I am just starting to machine quilt, so I don't know a lot about it. A friend of mine was told to always stitch in the ditch around her blocks, then to do any fancier stitching after that. I am wondering why. I wouldn't want to do that always, it wouldn't look good with some designs. Do you do it that way? Thanks.

You never have to do SID. Many people do an all over design. Some just echo quilt. It depends on the look you want and how closely the batting must be quilted.

Thank you for asking this question as I too have been told to always do SID around blocks.

I think you are going to learn there are no quilt police here and anything goes. Do what you want to do and how you want to do it. Are you using a regular sewing machine? It may be easier to do the FMQ in smaller sections? Not sure why they would say you always do it that way as long as it is basted. I will keep watching too.

I never SID. I can't do it. I can't stay in the darn ditch to save my life, no matter what gadgets I try. I just do straight line, usually cross hatching, but NOT in the ditch. Away from the ditch. Far away.

I only SID when I'm in a hurry to get it done. Otherwise, whatever looks good is what you should do. Sometimes you want to frame a particular quilt pattern, then SID works well.

I'm a beginning/intermediate machine quilter - I've made enough quilts to know I'm not very good, but not enough to get better (YET!). As such, SID is sometimes the nicer looking of my attempts to machine quilt. But, like they say, practice makes perfect, so moving on to something else is the only way to learn.

Good luck with your machine quilting!

Some of the (many, differing) articles I have read recommend doing this to stabilise the sandwich. I certainly would not feel obliged to do it, unless I thought it would look good and enhance the piecing. Do what you like- it's your quilt!

I agree - unless it's part of your quilting design, you don't have to do it to stabilise. I recently did an advanced FMQ workshop with Ferret who is a major award winning English quilter and she said she nearly never SITDs on a DSM - quote 'if you don't do it well, it looks like poo and if you DO, no one can see it, so what's the point?' :mrgreen: Baste well, start somewhere toward the centre and work outwards, bunch the excess quilt up under the throat DON'T roll it as this pulls the top and backing at different rates and away you go. :-D

I have heard that if you are going to do any stitch in ditch or 1/4" away/any straight stitch, to do that 1st...then do the fmq you planned...some people do a combo of both, and I was told that was the easiest way to do it...but, as we all know, no quilt police here!!!

I think kiffie and I have learned it the same way - if you are going to SITD, you do it before FMQ.

But, like everyone else says, you never have to SITD.

I like to use it on borders because it really does make the line between border and quilt lie flat and even, but I try not to do any SITD other than that.

SITD is much harder for me than any other part of the quilt - keeping that stitching hidden is incredibly hard!