This is a quilt for a little girl. My client asked for custom, but basic quilting. So, I ditch quilted around the mermaids and between the border and backgrounds, I'm doing swirls in the background, curls in the hair, starfish details in the stars, waves in the green triangles, clamshells in the bodies, but then I became stuck ... how am I going to quilt these little mermaids? Specifically, their little mermaid chests?
Two ideas came to mind: Quilt a heart or a seashell there. I'm leaning toward hearts because they'll be fast, simple and sweet, more what the client requested. I can easily freehand those, too. If I were to do a seashell, I'd need to pick just the right one (that patch is 3 inches wide, so it can't be too detailed), size it with a proportion wheel, go to a copy shop and enlarge or reduce the pattern, line it up for the machine's laser ... it would slow things down considerably, take up more time and raise the price.
Plus, the more cute the quilt, the greater the chance the quilt won't get used -- at least that's been my experience. And I want kids to love their quilts into rags.
If anyone has other ideas for such a space, I'd love to hear them.
In the photo below, see the adorable backing fabric, with seahorses and octopuses and little schools of fish. Now, those would be great motifs to put in the white backgrounds if all-out custom quilting were the order of the day.
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