barb55

I am trying to learn FMQ and this what I need to know, where do you start on the quilt. I have been told to start in the middle and work out. Do you go block to block. I'm not good enough to quilt without a stencil. I can't make up my design in my head and start quilting.

gal288

I start in the middle, whichever block is closest, and work up to top, down to bottom, and back to that middle block, choose a side, work out to border, do other side, &repeat the process. I leave the border for last,, but also start in the middle and work up &down. Then top &bottom. This has always worked for me. Be sure to use a lot of safety pins,, I put 1every 3 or 4 inches. Hope this helps &it will be interesting to see how everyone does it.

thequiltmama

This is exactly how I do it too... :-)

Stitchnripper

I do it that way too!

PaperPrincess

Depending on your design, you might want to consider SID around all the blocks first. This will help stabelize the quilt and let you take some of the pins out.

Cybrarian

I use the temp basting spray to limit the number of pins as well stitching in the ditch where it is possible, but I follow pretty much the same stitching order.

LivelyLady

My preference is STD for sewing sections (horizontal and vertical seams) then I can remove the all the basting pins and then FMQ in the open sections. Of course this depends on the quilt pattern and the distance you can quilt in the batting your using. :D