ManiacQuilter2

I would stitch in the ditch first with white in the sashing then outline and SITD the animals and then find a quilting template that will fit in the the snowball squares with thread to match the top. I wouldn't do an overall design especially stitching thru the animal faces that you pieced so lovely. My philosophy has always been to quilt the top to enhance the piecing.

huskyquilter

That's all great advice! I am definitely going to sitd around the fox faces, and I found a simple but cute pattern of a curled up fox to go in the snowballs. This will be my first free motion that is seeing the light of day, so I definitely need to be conscious of that. I was wavering between grey and lavender, but I'll start with the SITD idea and go from there. This board is so great! Thank you all so much!

feline fanatic

I also agree with Irishgal on grey or light lavender. I would recommend practice quilting the sleeping fox motif a few times before attempting on this. Another option you may wish to consider, is after all your SID work you can hand quilt your sleeping foxes. You will have a lot more control hand quilting them and then, if you so desire, you can switch thread colors if you feel the lavender or grey is to over powering in the darker snowballs. Personally I think it would look super cute and your niece is going to love it no matter what. Here is a link to a quilt I did that mixed 1/4" from the ditch machine quilting and hand quilting
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...ar-t25770.html

Jan in VA

If you don't have that variegated thread, opt for a blue gray like in one of the smallest flowers on the backing fabric. It will mimic the face on the front which is what you want to emphasize.

sparkys_mom

I think he's just pondering what color thread to use. Cute quilt!

lots2do

I love the idea of mixing hand and machine quilting. I never think of this. It's almost like there's a 'rule' against it. Maybe one of those quilt police regulations.

cjtinkle

The teal color in the quilt would be the perfect thread on your quilt, or perhaps just a shade lighter. It will reflect well on all the other colors in your quilt. A light color is going to look too contrasty overall.

donna13350

There is no reason why you can't use 2 or even 3 different colors on the top. I would use white for the back, then white on the sashings, pink/red on the snowball blocks, brown tones for the fox...if you look at this blog, and scroll down, you can see where the quilter used different colored threads on her top...

http://christaquilts.com/2013/11/20/...ilting-part-2/

shy

Personally I think the gray on the white and bright colors may dull the quilt down..also depends on how much quilting u do..I think..what to do is sew some of the scrape pieces together..so u see what the color thread does to them all together..then try different colors..the quilt is REALLY cute..

marciacp

You can never go wrong with grey. On this particular one, I would use a light grey. It is amazing how grey kind of takes on each color and really blends in.
Marcia