Dilly Dally, FMF, and auditioning quilting designs

Dilly Dally ~ a Thimble Blossoms pattern that was made last year and is finally quilted.

Made to showcase one of my favorite lines ~ Flea Market Fancy. When it was first released, I loved it but bought only one half yard (seeds in blue and I still have a 6" square!) because I really didn't know what to do with it. When some gorgeous quilts started popping up, it was no longer available.  With the unheard-of rerelease last year, I snatched it up, ready to make myself a quilt!

I added a few prints from newer Denyse Schmidt lines and love how each and every print gets to shine in this quilt...

I wanted to custom quilt this one and was stumped on what to do. It can be a tough decision and if you've ever ripped out quilting, you know how helpful it is to get it right the first time! Here are some great techniques for auditioning quilting designs:

Use some heavy-weight clear plastic, (available by the yard at your large fabric stores) place it over your quilt top and draw designs with a dry erase marker. An important tip - use painters tape on the edge of the plastic, so you don't accidentally run off the edge of the plastic and write on the quilt!

This technique is great for quickly trying different designs and seeing them directly on the quilt.

Draw your block on paper, make several copies and doodle different designs on paper. This also helps determine how easily the design will flow, if you'll have to start and stop and is great practice for stitching.

You could easily piece a practice block, but I like to just draw it on fabric and actually stitch the design to see how it will look quilted. Once I started stitching this one, I decided that the quilting would be too dense and adjusted the design as I went around the block.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

With some more FMF on the back...

. . . Cindy