I've been doing this on a quilt around a lot of flying geese strips. I'm having a difficult time staying right in the ditch even though I use an attachment for that. Some times my stitches aren't visible and sometimes they are a tine bit to the right or left of the ditch. I don't want it to look sloppy, as I'm donating the quilt for a raffle. Will the final washing take care of this and it will appear neater, or what would you suggest? Am I being too critical on this? Thanks for any suggestions. :x

That's why I like Invisible thread. It's very forgiving & I'm the perfectionist.

If you fabrics aren't prewashed the shrinking may help some :D:D:D

i like stitching flying geese 1/4 or 1/8 inch away from the seams.
when stitching in the "ditch" that really means holding the seam a bit tight or open and stitching right next to it. when you release the fabric, the fabric will mostly cover your stitches.

I am too much of a perfectionist to use SID. Not being able to remain exact drove me crazy!

That is my least favorite quilting. It drives me nuts for the same reasons.

It drives me nuts, too. You can shadow quilt the seams easier than you can SITD.

I just didn't like the way it was looking, so I'm not going to sitd around the flying geese. They are pretty small ones, so I found another thing to do for the quilting instead. I'm even taking some of the stitching out of the long seams to try to do them better.