot of books I have collected over the years, just got a new one for mothers day that i love and is now my favorite its called 501 quilt motifs, very pretty patterns from the quiltmaker

Marion T

I get patterns on-line, from books and from magazines. Sometimes I like a block in one quilt, then something else from another. I also have Quilt-Pro, which has lots of blocks you can colour in yourself to see how they look.

Marion T

Oh, I think I misunderstood the question. But for quilting designs, its pretty much the same answer.

mpspeedy

I do almost exclusively handquilting. I love the continious line stencils that they make for machine quilting. They make it easier to handquilt as there is less stopping and starting. For pieced quilts with fairly small pieces I usually just quilt 1/4 inch inside and outside the seams to make the design pop. I like to use wavy or chain designs in plain borders to give some motion to geometric pieced quilts. I have quilted a couple of Baltimore alblum type quilts for customers. Those I usually echo the applique 1/4" around the design and then crosshatch the whole sourounding top. It makes the appliques stand out and get the credit they deserve. I have often used cookie cutters for designs especially on children's quilts. It is amazing how many different ones you can find and some are quite large. I collect them as souvenoir on my travels. They are more practical then other items. My favorite thing to quilt is a wholecloth or printed top, what I call Cheater's cloth. As a handquilter seams are the bane of my existance. I get a lot of my stencils from "Golden Threads" They also have frequent sales on their mini wholecloth quilts. I usually have one of them sandwhiched and ready to take anywhere I go.

feline fanatic

I think I saw that title in my latest Connecting Threads catalog. It definitely piqued my interest. Glad to hear a favorable review of it. I just ordered the book Ghostrider recommended so will wait on this 501 quilt motifs book to see how I like the other one first. Thanks Dolphyngyrl.

Sierra

Meditation! Get a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, or whatever suits you and tack your quilt up on the design wall or put in on the living room rug (or wherever you can see most of it) and just look. Let ideas play around in your head. Try different extremes with your eye. Stippling may be an answer, or it (as I think it can be) a fall-back that does nothing for this particular quilt. Maybe echoing the lines in the design; maybe wrapping back and forth, or perhaps following lines in the print itself.

When you go to a quilt show, look at the quilting stitches. Every quilt is special and quilting is a time to evaluate the specialness of a quilt and enhance it.

I mediate on the person a quilt is for even before I take look at fabrics; also look at my stash of quilt pictures. A design begins to build in my head (either my own or a standard one with "special" colors or special something) until I know what I'll do for that person. [Never yet managed the "perfect" quilt, but I think the "aim" is always apparent to the recipient, or perhaps I should say the "love".] Hope this all helps.

Maurene

Perfecting the Quilting Stitch by Patricia J. Morris 2001 published by the American Quilters Soc. has a 3 page gem on the quilting design and says design is everywhere but especially in the quilt top, and how to design from the piecing or applique. She gives and appendix of 16 refs p 79 - there are a lot of newer books but you can't go too far astray with this one.

damaquilts

It depends. Sometimes I use premade stencils or designs but sometimes I make up my own. One time I was at a friends house and needed a design for the border. I looked at some mission style chairs she had and there was a hand carved design on them. I altered that design and used it.

anorton

Try doing a search on "coloring page", with the general theme you think you might want. For example, I'm working on a quilt in tropical colors, and I wanted beach umbrellas, starfish, etc. Found lots of simple designs. Just trace onto fabric and quilt!

penski

i look in magazines or on the internet