I am fairly new to quilting and could use some sage advice. How do you mark your quilt top? Then how do you quilt the design on the machine? I don't want to use free motion quilting but I'm not sure how to do the curves etc. So far I created a paper quilt pattern and tried to spray baste the paper to the quilt top. That didn't work very well. Any Help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Carol

I either meander on my home machine or rent time on a longarm at LQS. I like to do the pantos there.

There are many ways to mark a quilt top - you can search this site and find some helpful ideas. I personally tend to like to use Golden Threads Paper and trace my design on that then pin to my top. I'm not sure you can quilt curves and designs without free motion quilting...but you certainly could stitch in ditch, do a nice cross hatch design or something to that affect. Hope this helps a little :)

Can't do small curves without FMQing, but I think you could do big curves with a walking foot if you reposition the quilt sandwich often. It would be a real pain in the heiney, though. You could hand quilt them. I use my rulers (I have an omnigrid yardstick) and a fat water soluable pen to mark grids and chevrons and commercial stencils to mark curvy patterns. You could also draw free-hand, but straight lines would be hard that way.

I don't believe you can do what you describe - use walking foot for tight curves without taking couple stitches at the time and twiting the quilt. I just prepared a list of stencils from The Stencil Co catalog that could be used with some care with a walking foot. These were long gentle curved designs and straight lines such as stars but still need to twist and turn the quilt. i'm getting ready to do a quilt in this way to use on the upcoming QuiltersTV show.

there are dozens (or hundreds) of ways to mark you quilting design...some people use stencils and pounce pads, some people use pencils, some use special markers made for this, there are laser pointers to fasten to the machine and follow the pattern with the light; you can use glad cling wrap, draw your design on it, stretch it across the quilt top and quilt, of course any where you are stitching through something you will have alot of picking out later.
no matter what method you choose to mark your design it takes LOTS OF PRACTICE before you will successfully 'quilt' with your machine. start with something small and practice your design before starting on your quilt. there are lots of good videos to watch. do a search for machine quilting :thumbup: