Stippling or Meandering
 

I am a self-taught quilter-learning everything from you wonderful ladies and gentlemen on the board. My question is why don't you want to cross the sewn lines when you meander or stipple a quilt? Does it harm the quilt or make the thread not as strong? Just curious.

No not at all. It is just that not crosisng a line is the perfect way to do it and it looks great. It is not a big deal if you cross a line here and there. Does not harm the quilt or the thread - just gets the quilt police worked up!

I think it is a style - nothing to do with harm or weak thread. of course, your quilt, your style, and lots of folks do cross over.

I try not to cross lines. Sometimes I do and just go on. No rules on it and no quilt police either.

I loop-d-loop and throw other elements like leaves, flowers, stars, spirals, etc, into my meandering all the time. The quilt police have yet to show up at my door.

Meandering with crossed lines goes more into the realm of loops which is a different style. General guideline of meandering is not to cross lines. Stippling is a tighter kind of meandering.

Isn't it amazing what you learn here? As I practice all my FMQ - I am just happy if I can get it to look uniform, I seem to get smaller as I go......I'll worry about crossing later.

the difference between stippling and meandering is---stippling no line crosses or touches---meandering means you 'meander' all sometimes stars, flowers, hearts, what ever- butterflies---what ever you want to meander across your quilt- the lines often touch and cross. back when quilting was predominantly done by hand people did not want their stitches to cross- (stippling) because the thread might (with friction) break with wear & tear- it is not as much of an issue now days with better quality threads and more machine quilting being done- now it's more of a design decision- if you want to meander you can (draw-doodle) anything you want meandering across your quilt----stippling is making the puzzle like designs without your lines crossing- if you enter a show and state you stippled the quilt the judges will check to see if you crossed lines---if you meander it crossing lines is perfectly ok.

lol, accepted? I'm guessing you are talking about judged quilts ;-)

I wish cross hatching was mentioned before I sometimes put applique on the background.as it is so much easier to do this before putting applique on.

My thought on the reason for not crossing lines of stitching was that it had to do with eliminating tucks/puckers at the cross over point.

I try not to cross over when I am meandering or stippling, but I always seem to have at least one place where I end up crossing my lines. I also usually forget where the spot is over time. Sometimes I can't find it later when I look for it. Unless you are entering a show, I don't think anyone will ever notice.

I always think of a jigsaw puzzle when I do stippling. I personally prefer the look of cross hatching but it take time to draw ALL those lines.

thank you everyone for responding to my question

I only draw 2 lines when I cross hatch. The first one going one way and then the second going the other. I then use my quilting bar and set it the distance I want the lines to be apart. Works great.

As far as meandering and stippling - I try not to cross over - but occasionally do. I don't get all worked up about it if I do. :)

Crayola washable markers work great if you want to mark all of your lines when cross-hatching or using a stencil to mark a design on a quilt. They come in a variety of colors and wash out beautifully!

I always start out crossing a few lines ON PURPOSE, that way I can just say they were all intentional. I think the idea with stippling is for all the lines, loops, humps and bumps to have about the same distance between them. If your lines cross, then obviously they are "too close" together. As you practice and improve with stippling you may get bored like I did of just doing wandering lines and loops. That's when you start throwing in leaves and stars and flowers, butterflies, hearts... your imagination is the limit.

That is what I do to...and then, if you happen to cross a line, it really doesn't show. I also get tired of just meandering, so by adding the other shapes, it gives some variety, and makes it more fun to quilt.

I was told if you cross the line by accident make sure you do more so it doesn't look like a mistake.