sewingpup

Trying to answer a lot of questions here. I vary the length of my stitch in the ditch depending on what I am doing it on. The thickness of the batting makes a difference. On a thick bat, I will lengthen, on a thin batting, I may shorten it. My default for me is probably about 2.0. Also, how long are the quilting lines? A shorter stitch length will help make those turns more precise as a long stitch may overshoot the corner. For tying off, I usually just shorten by stitch length to about 0.5 or less. Then I make about 5 of those very short stitches. I do this just before I get to the end point. This way, I do not have to back track, nor do I have a Knot. I do have a Bernina, so it is easy to turn my stitch length knob to get those tiny stitches. (This is also how long armers tie off there threads too unless they are doing a show quilt, then they will bury the ends.) There is even a stitch in my machine that will do this for me, so I don't have to change it all the time. It is triggered to shorten the stitch to make the tie off by the foot peddle I believe. These cool functions are one of the reasons Bernina people love their machines. However, it does take some practice to learn all the cool things they do. Oh, another tip I learned if you press your seams to the side, place your needle on the side of the seam away from pressed to side, then think you are driving a car with your tire just moving along the low side of the curb. Worked for me!