Hi all! So I joined this board with just this question in mind.

I have been stumped as to how to quilt this top. I made this for my daughter before she was born - well if I'm going to be honest before she was even thought of if ya know what I mean. ;-) She's now 5. I think it's time to finish this!

In a perfect situation I would like to stitch in the ditch so that the blocks are even more pronounced - but I think it would be a pain in the rump to do. Lots of twisting and turning in the machine. I've gotten to the point of thinking of just tying it but I think that might take away from the effect of the blocks.

Forgive me if my terminology is off - it's been quite a few years since I've done this.

I really appreciate all your input.

WOW! That is really pretty! I would stitch in the ditch with a walking foot. I agree that there is a lot of manipulation, but it is a beautiful quilt and you want it to be beautiful after quilting as well. Tying it at each corner with the ends in the back would not detract from the quilt.
BTW, Hello, and welcome from Missouri!

Its a beautiful quilt :mrgreen: I think SID would be great, but I understand it would be a LOT of work... maybe go around the blocks in a bigger pattern... Instead of the smaller blocks, maybe draw out a -bigger - block and quilt that. I am not explaining it very well.. sorry :oops:

Beautiful Top!

Thanks for the compliment. I have finished a handful of quilts and there is always one thing I would change - in this one it's the plaid orange fabric. Not the best decision! Oh well.

Duh! I didn't even think of the ties being on the back. I tied one and had the ties in the front.

So another question - if I did stitch in the ditch with the walking foot could I go in a straight line, do a couple back stitches before skipping down to the next area? Then trim the thread. Do you know what I'm talking about? That would make it a heck of a lot easier then trying to do all those turns.

No input from me I'm sorry, just had to tell you I think your quilt is just so pretty, a real eye catcher. Please show us again when its finished. :-D

Wow! You guys are quick with the responses. Thank you so much!

I did think about free motion - I thought it might be a nice contrast to what's going on in the top. Trouble is I stink at it. I did a table runner and that was stretching my abilities. I end up not being consistent with the space between the stitching.

Hmmm. I think I'll do stitch in the ditch. Looking forward to any feedback re: backstitching and trimming thread scenario.

You guys are wonderful, thank you.

Cryn, thats exactly what I would do, if you have a locking stitch, use it, dont cut your threads go down the whole row, the divide the thread between the two ends and bury them into the quilt, you may waste alot of thread but you will save so much time :-D

Your quilt is beautiful, and you will enhance the 3D effect with in the ditch quilting, meandering will take away from that IMHO :-D

Ok Izy you've got me thinking now!
:-D

I need to look up what a locking stitch is. I'm not sure about how to go about the burying threads in the quilt. If you have the time and patience :oops: can you explain a little more?

ok so thanks to wikipedia I think lock stitch is just the regular stitch that my machine does?