I have one more piece left to quilt, and it’s a doozy quilting-wise. I am enamored of circles and can get carried away when I put them on quilts, not remembering that I will have to quilt them. Of course, that’s not a problem if I take the easy path of straight line quilting.
For “Happy Accidents” I decided to feature circles in the quilting, so easy isn’t likely. It measures 29 by 45 inches,which sounds quite doable until you shove the quilt around 360 degrees a few times. And I plan to emphasize some curves with heavy threads.
Here’s the top after some refinements with Neocolor II pastels.
Another issue I face is the difficulty of marking the quilting pattern with eraseable markers or pens. Some of the fabric won’t take marks well and the paper resists everything. I may need to make quilting templates with freezer paper and iron them on.
I’ve chosen several threads in different weights so I will be changing colors frequently.
That leads to the last issue (I hope.) I have matched my quilting thread so well I can’t see the previous stitching in the paper areas, where I need to eyeball the new lines from the previous ones, as I can’t mark the paper. Whee!
I’m linking to Off The Wall Fridays.
The Snarky Quilter 
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It looks so intricate even as is!
I had never heard of freezer paper templates or Ann Scott’s hint about using water soluble stablizer so I hope I remember those two possibilities.
I look forward to seeing how it turns out too!
Yeah, you’d think I’d never heard the phrase, “simplify, simplify.”
You have achieved great layers and a lot of movement. Freezer paper was the second place my mind went to, the first being – how perfect do the quilted circles really need to be. This is where I think I’m far less careful than you. I can see though, that the design is probably enough without the quilting being all over the place/less formal (?). I look forward to seeing where you go with this.
I forgot, I have drawn designs on Sulky water-soluble stabilizer and spray basted it on to the quilt surface, then quilted. Using a cotton swab to remove the stabilizer. It’s a little time consuming to remove but I have had success with it. Sulky has an old video on YT demonstrating that process.
Ooh, I bought a bunch of Sulky products years ago and never used them. I try your technique on a sampler.
I think I’ll simplify my quilting design as I go and get tired of the work involved. I did have some thoughts about doing details with hand stitch.
I love the idea of details using hand stitching.
Have you considered using a Hera marker to mark the lines for quilting?
I plan to use a hera marker on the parts where the line will show. Some of the materials don’t take marks.
I feel the pain of every issue you are describing! I can only wish you luck…but it will be worth it, right?
I certainly hope it will be worth it, as this piece is one I just don’t know about. My goal is to fine tune itsfocus through quilting, but…
Get all that quilting out of the way and then assess again. Or let it marinate for a bit. I’ve been trying not to overthink everything and it seems to help. Quilt, quilt, quilt then walk away and relax!
Yes, I want to get my main lines down before I do fussy stuff.