quiltlady1941

I started on my big quilt 130x135..I tried doing feather but they looked really bad, so I ripped all of them out.. I am going to go with a spiral flower design or what I call a spiral flower design. I can do spiral pretty good so I thought I would try the flower one.. I wanted to make a big design but I am having trouble keeping the design big, as I go along they get smaller. and being this is a big quilt I think a bigger design will look better..

I think it is ok to have different sizes of the flowers but my question is how do I keep most of the design bigger..I seem to just keep make them smaller without even realizing that I am doing that.. Also do I have to fill in every space on the top or can I leave small areas that have nothing in it?

anyone have any subjection on how to keep the design big..Beside drawing the design on the top, which I really don't want to do..I tried to keep in my mind big big big, but that didn't help..Thanks

quiltingshorttimer

on the long arm I lay an item of about the size I want as a reminder to me. when working on my domestic I will do some very minimal marking of design size (you don't need to do all over, just often enough to see it as a reminder)--I use the blue line water soluble for that. And you don't need to fill in everything but often enough to meet batting requirements and I personally like to have balance across the quilt on quilting density. Your quilting looks great in the picture!

quiltlady1941

Thanks this is just a corner of the quilt done ...a lot to go yet.. Thanks for the advice, I'm going to try and lay a circle the size of the design and see if that doesn't work for me.. I don't have one of them markers but next time I get out i will get one..

Tartan

​Yes it really helps to have an object you can see or think of in your mind. Think of golf ball size or orange size...etc. Looking nice so far.

liking quilting

Looking beautiful so far. If you have some that end up smaller and then work to a larger scale again and do that several times, it will look like a design choice rather than an "oops."

glassnquilts

I often fo that design. I like to vary the sizes of my flowers.

Doggramma

I think what you’re doing so far looks good. I like the different sizes and the swirls, and small unquilted spaces are ok, I think. You sound like me- I start out big and it keeps going smaller.

Jingle

Looking great so far.

feline fanatic

You can also use your piecing as a guide for scale. It looks like you want roughly about 1 1/2 flowers in the light area so you can use that to help you scale your size. I have the same problem (progressively getting smaller or larger in the motif) on the longarm which is why I have to mark or opt for a panto.

suern3

This design looks really good. I can't remember if you are using a long arm or a domestic machine for your quilting. I use my domestic machine and find it hard to make a larger design. Overall though, on a larger quilt, I don't think it is really noticeable if you have a variation in the size of the motif. Your quilt looks beautiful.