If I did swirls/ loops would I use my walking foot or the free motion foot? I think I'll go to the lqs and see about some invisible thread. Maybe I'll take my quilt top in there to match up to. Actually I did before I put on the borders and that's how I got he green variegated thread but its darker green throws off my eye. Its a king tut thread. Maybe if I wasn't trying to stay in the ditch it would look better...


They were all from Joanne's fabric. My daughter and i picked them out. I didn't realize the different quality of fabric until reading here and a couple of them are on the thinner side. Luckily she's not the fabric police. Jk

How far from the seams? One inch? Less? This was my first thought actually...

I had to look up what cross hatching was (HAHA) but this in another runner up.

How far apart does you batting bag say the maxim quilting distance could be/should be??????

Some batting require stitching close together - others can go a larger distance.

Nan

I think I would do either allover diagonal lines or cross hatches, with a decorative stitch on my machine. Anything with an open swirly or wavy pattern to it (lengthen the stitch length of the pattern) would contrast nicely with the geometry of the piecing, and add a lot of interest. I would measure and carefully place pieces of blue painter's tape onto the top, and decorative stitch alongside the edge of the tape to stay straight. Pieces of tape can be repositioned and reused several times. Just be careful not to stitch into the tape. Very pretty quilt, by the way!

Thanks for the tips... I have no idea which batting I have as I bought it years ago so I don't know how close I need to quilt it. It's either warm and natural or Hobbs.

To do loops or other FMQ you use a "darning" or "embroidery" foot and drop the feed dogs.
I used to quilt on the diagonal or come along the ditch with a wavy stitch but am moving away from that more often and doing some type of all over FMQ. Especially for "fat quarter" type quilts that don't have any special design in them.

Many times I SITD even when I use designs in the blocks. I feel it anchors the blocks so they don't shift when I'm doing the rest of the quilting.

You can always use invisible thread for Stitch in the Ditch... Also, I just discovered I could get a SITD walking foot for my machine, which improved my accuracy immensely! Very handy foot! The 31 days of walking foot quilting site is awesome! Thanks for that!

Depending upon your machine and the stitches it has, you could find a pretty stitch on your machine and use that, particularly one with a zigzag effect, not necessarily in straight lines for the zig zag. I often use one of my stitches that are almost half a circle, and since the stitch goes from side to side, the sewing isn't noticed as not being straight if I do a STD. However, I must pat my back a bit, I like to do STD and normally do a very good job on it. But I often get lazy too and just use a decorative stitch on my quilts. I don't have a long arm and have trouble with feathers looking great.