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How to Pick the Right Quilting Design for Your Quilt

How to Pick the Right Quilting Design for Your Quilt

If you are a resident of a cold region, you know exactly how boring it is to use the same old blankets and quilts daily, that too for at least four long months. Well, that’s when quilting designs help you get over the boredom. 

The next thing is how to design a quilt. In other words, we can say how to pick the right quilting design for your quilt. So you have picked up the quilt top, chosen the right fabric to be used for the backing or insulation. However, you are still overwhelmed with the number of design options you have, or, even worse, with no design at all in your mind.

We have, therefore, prepared a guide for you to help you decide the right quilting design for your new quilt. 

How to Choose a Quilting Design?

1. Know the Importance of Time – An all-over design on the quilt takes less time than a custom design or patchwork. Similarly, a heavy design over a busy fabric is simply a waste of time. This is because quilting design that is not visible due to the bright colours or busy prints of the fabric is useless. Thus, your quilting design should be in accordance with the time available at your hand and the kind of fabric you have chosen for your quilt top.
2. Know the Purpose of the Quilt – Most quilts that are intricately designed by a longarmer end up in the drawing room as a showpiece. However, there are many who want to improve the décor of their bedroom by a custom-designed quilt. Nonetheless, many people want a quilt just as a daily utilitarian. Only you know the purpose of your quilt and hence only you can decide what quilting design perfectly suits the purpose of your quilt.

3. Pay attention to the Tools You Have – Ask yourself, if you are going to design your quilt yourself or you are going to use longarm services? Whether you or your longarmer has all the necessary tools required to design your quilts like rulers, templates or proper applications for a computerized design? 

   
   

    Well, a freehand design is simple to achieve. However, a straight or precision design needs some different types of tools and skills. You should consider your or your longarmer’s talent before deciding the right quilting design for your quilt.
4. Pay Attention to the Quilt Top Fabric – As already discussed, a busy printed fabric does not need or looks good with a heavy quilting design. Or else, you would want to compliment the straight lines printed on the fabric with curves, loops or circles as the quilting design or vice versa. You can also choose to design your quilt with a theme like garden, huts or geometric designs. The print of the quilt top can play half the part of your selected theme and your design can play the remaining half. Another way to choose a theme is by picking a plain coloured fabric and making a theme over it that you like.
5.  Doodling – This might be creative and easy to imagine, yet difficult to implement a plan to design your quilt. Sometimes, an artist simply needs a canvas to draw pictures of his imagination. While selecting the right quilting design for your quilt, you might also want to draw something freehand and develop that as your quilting design. Well, if you trust me, there is nothing better you can do with your quilt.  You can take a piece of butter paper, preview paper or a press and seal paper that can print your doodle easily on the fabric. You can draw your doodle over it and print it directly on the fabric. Or else, if you are confident enough, you can simply draw on the quilt top and make it your perfect quilting design.
6.  Decide Your Budget – This is one of the most important factors that you need to consider when you start deciding about your quilting design. Whether you want to design it yourself or take help from a longarmer; whether you want to invest in buying new sewing and measuring tools or not; whether you want to buy new fabrics for patchwork or not – everything depends on your budget.

Some Ideas to Begin With

If this is the first quilt that you are designing or you want to start afresh for a new quilt, below ideas are definitely worth a read.

1. Stitch Parallel to Seams – This is the design with which beginners can start with. Stitches can be sewn a little distance apart but parallel to the seams of the quilt. To make this design look attractive, the longarmer should stitch neatly and at a uniform width from the seams.

2. Straight Lines or Rectangles – This is another easy and very common design that you can choose for your quilt, especially if your fabric has curves, circles or flowers printed on it. You simply need to stitch in parallel motion at equal distances, horizontally and then vertically.

3. Free-motion – This is probably the easiest quilting design one can ever choose. You simply need to start stitching in a free-motion from one end to the other and before you know it, it’s done.

4. Patch-work – If you have become a pro in designing quilts and want to try your hand at something different, then this is meant for you. Patch-work in quilts is trendy once again and you get a chance to use your old leftover clothes as well. Patch-work also works wonders in designing your quilts with some themes.

                        Once in a while, your friend with similar interests can also help you in picking the right quilting design for your quilts. However, do not forget to discuss your needs, purpose, budget, timeframe, skills, etc. with your friend. It is a good idea to take suggestions but you should have a clear picture of what you can do and afford. This is because you cannot go back to scratch once you have already started it.