I want to applique a design and then for my quilting I would like to do a small diagonal cross-hatch. I have seen this done on many quilts. Do I have to quilt by hand? How can I do free motion quilting without constantly having to go over the stitches which go around the applique?

You can't with cross hatching. Suggest you quilt arund the applique to contain that part and then machine qult up to that line. I don't know of any way you can avoid the start and stoping.

I think you might be able to if you mark your cross hatching with painter's tape and sew right up to where your stitching around your applique is. A lot of stopping and starting and a lot of ends to tie off, but I think it can be done.
lots2do

I did cross hatch in the background of SunBonnet sue blocks by machine. I did start with zero stitch length,then 1 and up, then reaching the ending spot, down to 1 and zero again. each line.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...rrent=65a1.jpg

As a handquilter I don't have any problem with cross hatching. As a machine quilter what you might do is do all of your crosshatching and then do your applique on top of the quilted fabric. YOu might try a small sample to see if you liked the result.

I cheat... sometimes I'll do my quilting THEN put on the applique pieces :)

makes sense to me ;-)

I was going to say the same thing - but I call it expediency! LOL

Same here.

Thanks for the idea, that may make the most sense in this case.