rachelg

Hi....I am a handquilter learning to machine quilt. I recently bought a brother sq9050 that has quilting features and have completed a couple of little quilts using the walking foot (diagonal lines). The first one was definitely a learning experience as it had several puckers and my stitches were tight. I have learned about basting spray and to lengthen my stitch length and the second one was much better. I am not very good at fmq (at least not yet) and I have this quilt to quilt. Was thinking about quilting it about a quarter inch from the seams. Was wondering if when quilters did this do they just go in straight continuous lines or each individual square? Or is there another design someone would recommend? Thanks for any suggestions!

rachel

Tartan

Great top and it depends on how you want to end your threads. I like to hand tie my thread ends and bury the ends in the sandwich with a self thread needle. If you are hand knotting and burying the ends you want as few ends to do as possible. I would stitch in continuous lines out to the sides and I would have no ends to do.
Some people use the stitch in place method to end their threads. If you want to do that method you could stitch around every square.

azwendyg

My thoughts exactly!

Buckeye Rose

Before deciding on a quilting pattern, you really need to know the requirements of how close the stitching needs to be on the batting....the bag will tell you. Each quilter has a different finished look in mind, so your quilt will be unique too! You could stitch the sashing in continuous lines (1/4" from seam) and then if needed, do inside the blocks. You can take a piece of press and seal wrap and stick to your quilt, then use a marker to make quilting lines....you can then see if you will like the way the quilting looks before ever stitching....way better than stitching first and not liking the results.

rachelg

thank you...for the advice so far. It is Quilter's Dream Cotton batting. Since I have always handquilted...it never occurred to me that I would have to knot the ends! I can't believe I didn't think about that.

And I have never heard of using the press and seal wrap....what a very cool idea! Would that work with FMQ too?

Thanks for the advice!