To All Longarmer's
 

Hi, I can't believe once again I'm asking this. It seems with every quilt I quilt I ask. Must be way to long between quilts. Anywaysssss. I'm just finishing up making a Shadow Box quilt the one with the long pieces in it and I want to do something in the border, sashing and the windows. Here is my thought, I don't do well with stitch in the ditch so won't do that. I want to start at the border with a design, then move across the quilt to the sashing, then to the window. Really what I want to do is move across the quilt, advance and continue in that matter kinda like as if you were doing a pantograph but I'm not. Will this be ok or should I stablize this first. Any help here will very much appreciated. It's a big quilt 84x104.

I know a lot of people stabilize their quilts first, but I have done mine so far (only half a dozen quilts) without stabilizing. I have been working from left to right and then back right to left using a meander or looping all-over freehand design. I do make sure that my backing is square before loading. I have done three large quilts that way without a problem.

Have just read about measuring the width of a quilt as you go in order to make sure that the width does not change on you as you advance. Basically you just measure the width at the beginning, make a note of it, and then keep measuring as you advance. Measuring just means laying a long tape measure across the quilt.

When doing a separate border design (not all-over as I have been doing), I have read that a lot of quilters will do the top border and the bottom border plus the middle quilting, then take the quilt off the frame and re-load with the sides at top and bottom to do those borders.

I often do not stabilize first---if the quilt or quilting design does not 'need' stabilizing first- if the way you want to quilt it is 'do-able' without added stabilizing then go for it! not every quilt needs to have a bunch of stabilizing stitching before quilting.

When doing a large quilt with sashing that needs to be straight, I baste (not stabilize) in the middle of the sashing, 1/2-1" from the seams of borders or edges of fabric. Recently, on a traditional pattern, after doing some of the quilting, I decided the seams were too loose compared to the quilted areas, so I added SID. On a LA, SID is hard enough without having to control the straightness of the line. There is a template for this that's shaped somewhat like a block C. I had to work at the SID for accuracy where as the FMQ was relaxing.

Do you do that by hand or by machine?

The Quilting is all done on a longarm. I think I will load it later today hopefully and start the design border and see if I'm going to have to SITD, hopefully not.

If I ever need to stabilize before quilting, I think I will use water-soluble thread (the heavier kind from Superior Threads). I don't have a stitch regulator and don't want to fool around with SITD on my longarm (yet, anyway).

You could put some large basting stitches in a few places to help stabilize and remove them as you go. I have never really found doing this is needed because the quilt is stable on the rollers and basted edges.