Originally Posted by
FURBALLS
I hadn't planned on ditching. Those lines were where I drew the design of the quilt to decided on what to put in that
area. Do you think I should ditch? I do all my FMQ on my domestic machine so will be starting from the middle and working out.
There are many schools of thought on that. DSM quilting gurus, Harriett Hargrave and Diane Gaudynski say to always ditch to stabilize the quilt. then go back and do your fancy stitching. It is up to you. My personal opinion is a ditched quilt always looks nicer. It gives definition to the piecing and more importantly, gives you a place to travel inconspicuously so you don't have to tie off as often. There is no right or wrong. I have seen plenty of nice quilts that had no ditching and others that were nothing but SID. I like to use both. But not everyone wants to take the extra time and effort to do the ditch work nor pay the additional charges for ditch work by a LAQ.