Stitch in the ditch
 

I am quilting, stitch in the ditch, a queen size quilt with a walking foot. My question is, after I go down on one side of the smashing, do I stitch up the other side? Or go back to the top and stitch down again?

I sew from the halfway mark from edge to edge. Working my way to the outside. Then turn the quilt working again from halfway to outer edge in the other direction. This way you only have half of the quilt under your machine at a time

Not good at hitting the ditch, so I stitch about 1/4" from seam line. I have done a crib size all direction. Top to bottom then from bottom up without any issues.

Alternate directions. Sew down. Then up. Then down. Etc.

When I do stitch in the ditch - I go all the same direction - always left to right - then always top to bottom -
because - if it is going to "pull" - then all the pulling will be in one direction.

I have an old Pfaff 1471 (mid 1980's) and the pulling was minimal..

However, the largest I have done on that machine was about 65 x 85 inches.

I like to go from left to right then from the top to the bottom when stitching in the ditch. Always taking it very slowly.

I found a website with a tutorial on this and she recommended always sewing in the same direction, not back and forth. She had an example of what happens, how the material can creep just a little bit, causing ripples in the sections when you go top to bottom, then bottom to top. I will see if I can find the website and post a link. I think the idea is that all the creep goes the same way, and then you trim everything level when you're done and you end up with a smoother top.

Here is the tutorial about matchstick quilting where she explains why you go in the same direction every time.
https://suzyquilts.com/6-tips-for-st...tick-quilting/

I took an on line class for quilting with the walking foot and that instructor said always quilt in the same direction. Top to bottom and left to right.

That link to Suzyquilts is a good one.
She shows examples of quilting in one direction vs the other and the difference is remarkable.
Thanks for starting this thread. I learned a lot.