Help and Advice for novice quilters
 

Hi Quilters Chat,
I am new to this forum but came here looking for ideas. I have made a butterfly quilt and I like to use stitch in a ditch so that a nice pattern emerges on the under side. What would be a good way to make the butterfly body so it shows well on both sides?
Cece

A photo & knowing the size would be helpful. You could outline the butterfly, not in the ditch but about 1/8th inch away, for starters.
Welcome to the Board.

Agree about outlining the butterfly.

Outline and echo quilting will highlight your design. Welcome to the board, you will find lots of inspiration here.

first look at your batting and see what the recommended minimal distance you can quilt and not have it shift or sag. Most will be about 4-6" (some poly bats larger). besides stitching in the ditch around the butterflies, you may need to so some stitching in the blocks---besides SID, you can come out about 1/2" from the seam and do some stitching there. Ditto around the butterflies. Unless they are smaller than the recommend stitching distance on your bat, I would also do a little echo quilting inside the butterfly wings and maybe around the body of the. If you have a border, you will need to do some type of quilting on them too--an easy one is "piano keys"--simply stitch from the seam attaching the border and to the edge about 1/2 to 1" apart.

I agree about stitching about 1/4" around the butterfly and then you could also do some echo quilting too. Please share a picture when you finished if you are able to. BTW-welcome to this fantastic board.

Welcome to this board.

First of all let me welcome you to the QB! There are so many things always happening here. Just jump right in and check whats new in the forums and be on your way. I agree with everyone else here I would start with going around the butterfly 1/4" away from the butterfly and then echo quilt around it. Uploading pictures here can be a challenge in the beginning but once you do it once of twice it is like second nature. A picture would be nice. So jump in and join the fun. Again welcome to the QB!

ummm...you say you are a novice...I think my recommendation would be to hand stitch the outline around the butterfly and maybe do some straight line quilting in a grid pattern over the rest of the quilt....reason....if you are a novice....I am thinking you have not mastered free motion quilting....which is a separate skill in itself....oh course it would be nice to know how big the quilt is...that makes a difference to in how easy it is to move the quilt around to quilt it....with a straight line grid pattern you could use a walking foot with feed dogs up.....to outline the butterfly...you may need to do it free motion...where the feed dogs are down and you are moving the quilt with your hands....please let us know how you are doing with this project.....