need advise
 

This is a quilt I am ready to quilt. I an not done pinning yet. I would like some advise on whether I should quilt through each block or will stitch in the ditch on the sashing suffice?

ok, don't know where the photo went. Can someone help please?

Clicking preview seems to make pictures vanish. Try again without that step.

without a photo - this is the only advice I can give. Check your batting package. it will tell you how far apart your quilting can be for the batting to hold up over the years through washing, use, etc. For instance, Warm and Natural says quilting should be every 10 inches. Quilter's Dream says every 8 inches. So depending on the size of your block, you will know how far apart your quilting stitches can be. As for photos, two important notes, do NOT preview your post as said above and resize them - I use Windows picture manager and resize my photos to no larger than their predetermined size for "web-large". Give that a try!

I am going to try to post a photo. Thanks for all your help...[ATTACH=CONFIG]432563[/ATTACH]

I generally use W&N batting but I always quilt closer than the recommended maximum distance. Your blocks look to be about 12" which is too wide to leave unquilted. Even at 10" I wouldn't like the center piece to "flop" around. Since your blocks have pictures, you could quilt each block to capture the picture outline of the T-shirt message.

I quilt no more than 3-4". I usually do FMQ or large meander. I haven't made a t-shirt quilt, so I don't know about them.

Beautiful quilt! If you're not adept at FMQ, I'd suggest capturing the logos or words in a "box" - i.e. draw a square box around the Eastern Illinois, or a rectangular box around the three triangles in the black square. That would at least hold the batting down. You could try quilting an "X" through the center of each block, but I'm always hesitant about quilting through any vinyl-type logos. I've done many t-shirt quilts and vinyl logos never sew well (although there will be others who say they don't have a problem with it). But if your quilt has no vinyl logos, doing an X through each block would be sufficient. Good luck!

nice quilt.

i am currently having the same quandry. i have started with some stitching around the blocks but feel it needs more on the large ones. in my case the pieces are several different sizes and i have added pieced blocks and photos to fill in between. so many different "things" to deal with. what seemed like a good idea when started has turned into a head scratcher.

good luck. i will follow along here to see what other pearls of wisdom come along.

pat

Would "echo quilting" work around the greek letters and logos? I haven't donea t shirt quilt but I have echo quilted around animals and flowers. That way you wouldn't be quilting over the images, just around them. I would do just in the boxes and do the sashing in linear quilting.

This is my first quilt; my other quilting expeerience has only been pot holders, placemats, and small table runners. I was thinking the same thing with an X through each block, but wasn't quite sure on that. Thanks for your kind comments and a BIG thank you to all that have responded to this thread. You have all been most helpful.

My advice for a beginner is that stitch in the ditch is more difficult than doing rows of straight stitching over the quilt. If you feel worried about the lines you could do a serpentine stitch across each block many times. It will look good on the soft of blocks that you have.

I was told by my LAQ that t-shirt quilts should only be quilted with a large meander

I love your quilt. Is the border cut on the bias? I want to put a plaid border on a quilt but on the bias and am mulling that over in my mind, how to keep it from stretching.

I have done a number of T-shirt quilts and had all of them quilted with an allover design that would be meaningful to the recipient. The thread we used was neutral and blended into the background. I've used everything from dragonflies to geckos and hearts and flowers. A meander would work too. SITD is way too hard!

I appreciate all of your comments. No, I am NOT adept at FMQ. I have only just started quilting. My STID is usually right next to the seam, usually about 1/16" away. I am not sure what the sepentine stitch is. And to answer gmcsewr's question; no, the border is not cut on the bias. The fabric is printed on the diagonal. As for a plaid border, I cannot help you there, but I have found that a lot of starch helps on the bias cuts. I learned that from reading here on the Quilting Board.

I would probably do the X or a large grid (2" or so) in each block. I don't do FMQ.

You really don't want my advise on quilting but your quilt is awesome. Nice job!

I agree with cindi. I've made several t-shirt quilts. Because of the difficulty in stitchng over the logos, I've ended up stitching in the ditch around the sashings, then hand quilting around the logos. One one of my quilts I did some tying also. I've read about the teflon foot. Also saw it used on one of the quilting shows a long time ago. Lately I've purchased a teflon foot and have not yet tried it. Good luck. Your quilt top is beautiful.

I made 3 t-shirt quilts in memory of my daughter. I sent one to a LA quilter who did an overall design of basketballs and stars that was fitting for my daughter. It turned out great.

I quilted one T-shirt quilt with an allover meander, even over the vinyl images. Where possible, I avoided quilting over the vinyl images, but for evenness of quilting design, it was sometimes necessary to quilt over some of the images. The only one which was difficult to stitch through was a Disney image which was done in a thick vinyl.

I totally agree with MadQuilter. Quilting closer is better than farther, especially if the quilt would be washed. You don't want the batting either coming apart or bunching

I agree with this. I like the idea of striaght line stitching - use blue painters tape to help keep the lines straight. You also could use a wavy design.