Originally Posted by Prism99

The first step is to quilt, and it sounds as if you want to do that by machine. I personally find stitch-in-the-ditch nerve-wracking; it's very difficult to do that perfectly. Free-motion quilting usually takes a *lot* of practice to become comfortable. Easiest way to quilt for me is to use a walking foot.

You can mark a straight line with blue painter's tape (removes easily without leaving adhesive on the fabric) and use that to guide you while using a walking foot. You could do diagonal lines in one direction only, or add diagonal lines in the opposite direction as well to form cross-hatching. You could even do a chevron, with a straight line from a corner to the center, a turn, and then straight line from center to the next corner.

Easiest is to not mark lines and just make gently curving lines while sewing with the walking foot. These can be cross-hatched also. This is a much more free-form style of quilting.

Once you have finished quilting, you need to bind the edges of the quilt. Here is a good Youtube tutorial on how to bind completely by machine (although many people sew the binding on one side by machine, then finish the final side by hand):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wprg5vzkuGw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MRfA...eature=related