Hand Quilting Help!
 

Hello Everyone,

I am attempting to hand quilt the star blocks I just pieced and am not sure if the star should be quilted in the ditch. I am planning on sewing a design in the background of the block and in the star itself, so should I also stitch in the ditch. The block will be 10 inches, if that helps. I have searched online for fillers for the block, but it's hard to tell if the blocks were SITD. Thank You For Your Help!

What type of stars are you doing? Can you post a picture? It is your quilt so you can SITD if you want. I think it may be easier if you did a 1/4 inch away from the seam. Your quilting will show up more it you want to outline the stars so they will show up on the back.

I don't have any pictures right now, but can tell you that the stars are the Ohio Star and I followed a Missouri Quilt Company video with Jenny. I haven't bought the batting yet, but was thinking maybe wool. Our LQS carries it on the roll. I also have another quilt I pieced that was from a Craftsy class. It was last Summer's mystery quilt, "Night Stars" and those blocks are 12 inches finished.

Usually the star point would be stitch 1/4" on the inside.

The batting is going to dictate how closely you will need to quilt, so it affects the quilting design. The info will tell you the max distance apart you can quilt. remember this measurement is in all directions, including the diagonal. Warm and Natural (cotton with a scrim) allows quilting up to 10", while some wools require the quilting to be spaced much closer together.

If you want to emphasize the star shape, stitching in the ditch or outline quilting would be a good idea.

Google Ohio Star quilt, then click on images. There are a lot of them that come up that show the quilting detail.

Again I encourage all to think about the effort taken to handquilt - and then to think about how in-the-ditch quilting doesn't show off your effort. :confused:
That's certainly not for me -- I want every stitch I take to show the effort I've expended and all stitches to add to the design of the quilt. :) I suppose there are occasions where this kind of quilting has its place, but I, personally, don't use it.

Jan in VA

I'm all for the 1/4" quilting..