My machine, like most of the modern ones, has a bunch of "fancy" stitches. Usually I'd use them to decorate garments or home decor stuff, but do any of you use them to quilt with? The embroidery looking ones (yeah, we'll pretend that's a word) would be great on a crazy quilt, but I haven't tried them.

I know, I can experiment, and will, but thought I'd see how your experiments turned out ;)

The only decorative stitch that I've used on quilts is the feather stitch that I used on a binding of a "Downey Quilt for Kids". It turned out great. They suggested just a zig-zag stitch on the binding and I thought it looked better than that.

I've used the fancy stitches on a crazy quilt. I quilted over the seams...not in the ditch. I also used different stitches each with a different color thread to make it fun. This also gave me a chance to see how each stitch looked. You can't free motion with those stitches..or at least I don't think you can. Remember...no rules just play!

I'm getting a new machine that has a bunch of heirloom stitches on it also. The 1st thing I thought about was a crazy quilt! I thought about embellishing the top with these stitches, but I've never stopped to consider whether or not you could actually quilt with them. I've not actually read up that much on doing a crazy so I'm not sure what the practice was for this. I'm trying to visualize what the back of the quilt would look like. That's a great question!!

Hope someone knows!

My machine has all kinds of decorative stitches, but I can only quilt with the ones that use a certain foot that has the even-feed feature. I have used the feather stitch and a couple of others.

I've used a leaf stitch to close a binding...it looked very nice :D

When you did this, did you do it just on the top or threw all the layers? Also, did you use your walking foot with these decorative stitches, if you did it threw all the layers?

Thanks, I guess I'm formatting another quilt yet in my mind? :lol:

I use the serpentine stitch and let it meander over the seam lines. I have also used other stitches for the quilting. I like to widen and elongate the stitches, if they are too small they want to sink in and the design can start to disappear. Really intricate stitches don't work as well as more open ones. I use my regular foot when sewing these, as some walking feet cannot be used in reverse, and some of these stitches sew forward and backward. I just go slow and easy and have not had any problem with using a regular foot.

Make up a small quilt sandwich and practice with different stitches, varying their widths and lengths. Use a permanent pen to mark the settings next to them for future reference :D:D:D

I usually put a decorative stitch on the binding. On the memory tee shirt quilt, I did a heart decorative stitch on the seams. I don't have a embroidery machine though.

Using your decorative stitches for quilting is the basis for the "Crazy Shortcuts" quilt as you go method. The author has a tutorial on you tube.

I took a class on that this last week. It was fun and easy to do. If you can get the book (library?)you don't really need the class.

I use some of the fancy stitches for my binding on charity quilts for kids. Faster and stronger than hand stitching I think.