Right in the seam, and I hate every minute of every ditch, lol! I've tried matching thread, clear monopoly thread, special stitch in the ditch foot, you name it. I've decided that the open toe "accufeed" foot for my Janome works best, along with going slowly. If you put slight outward pressure with your hands on either side of the seam, it does help some, but its difficult to get it perfect. It does however, secure the seams nicely and really does make the quilt pretty, even with free motion designs. I don't always do it if I'm doing an all-over fmq pattern, but some swear by it.