How should I quilt this?
 

I have not tried FMQ yet, so that is not an option. (I take my first class on that this weekend!) So I am looking to do some straight line quilting. I am backing the quilt with fleece, with no batting.

I was thinking of doing stitch in the ditch on the horizontal rows(the pic is sideways), but not sure what to do on the vertical rows since I pressed those seams open between the charm squares and sashing.

What would you do? Thanks!

Does it need quilting vertically too for any reason? Or is only horizontal ok?

you could do horizontal lines across the whole thing, not just in the ditch. or you could stitch in the ditch where you suggested, then put a X from corner to corner in each charm square.

Do the horizontal lines & stitch about 1/4 - 1/2 inch inside the seams of the square.

gentle curves with your walking foot between the squares on each row from top to bottom

Very cute quilt. If I have a quilt with all squares, I like to have my longarm quilter do some kind of soft curves. Good luck to you on your decision

Stitch in the ditch in one direction only would work, as you have no batting to worry about. If you just want to, it looks like it would be easy to do in both directions as it lines up both ways. You also might consider a curvy line in the white row. Often, that's hard to do consistently unless you mark your quilt, though. If you match the thread to the white, not being consistent wouldn't show very much.

bkay

I would do white thread and what I call the "pong" method. (If you don't know the computer game pong, a ball falls from the ceiling and you bounce it from a platform to hit targets.) This method only works with rectangular quilts, cannot be square.

Start at 1 corner, walking foot, 45 degree angle across the quilt until you get to the other side. Pong off the edge at another 45 angle, pong, pong pong across all the edges and you'll end up with a continuous diamond quilting (no breaking thread!) without putting a giant bulk of quilt under the harp....well the first line is a doozy but after that most of the quilt is on the left side. Very simple and very quick.

White thread because I don't get a super confident vibe off of your original message. Really you could do any color: a sand or grey eould be more visible but still neutral. A lovely pink or peach might coordinate with your blocks and provide a cohesive unifying element.

I'm sure this method has another name, but that's what I call it. Try it with a piece of paper (ordinary 8x 11) to watch it fill the space.

This is how I have quilted mine for years. I first learned about this from a book "The Complete Book of Machine Quilting", second edition, by Robbie and Tony Fanning, copyright 1994. They attribute this method to a gentleman, Ernest B. Haight of David City,NE (passed away in 1992). He first entered a machine-quilted quilt in Butler County Fair in the early 1960's. It was almost rejected until a official stepped in and said "we must create a new category" The quilt won a First Premium Blue Ribbon, as have many of his original-designed, machine-pieced and -quilted quilts.
In 1973 he was urged to write a booklet explaining his method "in order to get machine quilting accepted as an art form" Practical Machine-Quilting for the Homemaker"

Exactly! I knew I read it in a book. It must have been that one. The first time I did it I was astonished because I managed to get the entire thing done in 2.5 hours. Amazingly fast and easy.

I've been pressing open and quilting in the actual ditch for a few decades now, while there can be some problems it usually isn't.

But the big thing for those of us who press open is to use small stitches. Sew two pieces of fabric together and then tug at the seam. If any stitches come out, they are too big. It's ok to loosen a little of 1-2 stitches, but more than that, go smaller! And yes, it can be hard on the eyes. I have vision problems and I'm about at the point where I can't take out stitches at all if I'm using matching thread colors. But I scrap quilt and pretty much only use a medium/slate blue/grey and tan threads, one on top and one on the bottom.

This also applies if you do any sort of strip piecing technique where you sew strips together and then cut them.

But when you are quilting, you want a bigger stitch -- and a bigger needle. I prefer to piece with a 10 needle, I will use 12s. Depending on the batting I will quilt with a 12 or a 14. Smaller needle means smaller stitches, bigger needle means bigger stitches. And a fresh sharp needle! I can't say it's never happened but I don't think I've ever broken a piecing stitch with a quilting stitch.

Most of us don't change our needles often enough -- if you can hear the machine go pooka pooka while you stitch, that means your needle is beyond dull. They are reasonably cheap and easy to store. I buy the 3-size pack in bulk when they go on sale and every new project is a new needle, and sometimes I'll change it between piecing the blocks and then putting together the quilt.

There are so many options to choose from. As a beginner I would stay with SITD until I got the hang of what I was doing. Quilting both vertically and horizontally will provide nice stability to the whole quilt. What ever you choose is going to be great. Please post a pic of your finished quilt.