Machine Quilting the Red Eye

The Red Eye quilt kept winking at me while I was working on the white on white, beige and grey north wind blocks.  (last Mondays post looks the same this week only smaller with more seams) I had thought about quilting The Red Eye with the Baptist fan, traditional and an all over quilting pattern but wasn't completely sure that was what I wanted to do so out came all the quilting design books.  I flipped through them looking for a similar quilt then looked through more slowly considering the possibilities, and so many possibilities.  The feathers, fluff and frufru were not right for this quilt. My concentric tear drops that I do so often would have been alright but I really wanted to accentuate the piecing.  Sometimes the piecing get lost with an all over quilt design.   I want the quilting to enhance the piecing because so many hours have gone into piecing and arranging the blocks.  Crop circles on the blocks would be perfect!  At first I was placing the half circle templates on half the block and maneuvering under the needle then I had an ah ha moment and moved the template to the quarter circle placement.  Much easier to hold in place and move the quilt all at the same time.  As long as no one uses a caliper to measure my circles or the space between the circles it looks pretty good.
My favorite quilt design books:

1. Skillbuilder Mastery for Quilting by Machine and Machine Quilting Design Builder  by Renae Allen lots of ideas for quilting various blocks, setting squares and triangles and borders Great book if you want to show off the components of a block, sashing and borders.
2. Quilting Possibilites freehand filler patterns by Sue Patten variations of designs to fill a variety of blocks
3. 250 Continuous Line Quilting Designs by Laura Lee Fritz  lots of pictorial and theme designs
4. Quilting Makes the Quilt by Lee Cleland  There are 10 quilts in the book she has sewn 6 of each and quilted them 6 different ways, some traditional, some edge to edge designs, some very contemporary, her book really shows how the quilting can enhance the piecing or over power it.
5. Freemotion Quilting by Judy Woodworth basic how to's for contemporary and traditional designs also how to use templates, and information on thread, tension and batting.
6. One Line at a Time by Charlotte Warr Anderson how to mark a quilt and make templates for geometric designs.  I might try these on a very small quilt to fill in the background.
7. Heirloom Machine Quilting a Comprehensive Guide to Hand-Quilted Effects Using Your Sewing Machine by Harriet Hargrave the title says it all, lots of thorough information on turning your quilt top into a quilt.
8. Encyclopedia of Designs for Quilting by Phyllis D. Miller how to for a wide variety of designs for hand quilting but adaptable to machine quilting.
9. Quilting with Style Principles for Great Pattern Design by Qwen Mortenson and Joe Cunningham also a wide variety of designs and how to mark a quilt for geometrics, cables, fans, feathers etc for hand quilting but also adaptable to machine quilting.

While I have been working on the Red Eye I have been thinking about how to quilt the white on white, beige and grey northwind quilt.   Thinking ahead .  --Ann--  linking to Judy's DWM