Internal battle
 

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I am trying to finish this quilt for my best friend for her Halloween birthday/Christmas. The first is an almost photo of the whole quilt. The second is an individual square. The last is experimental stitching from my machine to use in the borders.
I was given an opinion to do pebbling in the borders. I do not have the time or technical ability to do pebbling or feathers or (insert curvy stitching here) which is why I did the straight line to "echo' the design in the squares, and I do not want to spend my time ripping out stitching that I do not like, which I will do. I already have a couple issues with the vertical sashing not lining up, but it is too late to rip it out and I know "riding a horse at 50 feet" and my friend is not a quilter, so she would not know...
The design that I like is the zigzag with triangles. I want to use it in the 2 inner borders and twice in the outer border. Also, should I quilt the horizontal and vertical sashing, even though the vertical does not exactly line up?
My other option is just doing a straight line in the borders, but I do not believe that it will compliment the quilt but am also questioning whether the zigzag will compliment after all of the straight line & SID quilting . I know that the quilters on this board have great ideas, and there are some who use the bonus stitches on their machines, and those who do not. I'm kind of pressed for time, but it can be late, but would like to get it done and sent. Help???

Your quilt is beautiful, and I like the idea of using straight lines in the borders/sashings. I place tape along the seams and use it as my marker.
I like that decorative stitch, but do try it out first on a quilt sandwich if you decide to use it, because my machine does not do most decorative stitches nicely when using the walking foot.

The other consideration is what will the back look like?

Thank you for the replies.
Nan, the back is the solid misty green. It pretty much mimics the front with SID and the straight line quilting. I'm not sure the decorative stitch would detract or enhance it either way.
Tumblebug and Tartan, I have used the decorative stitches on other quilts, usually a kid quilt, and yes I have had distortion usually caused by weight drag. I am quilting on my diningroom table in the hopes of eliminating most of that. If I do the straight line, how many rows do you think would be good? I had planned & marked for a center row. I think straight line will require more.? At least 2 rows in the inner border and 3 or 4 in the outer.
Thanks again,
Susan

Use the S (serpentine) stitch. It looks great and easy to do. I use it on most of my machine quilted quilts.

I also have had success with the serpentine and other wavy stitches when I want to jazz up a quilt without fancy quilting.

I'd probably do 3 lines per block and 1 down the center of each sashing strip.

Keep an eye on your bobbin thread. I'm always surprised how fast quilting uses it up!

Once you wash the quilt, you probably won't notice the vertical misalignments. (I don't see them even though you pointed them out.) There's always a magical transformation when that beauty comes out of the dryer all crinkly and soft.

Your quilt is beautiful!!! Sounds to me like you have been given great advice!!!

I would worry about the decorative stitches causing bunching to occur. What about doing piano keys--that would work with your other straight line quilting but dress up the border at the same time.

Picking out stitching you don't like on a quilt is tedious. Try this instead: Make a few placemat sized sandwiches with some ugly fabric and scrap batting pieces and keep them by your machine. Try out stitches on your practice sandwiches and don't put them on your quilt until you are sure you like them on the sandwich. This will save you a lot of time with your seam ripper.

I'm in agreement with the serpentine stitch. It requires fewer rows to fill in than straight line. Also, as Nan says, the back of the decorative stitches aren't usually too attractive. Lovely quilt, pretty colors too.

I think straight lines would be good for this quilt. Two rows would be good for both sashing and borders. As was mentioned above because of the type of quilting you have already done in the blocks, I think the decorative stitches will be too tight and cause puckering all along the length of the stitch. I also think the straight lines will enhance the overall look of the quilt, i.e. the sashing and borders.

It's what I use, too. It goes fast, and looks good, I think.

Something I’ve done in sashing when at a loss is do a wavy line in one colour and then do a second wavy line that crosses back and forth in a second colour. It’s easy, can be done free hand (fmq) or with a walking foot and actually looks pretty good. The triangle zigzag pattern is an easy one to free motion quilt and doesn’t have to be perfect and quilts up quickly. Google Angela Walters, Quilting is my Therapy, she uses it all the time..

I would not do a wavy/serpentine line of quilting when all the other lines are angular. I was at a loss for how to finish quilting an I Spy quilt, after I had done a huge zig-zag pattern in the sashing. I can't remember what I had planned, but by the time I had done the first block, I decided I'd never get it finished if I continued with that plan. I didn't want to rip out all the quilting on the sashing, so I ripped out that on the one block and went to plan B.

I'm not crazy about how it turned out, but it's usable, it will stay together through washing and the kid who gets it will not notice (it's a donation quilt). I used blending colors, so that the quilting did not stand out. I'm just glad it's finished.

I don't have a photo of the finished quilt, but just did a quicky photo. You can't see the stitching on the black sashing, but it's pretty much the same. It just goes back and forth edge to edge in the sashing in a large zig-zag. It would echo the quilting you've already done (more or less) and be quick.

bkay
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bkay, I like the way you quilted these blocks.

Large zigzag is what I was going to suggest, too. Just follow the size of the blocks and then you don't have to measure anything. To jazz it up, you could do an echo zigzag close to the first zigzag...

it's a pretty quilt.... She'll like this, I'm sure.