Really stumped on how to quilt this one. Suggestions, please :) now w pic

[MastiffMomQlt]

Hi Hi folks,

I've got a large, nicely hand pieced, grandmothers flower garden wall hanging to quilt. It's a single basket with flowers & leaves. Since the background is all cream colored gfg blocks, I just don't know what to do with it. It already has so much texture. The client said she doesn't want any straight lines, other than that, she's leaving it up to me. I'm at a loss. Ideas & suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

Caren

[Zora]

Its hard to suggest without seeing the project. How big are the hexagons?

You can cc the cream background, which will give a shashiko look to it. Clamshells in the basket itself. Flowers in the area formed by the handle. Swirls or "S" shapes in the handle to make it look braided. Leaf shapes in the leaf pieces, and depending on how big they are, veins to hold them down.

A lot depends on the scale of the piece in general. You might be fine with just doing cc's over the whole thing. Since traditionally the hexagons would just be echoed with straight lines following the hexagon sides, a more traditional look would be just the cc's. If your client wants to blend the traditional piecing with a more modern twist on the quilting, there are many more things you can do.

[Quilting Heidi]

Did you search past posts for grandmother's flower garden? I recall not long ago, maybe in the last year, somebody had one and they got lots of expamples.

[Neher-in-law5]

I really don't have any good ideas for you, but my ornary first response to her request of no straight lines would be do to a wavy grid instead=no straight lines!

I hope you can show us what you decide to do.

[Quilting Heidi]

If the hexagons in the background are big enough I'd like do a feather meander and then do cc's in the inside or flower like shapes with a swirl in the middle hexagon.

[LadyLake]

Here's an example of curvey quilting on an applique. The flower petals are not hexagons, but it will give you an idea of what could be done, along with the center spiral that Heidi mentioned. As far as the basket itself goes, I was thinking freehand thatch going in different directions within each hexagon piece would be interesting.

Well -- looks like I'm going to have to learn how to attach photos on the new forum system. I'll figure it out and post the photo later.

[MastiffMomQlt]

Thanks, Gals. I was thinking an organic free-form feather in the background. Joan, I like the details on the flower petals on the pic you posted :-)

[ffq-lar]

The center panel has a great vintage look to it. The feathers you mentioned would over-ride the hexies in a pleasing way.

Another thought would be to stitch plain old CC's on the neutral hexies. That even, repetitive line--ending up with circles and petals--would be calm, not detract from the flowers, be easy to stitch, push the background back so the flowers pop, and result in a "wallpaper" look to the background. Not particularly dramatic, but the vintage look of this might call for vintage-type quilting.

Or stitch several dramatic feather plumes on either side and fill in the rest of the neutral hexies with the CC's to further accent the feathers. The feathers would stand out and the CC's recede.