Longarm question regarding lonestar quilt
 

Okay this is quite embarrassing... I've had my best friend's quilt now for over 4 years waiting to be quilted:eek:. To be fair this quilt is already bound, which requires me to take it apart as they didn't quilt it, and I'm not even sure if or what kind of batting is in the middle...Here are my questions and I do realize that everyone quilts differently but I've really only done pantographs...
1. Do you stitch in the ditch the whole quilt first?
2. Where do you start the quilting- in the center of the quilt, quilting the diamonds first and once again do you stitch in the ditch around each diamond?

I guess what I'm asking is where do you start...I know to stabilize the edges of the quilt, but from there I just not sure where to start quilting ie: the borders and work my way across the quilt or do the center then borders then advance the quilt...I sure hope someone is understanding what I'm asking lol...I have searched the web and there are some awesome videos out there but none that walk you through from the start.....

Thanks in advance for any advise......:thumbup:

If you are on a longarm, make sure your new backing and batting are at least 4" larger on each side. Load the quilt, secure the top, baste down the sides as far as your throat space will allow. Quilt from left to right, roll and repeat.

How is your FMQ? When I quilted this pattern, I stitch a curve (or an arc) on all four sides of the diamond. Look carefully because you can do a continuous stitching. You might want to look at Google quilts and how others have quilted this pattern.

Yes I will be using my longarm...just wondering if I can start in the middle and quilt the diamonds first then the borders as I advance the quilt

I usually do my SID as I advance the quilt. It is not necessary to start in the middle with a longarm.

Thanks everyone....I haven't done much freehand work mostly pantographs...so am really nervous....but this quilt really needs to get done....keep the suggestions coming.....

I'm with Harriet's instructions.

But I will add that as they bound the quilt you don't have extra backing and batting you will have to do something about that. Of course one option is to replace the backing and batting with ones of the proper size. You could also baste fabric to the top and bottom of the backing so you can attach it to your leaders and remove when you are done. As to the sides I have successfully quilted with backing and batting that is the same size of the top. If you watch it carefully it can be done. You could baste extra fabric to the sides as you do to the top and bottom but as you usually quilt off the quilt top it would harder to remove later, but doable. Also batting could shift as you quilt so you might want to have extra batting of the same type handy so you can manually attach pieces where needed. Again, a bit of work but seems only solution other than new backing and batting.
Good luck.

I do not have a LA but I have a question. With the LA, do you need to be worried about the bias of the diamonds in the Lone Star. Do you have to really starch it? Would you SID or just do FMQ?

Hi Maureen, since the quilt top is already made there really isn't much to worry about the bias...you would have to worry if the diamonds were the border...

Thanks Btiny 36!