If it were mine I would SITD with the blue checks (hour Glass. I like your idea for the heart and pinwheels. I think too much quilting in the blue would detract from the others. MHO

I wish your pictures were larger, so I could see the detail better, and enjoy your work.
I love using loopy double hearts. It is very easy to get into a rhythm, the loops allow you to easily change directions, and it is very freeing. That said, I would load it sideways, quilt small loopy single hearts around the pinwheels and heart, and quilt loopy larger double hearts in the hourglass blocks. I would also tape down the pinwheels to prevent my foot from catching them.

I'll look for a picture of the loopy hearts - it is just a small meander with loops - not puzzle pieces. very free flowing.

Love your ideas so far. And I agree SITD would look great in the hour glass blocks. If you can't do it in the frame, perhaps you can do the heart and pinwheels in the frame, then take it out and to the SITD on your regular machine. I have a ruler that really helps with straight lines in the frame. It does require a fat hopping foot on the machine, but makes nice straight lines.

beverly

This was the very first time I did this.
It is one of the fastest quilting I can do - very curvy and I find it not stressful - quilting straight lines on my frame is nerve racking for me.

Your quilt turned out adorable!

Straight lines are hard to do on a 9" machine, especially when you get down to 5" or less. I know it can be done, but I find it impractical to do much SID on a short arm. You just get stitching and you have to stop and roll and all those stops and bumps aren't always pretty :)

Jen~ another thought is to go thru with white/light thread and stipple - not too small around the pinwheels and all the white spaces. Then change thread color to the blue / purple
and echo quilt around the heart and stipple outside the echo quilting, quilt one heart in the full blue squares, and back to a small stipple in the half blue squares.
This would cause you to have to 'think'.
I change thread colors often. It does slow me down, but I am always happy with the result.

I'd like to see the heart theme continued around the pinwheels.....maybe a little echo one in each corner? In the hourglass, it would be easy enough to SID from corner to corner making an X and could follow it through all the HG blocks in the quilt. I don't know if your backing is plain or not, but if it is, the X's will frame the hearts. Whatever you decide to do, I know it'll be awesome!

SharonG/FL-IN

Suggestion for the straight lines...try using painters tape and measure your 1/4 inch and then sew along the edge of the tape...works well. The quilt is lovely. Val

Beautiful!! My MQing skills are limited to straight lines - but I like the heart idea too!
Rosa

I'd do something a bit different. I would stipple around both the heart and pinwheel, outlining first, and then do a meander, like Marsha's hearts, in the hourglass blocks moving from one to the other at the corner intersections. I think it would make the hearts and pinwheels stand out better. Just my 2 cents.

It's a very pretty quilt and how ever you quilt it, it will be charming! I like the idea of echoing around the hearts, but then I would just do a meander around all the rest, not paying particular attention to block edges. I would not quilt over the top of the pinwheels but I wouldn't echo them either. They stand out just fine on their own. I love Marsha's loopy double heart quilting! It's adorable and I will definitely steal it use it. ;~))

Kate

Very pretty, Jennifer. I like your ideas for the heart and pinwheel. In the hour glass blocks, a simple SID just along the vertical and horizontal lines.
Vasu

Thanks for all the suggestions! I've been thinking on this and I think I have a plan. Got it loaded this afternoon, need to clean the machine, then I'll dive in and see what comes out of it!

I will keep you posted!