Originally Posted by
Tartan
Is your sandwich well basted with thread or lots of safety pins? I like 505 spray or Hobbs 80/20 fusible batt to keep the sandwich from getting puckers on the back.
I find it best to stabilize the sandwich with lines of machine stitching in the sashing if possible. I would use my walking foot to stitch down the center sashing line first. I would then stitch the horizontal center line next. I would then stitch the top horizontal line next. After these lines are stitched I would switch to my FMQ foot and start outline quilting the motifs. After they are outline stitched I would use a background FMQ filler like meander.
I spray basted my quilt with some safety pins at the sides to stablise the quilt to prevent shifting.
I've done what you had suggested, doing SITD to stablise the quilt. This is another question I have. When doing SITD on a large quilt like this, what's the sequence to go? Horizontal, vertical, then horizontal again? I've read that it's a better idea to always sew straight lines from the centre out. Would it make any difference if I sew all horizontals first, then verticals or vice versa? It's really a tedious job to go centre out horizontally, then vertically & so on for a huge quilt....if you know what I mean!