Quilting question

 This is not a commentary on long-armers' talents or quality of their quilting. Each of the 3 did exactly as I requested and did it well. Their pricing was reasonable, and I could not have done these queen-sized quilts myself on my Janome Magnolia.  My question is how to decide what patterns to use for quilting?  I asked Tracey to free motion custom quilt the New York Beauty.  Kath has done several large, edge-to-edge designs for me. The latest was Connie who meandered Lilly's quilt.  I used wool batting in all of these quilts. 

I'm thrilled with the NYB. Tracey did several thread color changes and designed each area so the quilting highlights the piecing.  It's as artsy as I'm ever going to get as a traditional piecer.

New York Beauty

I like the basic meandering that Connie did on Lilly's.  Its scale fits the piecing; it's soft and drapes well; and most of all it lets the piecing show. The fabric is dark blues and grays, and we used a dark blue thread.  

Lilly's

I am less thrilled with the edge-to-edge quilting. The first thing I notice is the quilting especially on the 9-patch star.  I think it fights the piecing.  Quilting is important to the final product and I want to see it, but I want to see the piecing too. Does it depend on the piecing pattern and/or the edge-to-edge pattern?  Where does scale of the edge-to-edge come in? How does thread color play in this fight?

9-patch star

Postage stamp