Last night I attempted to stitch in the ditch with a decorative stitch. I saw the idea on this board somewhere and thought it was a great twist to an old stand-by, so I tried it for the first time. I used a vine kind of pattern with the occasional leaf here and there, except even tho I tried to help feed the quilt sandwich through the machine, it still ended up looking like an indistinguishable mess. I finally gave up and went to a straight stitch....still had some difficulty getting the fabric to feed thru the machine, but it worked better and alleviated my frustration, which was a good thing.

Any suggestions or helpful hints? I like the idea and want to try it. I tried it on a 4" scrap sandwich and it worked great, but was a tad more challenging on a queen quilt.

You need to do it on a big table so the quilt doesn't pull away. If it is hanging from the edges of the table it will be stronger than the machine and your feed dogs can not keep up with it. Are you using a walking foot? It may also help.

Yes, I am using a walking foot - that was the first thing I did before even starting to sew was to put that little puppy on the machine.

I had the rest of the quilt on my dining table, but I guess there wasn't enough table to support it. Looks like a trip to walmart is in order....ick!

When I had the same problem, I bought quilting gloves and a sew slip mat. Like mentioned before, the table must be big enough so that the quilt gets to be on the table.
Good luck!

Some of the decorative stitches will not work as well on a sandwich. Most of them you have to increase the stitch length and stitch slower.

i really feel that people should practice on small projects and work your way up to big quilts...meaning, you started with a 4" sandwich...ok now do a table runner/or placemat...then do a baby quilt, then do a lap/couch throw...work your way up to big. practice makes perfect, it is all a learning process.

i really feel that people should practice on small projects and work your way up to big quilts...meaning, you started with a 4" sandwich...ok now do a table runner/or placemat...then do a baby quilt, then do a lap/couch throw...work your way up to big. practice makes perfect, it is all a learning process.

Yeah, but this queen quilt needs to be done for Thanksgiving.....maybe I'll use the decorative stitch on the binding - easier to control. I still hate that I get to use my seam ripper again tho.....lunchtime chore at work!

Yes, you need to lengthen and widen the stitch. When the stitches are too short, it is harder to move the fabric under the feed dogs, even when using a walking foot.

hmmm, i did a blanket stitch on my binding and that worked well.
as someone said, longer stitch length should help.