Ok because I haven't accomplished the stippling thing yet, I am going to quilt my wall hanging on a diagonal. Can someone tell me that when you quilt on a diagonal do you start in the middle like you would with any quilting?

Jeanette

I would start in the middle but then I'm not an expert either. And I would use my walking foot.

When I am quilting on the diagonal, which most of my quilts have been done that way, I mark my lines with tape from the corner of the blocks across. If you are doing lines real close and are using a guide, I would mark from the upper right hand corner down towards the lower left. Roll quilt up on diagonal from either side, leaving marked line in center between rolls, quilt down line and then continue in same direction for the next line, unrolling on the right (near machine) down to bottom etc. Then reroll tightly to center starting line and from other direction, stitch down lines in one direction unrolling from machine side. If you are not using a fancy stitch, deffinately use your walking foot.

I hope this helps. Many times I am using diagonal stitching on quilts with 9 in blocks and just come down from corner to corner on the blocks with a fancy stitch. I use warm and natural batting and so stitching can be f airly far apart. With 9 in blocks the stitching ends up being about 4.5 in apart. Sometimes I will then quilt the other diagonal to put more quilting into it. When doing the 9 in blocks, I use masking tape to "mark" my diagonal lines, so that I can get the lines straight from corner to corner. I just pull up the tape right in front of my stitching, cause with a fancy stitch it takes more space and I don't want to sew over the tape.

Good advice from Jim's Gem. Just be careful not to sew through the tape. Been there done that and it is a bugger to get out. But it does make for nice straight stitching.

Thanks for the input. The next time I go to the store I will get some tape.

I use the blue painters masking tape. It seems to work better and doesn't leave a residue.

When you use tape do you tape one diagonal at a time and sew or do you mark all your lines first then sew?

Do you mark all your lines first then sew them?

If using masking tape I'd just do one at a time. Otherwise you'd have trouble when you sewed over it. I have a quilting guide for my machine that attaches to the foot. It has a floating arm (for lack of a better word) that adjusts. Then I follow the first line of stitching and continue with my diagonals. So I only have to mark the first line in each direction.

Use the same piece over and over.

You will need to figure out what works best for you. You could just use a small piece and move it as you go.

While my quilt is on the table, or floor or where ever I had it to spray baste, I mark all the lines in one direction with the tape. quilting on the diagonal goes pretty fast and so the tape is not on there very long. Make sure you pull the tape up before you sew on it. I usually pull it up a bout 6 in in front of my stitching and eyeball it from where the needle is to the next line of the tape. In other works, if marking a quilt with 9 in blocks I have a whole bunch of lines of tape from say the upper right to lower left across the entire quilt. To tape them one at a time you would have to remove your sandwich every time between quilting lines, too much trouble and time.

some of my pieces of tape could be 90 inches long depending on the size of the quilt, I just pick up and tear off a little at a time as I sew.

When quilting a 9-patch or similar design, I just eyeball the diagonal line through the squares. Then no marking is necessary.

yes i have a quilting bar too. i tried working with it last night and it seems that i when i tried to keep my rolled end out of the way i seemed to not stay on the stitched line and end up with wavey stitching lines. that is why iam trying to find out ways that are helpful. i diffinetly am not a straight line sewer.

Great hints!