Okay, I am to put the backing on today and wonder if anyone has an idea of a way to quilt this top. Do I stitch in the ditch ? Or should I do a kind of outline around some areas? I am not so good at free motion yet, I keep breaking the thread.

Any wisdom is welcomed.

BTW, does anyone know what I should do to stop the thread breaking during free motion quilting?

No clue as to how to stop the thread from breaking, but ..... if you send it to me, I'll give it a good home! :)

Now that was a real compliment tlrnhi! Thank you so very much. This project is going to have a home with a little boy who can hardly wait for his "Grammy Grams" to land in that airplane.

When he was 4 he told his pre kindergarten teacher I lived at the airport and any time he wanted to see me his mommy would drive him there and I would come out the big doors! :roll: :)

Oooh thats nice! Your Grandson will be thrilled with it.

I have recently started free motion quilting, and got thread breakage too. Am no expert but I found that I just had to tweak the tension until it stopped happening. I guess all machines differ (?) but I have a Pfaff 1122, and have to have the tension on 4 or 5, whereas regular sewing I only have between 1 and 3. I also think it broke if I moved the quilt too fast too. Just my humble, inexperienced opinion!

It's going to be great no matter what you decide, but I'm thinking if you did a diagonal grid across it, so some of it would be in the ditch (ie on the sides of the red striped diamonds) and some of the stitching would cross the none-ditch areas on the blue and white pinwheels. It would tie in with the diagonal lines in the piecing very nicely I think? A blue and white varigated thread would show up nicely on the white. Then if you are feeling brave you could free motion stipple on the border.

Send it to me, I've got nothing to work on at the moment (cash flow/fabric flow problems!) I'll do it for you!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

I would say stitch in the ditch or outline. Both would be fine. As far as the thread breaking, sorry, can't help you out there!

i love this quilt. fun pattern and colors.
sorry about the problems you are having with thread. i had the same problem and nothing i did helped for long... until i changed the brand of thread i was using. my machine does not like METTLER for free motion quilting. it is fine for piecing and stitch in the ditch. but free motion seemed to fray so badly i couldn't accomplish anything. it just made a mess. i even took my machine in for maintainence early cause i thought maybe it was tweeked. i have a pfaff 2056 and it does require regular attention. i was so discouraged. then i started experimenting with different brands of thread. i discovered that my machine can't free motion with mettler thread. now i use GUTERMANN and i am a happy camper. good luck. free motion is so fun i know once you solve the breakage problem you will love free motion.

Do not know if this would work to stop thread from breaking while FMQ, but this is a tip from a class I took for free motion embroidery. When threading the machine, DO NOT run thread thru that last little clip thing just above the needle. Then of course the tension is adjusted lower. On some machines, there is a screw to turn which adjusts the bobbin tension. These machines have the bobbin system where you have to reach under the machine and the casing that holds the bobbin is removed.That litttle boy will be so happy to see you. Have fun

Very nice quilt, I just know your grandson is absolutely going to love it. I think outlining would look very nice for quilting it.

I love the quilt and your grandson will too! He'll be excited to see Grandma. I would probably do the stitch in the ditch and some echo.