quilting squares AFTER binding is complete
 

I am almost finished with a quilt top and will be assembling the sandwich. I plan to stitch in the ditch - I have 21 rows of 21 6 inch squares - no sashing. And I am staggering the rows - not lining up to each other. After I stitch all of the lines of each block and I finish the binding - can I go back and use free motion in each block?

why not just do 2 1/2 inch straight stitches prior to binding. I have seen many of the modern quilts that way and it looks great.

like just doing the 2 1/2" lines down each line and then across also? THat would work I guess. Thanks!

I've never done any free motion quilting so I thought I might just try it out - I think I'll make a little practice sandwich block

Sure you can - the SITD will keep anything from shifting. Personally, I like to do the binding last just as a 'finish'. No, that's the label - make the binding next to last. FMQ is fun - just go for it.

Sally, you sure can add free motion quilting after you are done with your binding and SITD stuff. Nothing wrong with this!

Go for it! It can be a creative experiment for you! :)

Of course you can quilt after you do the binding. However, since you have essentially basted by SID you need to be very careful that adding new quilting after the binding doesnt cause some bunching of the backing and even the top. There is no where for puckering to go unless you are very careful. I have done it but added pins to the area where I am quilting to make sure the layers are even in the specific place the additional quilting is being done.

All of you say, just go for it. Im still only on doing squiggly lines fmq. It maight take yrs. For me to just go for it.

I frequently put the binding on before I am totally finished the quilting - because I like to hand sew in the evening (watching TV, or sitting by the fire) and now that I am machine quilting everything I don't have nearly as much hand work to do. However, I won't do this if I have any quilting left that will come within 1/2 inch of the sewing line holding the binding on, because there is too much chance of puckering (as Holice pointed out). I feel that if there is quilting to be done within a block (or any space) that has already been outlined with quilting the additional quilting needs to "float" without touching the existing quilting lines. This seems to become more important with increasing quilt size: if I do this experiment with small practice samples I never have problems, but when you add in the weight and drag of a larger quilt it seems to increase the chance of puckering.

Alison