Longarm question?
 

Hi all, I'm wanting do cross hatching in an area on a quilt. What is the easiest/fastest way to do this with a LAM? Thanks Pat

with rulers

As CKcowl said, with rulers. I have done it with a ruler as small as 6" x 2". One word of advice... Easiest and fastest does not always look best. Depending on how large the area is you want to cross hatch you may wish to premark. If the area is bigger, like bigger than your exposed area for quilting without advancing the quilt, it is very easy for your crosshatch lines to stray off the straight line and ever so gradually slant off. Especially when using a smaller size ruler. If you are just doing a small area, like the background of a pieced block or backfilling a motif, than you can easily do it without premarking as long as you have some point of reference for lining up your ruler, like a seam line or something.

You will also need someplace to travel because it is crazy to stop and tie off every line. I usually travel in the ditch, along a perpendicular line or back track along a motif but be careful of thread buildup. It will show quite a bit if you are using a heavier weight thread and will most definitely show if you are using a varigated. Look at this topic I posted a while back, you can see how I premarked the quilt and travelled in a perpendicular line. The rest of my travelling I did around the applique where it sunk in and wasn't visible or along the already quilted leaves and vines. I also used a very thin thread so the travelling build up wasn't obvious. This I did with So Fine by Superior. http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...k-t210274.html

Feline fanatic is right, and as far as I know there is no such thing as fast crosshatching.It takes planning, marking and rulers.

I also agree with Feline fanatic. If you are doing a small area, it's not too bad. If the area you will be working on is larger than your quilting field, where you have to roll the quilt to continue the pattern, you will need to mark to keep everything in line.

It may not work for you, but I used that blue painter's tape and just followed along the side it. I did crosshatch the entire quilt though, and that may be a different thing.

Dina

Oops....I just realized you were using a long arm. Please ignore my earlier post, and I think I better go clean my glasses!!

Dina

Feline fanatic advise is perfect!

I've been known to use masking tape and treat it like stitch in the ditch in two directions. Hope that makes sence.
MaryKatherine

I had a long arm class today and the teacher pointed out that I can lock in the vertical and horizontal lines. Could that be used to crosshatch? You'd just have to mark the distance between each line and it would be perfectly straight. I didn't even think about this until I was on my way home or I would have asked the teacher about it.