Help with Whole Cloth Quilt

[krhea]

I am working on a whole cloth quilt. There have been many disasters so at this point it is practice. When I look at traditional whole cloth quilts the background fills are basically stippling, lines, rays or cross hatching. I have put rays in the middle of this quilt but don't know what to do with the rest of it. There are some large spaces and I worry that stippling will not be very interesting but I am afraid something like mctavishing with detract from the trapunto......any suggestions. It is snowing here in Colorado today.......this would be good therapy.

I am trying to post a picture but am having problems. I am following directions ( I think). Have resized to 800 x 600.

[Kueser]

Have you looked at Karen McTavish's whole cloth book? I would think she would have some ideas that would include her methods.

[Guest Linda S]

McTavishing works wonderfully. My wholecloth has a lot of it (and a bunch of crosshatching) and I won quite a few ribbons with it. Small swirls work well, tiny feathers, small paisleys, etc. Do get Karen's Whitework Quilting or Secrets of Elemental Quilting. They are fabulous books. Secrets has a great DVD to go along with it.

[RitaR]

krhea

Do not use the preview feature, it will delete the photo. Hope this helps..

[LadyLake]

I recently took Karen McTavish's wholecloth design class. She recommended alternating between geometric background fill and curvey background fill.

I like plain meander, too, but since it isn't 'popular' right now, I just change it a little by making the cuves in the meander a different shape, other than a circular curve. For example, doing long skinny and curved; or maybe little popcorn shapes.

I think crosshatch or curved crosshatch would look great in the area between the large bow and border motif.

In the outer edge area, you could do a backgound fill that is very dense next to the feathering, then gets less dense as it goes toward the edge.

I'd love to see what you end up doing. I haven't quilted my wholecloth yet.

[Quilting Heidi]

I love whole cloths! Joan is right that doing a mixuture and alternating geometric lines with swirly or curvey background fills adds interest. McTavishing would not detract from the trapunto as long as you did it small enough. Your background fill needs to be much smaller (JMHO) than your motifs so that they don't over power them. You can also break that area up a big more by outlining with a scroll type design to frame the motifs and that will just add more separation to the motif adn the background area. You can really do just about anything as a background fill as long as it is small.

[Deb2bie]

I don't have any suggestions to add, the above advise seems good but I want to sy so far your whole cloth is beautiful!!! I love it!!! I would like to do one some day too. It's great to see such a beautiful inspiration. Good luck as you continue!!!

[ffq-lar]

That is going to be beautiful! I love your design.

My only suggestion besides the great advice above--in order for the trapunto to stand alone nicely, the background will need to be densely quilted. If you don't want such dense quilting and want to accentuate the flower garland trapunto, you may stitch an echo. Try to stay an even distance like a quarter inch away and stitch the outside edge of the garland of flowers. The ribbon and bow will be OK without the echo because of the simple lines. The garland has smaller quilted areas and a similar design right next to it will confuse the eye and make it hard to see the flowers alone. If you stitch an echo, the eye follows that uninterrupted line and sets the flowers apart. Then stitch the filler design for the rest of the background.

[quilted charm]

I have nothing to add on technique, I think it's all been well said, but I just wanted to add, I don't know what problems you've had, but I think it's looking great so far. Everytime I see one, I think about getting mine out and trying to finish it, but I never find the time. I admire you for getting yours done.

[Mrs.A]

I agree with Linda...since you took the time & trouble to do trapunto, your remaining background fill should be very dense to 'lift' the stuffed areas. I'd echo the bow & floral shapes once (to isolate the larger shapes and so that you can use the echo line to travel as you quilt the backgrounds) and then choose some small scale fills...maybe one between the center and the bows, one between the bows & flowers and another between the flowers and the outer straight lines. It's always a good idea to alternate straight lines with curvier textures. You're off to a beautiful start!

[Bonnie]

Since this has resurfaced from 2011 do you have finished photos of it. Would be nice to see how you decided to finish it.

[quilted charm]

Oh, I didn't even notice that. How does that happen? It was on today's posts when I posted on it. Oh, I think it did have something on it that was reported at the time?