After getting the Sesen quilt top pieced, I placed it up on my design wall and sat back and thought about how I wanted to quilt it. The first time I made Sesen, I made it as a commission and I opted for an allover free motion quilted meander motif for several reasons (cost, a link back to the inspiration behind the colorway and design, etc.). I’d like this quilt to have more custom quilting, but I don’t want to spent 7 weeks quilting it like I did Pulsar.

Quilting Plan 1 – Custom Motifs
When in doubt, I take a photograph of a finished quilt top into Procreate and start doodling. Of course, the first thing I did was give each area in the quilt it’s own custom motif that related to its shape.
To keep things simple for myself while I was working in Procreate, I used a single color to represent the quilting lines. In reality, I have color matched 50wt Aurifil thread that I will use that will blend in and be much less bold, especially for the background quilting.

Quilting Plan 2 – Crosshatch
A bit overwhelmed by thinking about how much marking, twisting, turning, and tying off the first plan was going to require, I tried a simple crosshatch to see how I felt about it. I would probably use thread to match the Kona Natural background if I were to go with this option.

Quilting Plan 3 – Diagonal Crosshatch
And to give myself options, I also evaluated what a diagonal crosshatch would look like. Based on these quick sketches, I knew right away that I preferred the horizontal and vertical ‘normal’ crosshatch, so I’m glad I took the time to look at this option as it helped me feel confident I wasn’t overlooking something I might prefer more.

Quilting Plan 4 – Dense Background Quilting and Custom for Piecing
The all over motifs still didn’t seem quite right, so I went back and fully sketched out what the quilting might look like for custom quilting inside the pieced areas. In order to help the pieced areas stand out more, I then doodled in a back and forth meandering line. It’s easy to let the color of the “thread” on the background overwhelm the desired effect; the dense background quilting would have the benefit of helping the background recede and allow the piecing to stand out more.

Quilting Plan 5 – Combining Favorite Elements
And then I think I settled in on a solid quilting plan by combining my favorite elements together. I plan to quilt the pieced areas with a 1″ spacing following the shapes of the curves. Then I will fill in all of the background with a 1″ crosshatch. It took me several days of thinking and trying new ideas, but now I’m excited to see this plan come together!
Looks like the perfect quilting plan. Thanks for sharing your design process withus.
I really like the plan you settled on!
I’m glad you are showing others how to “doodle” or plan their quilting designs out on their quilts, either via digital programs, or paper and pencil (which is what I show). It helps so much to figure out what the quilting will be before starting. I was quite fascnated by your process of thinking–thank you for sharing it. And thanks also for a link to the earlier quilt; now I know what Sesen means!
You reinforce the wisdom of knowing that it takes time to get satisfactory and satisfying results. Most of my disappointing sewing projects have been a result of being in a hurry, trying to meet a deadline, real or artificial. Thanks for this reminder that going the extra mile is rewarding in so many ways. Patience, patience, patience.
This is the perfect quilting plan. I am always happy when I have the time to put into planning something, instead of rushing towards the finish line. This will be stunning.