Bed Runner complete - but how to quilt ?
 

I am fairly early on in my quilting journey (I only got my first machine at Christmas). I’ve finished my bed runner which I was using as a way to learn different techniques. Now I’ve got to quilt it but not sure what to do. I’ve done SID before which I can do and I have used my walking foot to do ‘cross hatching’ across smaller square projects. I’ve tried FMQ once which was a disaster but I have a class on this in 5 weeks time so I can practice that on smaller pieces. Is there anything more interesting I can do with my walking foot other than SID?

For some reason I can only attach one picture in each post!

I love this beautiful sampler.
You are doing a wonderful job.

maybe some straight lines in the sashings, not to compete with the lovely blocks?

Does your machine have a serpentine stitch? That works well with a walking foot. Or any kind of straight lines really, doesn’t have to be SID, you can echo stitch with a walking foot. In the photo below I added some triangles to the borders with my walking foot.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]589128[/ATTACH]

Hi Oh Canada - I think it does but I never thought of using some different stitches with the walking foot! I'm going to do a trial on a scrap tomorrow - thank you so much for the idea! Triangles is a nice idea as well.

I’ve also quilted a big spiralling circle using my walking foot, a bit fiddly when you start in the middle but gets quite easy going as you spiral outwards. Photo below shows what I mean - log cabin blocks are quilted with a huge spiral with walking foot, no marking necessary, just use edge of foot as guide.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]589129[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]589130[/ATTACH]

That is beautiful! There is clearly more to the walking foot than I envisaged so will keep practising, thanks!

Make sure you verify that your machine and walking foot combo is capable of doing decorative stitches. Not all are. Some will not even let you reverse.

I would not recommend SID, as there are so many designs you can do with a walking foot. There are even Craftsy classes online. If you Google "images", you will find lots of ideas.

Check Youtube for ideas for using your walking foot. This is a small project, so you can do most anything with it. By that I mean, you won't have to wrestle a huge quilt if you have to turn it. Jacquie Gering is my favorite quilter who uses a walking foot. She has a Craftsy video that is really good, but the free ones on Youtube are good, too. Leah Day has one that is good. They seem to think outside the box.

bkay

I just noticed that you have pin-basted the top to batting using straight pins. Quilters typically use safety pins to pin-baste for a couple of reasons. One is that it keeps the layers together more securely; straight pins have a tendency to become dislodged as you manipulate the quilt sandwich. Another reason is so that you don't get stabbed when using safety pins. If you switch to safety pins, you ***must*** be careful about removing them when they come near to the walking foot. I missed a safety pin once and it got hooked onto the back of my walking foot without me realizing it. By the time I discovered the problem, my expensive Bernina walking foot had been ruined.

You might want to consider spray basting or glue basting instead of pin basting. These methods offer continuous contact among the 3 layers so there is less chance of a layer shifting, which can cause a pucker or tuck.

Another tip of mine is to heavily starch both the top and the backing before layering. This stabilizes the fabric so they are less likely to stretch or distort while you are quilting.

I can't see your backing fabric in the photo. You want your backing fabric to be larger than your top. Usually it is also larger than the batting.

Edit: One more thing I just noticed in your second photo. Even if you were to replace the straight pins with safety pins, there are not enough of them. A rule-of-thumb is to secure pins not more than the space of a fist from each other in any direction. There is a lack of pins along the edges especially. Edges are prone to stretch and distort with handling.

Very pretty bed runner. I like to FMQ so I have no ideas for you.

That bed runner is darling!!!! I love the dress. You are doing so well!!!!!!!
I'm new to machine quilting so I don't have any advice but I really love what you've done.

You can do curves with your walking foot. Just need to stop with needle down every so often. Lift the foot and reposition your quilt so you are not twisting it out of shape. You are doing a good job on the piecing.

Your bed runner is really cute. Show us picture when you get it done. Great advice from Prism99.

Your blocks are lovely! I especially love the dress block.

Here are two ideas for something you can do with a walking foot in the sashing strips.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]589165[/ATTACH]
I have done both of these myself. The basic diamonds are easier. The diamonds connected with curves were complicated enough that I chose to draw them out on tissue paper (actually thin paper napkins) and then pin them to the quilt and then sew through the paper to do the quilting. (Removing every last bit of the paper was a bit tedious; Golden Threads Quilting Paper is supposed to make this easier.)

Your blocks are so lovely that you don't want the quilting in the sashing strips to distract from them - I suggest using a thread color that is pretty close to the color of the sashing fabric.

For quilting the blocks, I would be inclined to mainly do SITD and then do a bit of echoing in the blocks that have large spaces not covered by the SITD. My thought here is to not take attention away from the pieces of the blocks.

I learned all this the hard way. Wish I had asked more questions when I first started quilting. I'm so glad that I have this quilting board to learn from.

Nice work! I think I have some of the exact gray fabric. To answer your question...it depends how much time, work and effort you would like to put into it. I would start with a stitch in the ditch and maybe add stippling or figure 8's.

Thanks for the tips prism - I didn't know about safety pins over straight pins so I will definitley do that and add a few more round the edges especially.

I know you can spray baste and I did think about it but I'm generally not a huge fan of spray glues for anything (I do a lot of other craft things) so decided not to do that for now.

My background fabric is bigger than my top but as not as much as it should be I know - but I had the perfect piece of flamingo fabric and it was all I had of it.

I don't think I am ever going to be a huge quilt maker (we don't tend to use them so much here in UK) but will b emote about wwall hangings, runners etc. I am in in the middle of a crazy quilting project at the moment which I am loving. I want to start a much larger, complaicated paper pieced project next as I enjoy these

I just want to say that you’re doing a wonderful job and it appears you are stretching your boundaries nicely. How big are your blocks? Depending on your batting and how far apart your quilting needs to be, maybe you just quilt in the sashing and not the blocks themselves...

The blocks are only 6’ square so I think I will SID round each block and then have a look at doing something more detailed in the sashing - either a wavy line or some zig-zags. I want to keep trying new things so I can see what I enjoy (or not!)

You might want to baste with school glue. You use Elmer's washable school glue. drizzle lines across your backing, lay down batting, drizzle glue over batting and lay down your top. Smooth out and let glue dry. It holds everything together nicely and washes out later. Just be sure it is "washable" school glue. Many quilters like this method. Here's a link to the glue on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Elmers-Washab...70_&dpSrc=srch

OhCanada, That is beautiful!! Such a pretty quilt, I am putting those pics in my "inspiration" files!

For glue basting, here is a video that gives a recipe that allows you take you own washable SPRAY glue. (It uses flour, salt, water, and rubbing alcohol. (I believe that rubbing alcohol is called surgical spirit(s) in the UK.)) This is an an inexpensive, and (more importantly) non-toxic alternative to commercial spray glues.

I plan to try this when I complete my current quilt. (I will first test it out on small quilt sandwich before applying it to my quilt.)

Just wanted to say that I love your blocks! Please post pic when finished.

It's a lovely sampler, I would keep the quilting to a minimum, maybe just the outline of each block and a chevron on the border, great job

Spray basting is not gluing...buy a can of quilt baste spray....i think there's a brand called 505? Do a very very light spray, a 1 second spritz, and lay down your fabric...miracle. And no pins to accidentally sew over...it washes right out, once you wash the runner.
Second easy suggestion...do the lovely triangles and then make a second line, echoing the first and make it less than 1/4 inch away...it's the beginning of matchstick quilting and it makes a lovely geometric. Hope this helps.