Haphazard straight line quilting query.
 

I have a quilt which I would like to quilt with straight lines travelling at all different angles across and up and down the quilt. Sort of like how a bunch of sticks would like when dropped from a height if that makes any sense. To do this...how important is it to still work from the centre out of my quilt top? Could I start at an edge instead? Could I just sew the lines in a random order all over the top? Would it be best to sew a few straight lines from top to bottom across the quilt to stabilise it first? I have basted the quilt with pins about every 2-3 inches....no spray baste used. All advice gratefully received.

I have a Pfaff 1471 (a mud 1980's machine) with a walking foot.

The largest size I have quilted is a throw size (about 85 x 65) and I stitched in the ditch from one edge to the other. The however, however, is that I always start from the same side or same end. It got a bit "thick in the harp for a while" - but it did work.

My reasoning for doing it that way - if the fabric was going to creep, it would all creep in the same direction. So far, my backs have always turned out wrinkle free.

You can do any of those things. First, you need to decide what you want the finished quilt to look like. Random lines will not give the eye something to focus on. Stitching lines in an order will give an overall look to it. Doing triangles or other geometric shapes in different sizes and overlapping would be sort of mix of the two things. A lot of quilting is simply straight lines in some order. I think that if you are going to stitch straight lines over a long distance, you'll need a way to keep them straight. Mine would end up wiggly!

I don't know about starting in the middle and radiating out to the quilt's edge. Seems like the lines in the middle will end up being quite dense. I've never done that.

I have to say i've never done from the center out. I use a walking foot and a length of at least 2.4 . go one way across and then the next line, turn the quilt and do from another side. holding the quilt on both sides of the foot helps to prevent any bunching. have fun!

Sounds like you have basted to a fare-thee-well, so you can start at the edges and go to the opposite edges with confidence. I'll be curious to hear/see how it all turned out. Sounds like a fine idea!

I do a LOT of straightline quilting, since I like the look. Here's my 2 cents...I wouldn't try this without spray basting, especially going from one edge to the other instead of center out...it would be difficult to avoid fabric creep. If the spray 'gets to you' then maybe use Elmer's school glue and drizzle.
I would also make a quilt sandwich about 30 in square and test this pattern out...it sound like it will look like a bunch of scribbles unless you make each line a double line about 1/4-1/2 in wide....so you get a kind of match stick effect. I could be wrong...it's just my sense.
One thing I did that was interesting and took a HUGE amount of thread was to begin a series of straight lines going from the center to an edge...I did maybe 30 lines, close together. Then I made another series of lines at right angles to that first series and went from the middle of the first series all the way to the edge of the quilt, so all of the lines together create a kind of diagonal effect..it looks really good.
hope some of this helps.

I meant to say holding the quilt on either side of the foot helps bunching not happen.

On kid size quilts I start at top center go down to bottom. Start one edge of center block and sew all the way to other edge. Then I quilt always next to quilting. Tried differently once and had to unquilt, not fun.

On larger quilts I start in dead center.

this is what I would do. Not sure what the block design is on the quilt but you may want to consider dividing the quilt into quadrants and quilt in each quadrant but that would depend on the quilt design.