A question about stitch in the ditch.
 

I'm kinda new to machine quilting and want to know how far apart I can do stitch in the ditch and still have my quilt all stay together. I don't think it would look good to stitch over any of my 12 inch quilt blocks, but if I only stitch all around them is the thing durable enough to be washed and used and all that?

It depends on what batting you are using. I use Warm and Natural and that says a maximum of 10" without any stitching/quilting.
Can you post a picture of the top you are working on for suggestions on how you might quilt it?

Your batting will have the requirements for how much quilting is needed. Its on the package or the wrapper.

ditto ... the batting determines how far apart you can quilt.
and also ditto ... show us a picture and we'll help you with quilting suggestions, to enhance your quilt, rather than detract from your work.

Thanks all. I did a really dumb thing first of all by not starting out small and thinking I could just wing it. So, Iv' never machine quilted before and I have a king sized machine applique quilt that I did stitch in the ditch around all the quilt blocks. It turned out nice, but now I don't know what to expect when I finally wash the thing. There's an applique in the center of each block that I don't want to quilt over, but I should do something because I found the batting package which says 2 to 4 inches. I only started reading about how to do things right after I finished it. Now what? I have never tried free motion quilting and have yet to buy the part for it. Would it be really hard to stitch around each applique? I would post a picture, but I also am cyber challenged and can't figure out how. I also wanted to put a profile picture on my account and I can't do that either. :(

You could hand quilt around each applique - that might take a while, but it might be less of a wrestling match than trying to run it through your machine again.

WOW! You machine quilted a king size quilt on your first run! Awesome!

You could take little machine "tacks" on the quilt if you don't want to do outlines around the appliqué. I've done this before- in a place you might hand tie a quilt pick a stitch on your machine, or just go back & forth a few times & secure your quilt.

I agree with bearlsgray. It's going to be a bear but not as bad as wrestling with it on your machine.

I like this idea. Do you think I need a free motion foot to do this? I'm thinking of buying one anyway. Maybe not if I only did a back and forth thing.

[QUOTE=Zyngawf;5678832]I like this idea. Do you think I need a free motion foot to do this? I'm thinking of buying one anyway. Maybe not if I only did a back and forth

I've done it without a free motion foot. I used a free motion foot when I did little free motion circles. On another one I chose a decorative stitch- like a leaf or little oval, & just did one of them to tack the quilt- no special foot required for that. I just finished one where I just tacked it by going back & forth a few times- used a regular foot for that too. Hope it works out for you!

Most machines come with a free motion foot. It's called a darning foot and has a small presser foot with a spring on it. Look around in your attachment box.

You don't say what your appliqué is so I don't know how helpful this will be. If it is flowers, for example, then you can simply put a couple of decorative stitches in their centre. For leaves you could stitch some 'leaf art' i.e. stitch some lines so it looks like veins on the leaf. For animals, fur, etc.
Alternatively, if the quilt is not going to washed a lot, you could stitch round the outline of the appliqué with invisible thread (it can go brittle if washed frequently). Good luck whatever you decide.

Maggie May has a good idea for you to do. Good luck and get those pictures in, the board will help you with pictures.

I am in awe that you did a king-sized quilt for your first machine quilting experiment! You go girl!! I would love to see the quilt - can you take digital pictures? If you can I'm sure we could walk you through posting - I am definitely NOT a computer whiz, so I know you can post pics with little prior experience.

As to quilting it - I think I would go with bearisgray's handquilting around the appliques idea, if it was me. I do like Knitette's idea of the little quilted accents in the appliques...but then you have to stuff it into the machine again. (Good upper body workout, though.)

Good luck!

Alison