Creating Ghost Shapes

I've been using this concept quite a bit on my high end custom quilting.  You know those quilts that have a great deal of plain or open areas?  When you can't use feathers, or you need something else besides feathers in an area?  The last time I used this idea was on the opportunity quilt.  It had lots of open areas so I found star shapes online, printed and cut them out, then traced those shapes with chalk.  I used my rulers to follow the shapes with contrasting or matching thread.  By doing heavy quilting around those shapes, they puff up like trapunto, too.   Here are a couple examples of ghost stars.