Straight line quilting questions
 

Hello... again ;)

I have decided to quilt in straight lines as I am a beginner and I like the look of it too. This is my quilt, as seen in the photo, and it has some great lines to follow. Any suggestions as to what to do and do it well? I understand I need a walking foot, good thread and a non roving pair of eyes!!

Do you think that if I stitched in the ditch first, I could then start to sew my lines after I have anchored it down?

Any advice would be great thank you :)

Do you have any of those guides that attaches to your walking foot? That way, after your first line, just keep your guide on the stitched line and they'll all be the same distance apart. That is, if you're not doing SITD.

If doing SITD, a SITD foot can be a BIG help!
Or if wanting 1/4" away, then you can use a 1/4" foot to help for the consistency.
Adjusting the needle left/right and you can be narrower or wider on that spacing.

Depending on your machine, you may not need a walking foot ... some of the machines in the last few years have built in features, which do the job of the walking foot.

I like the colors you used on your quilt, I would probably do X's from corner to corner of the squares. But then I am chicken about stitching in the ditch. If I don't do it, I don't have problems with it not always being in the ditch.

Another quilting hint, particularly for SITD ... use a finer thread as it is less noticeable when you have some "oops" moments!

Coarse thread can give a really nice look .... but sure shows up any stitching faux-pas!

I would just quilt diagonally across the blocks myself. or if you have trouble with straight lines, you can do curving lines with your walking foot by just moving the quilt left, then right and left, etc as you go along.

I like to stitch on both sides of the ditch. It's easier and a lot more relaxing, than trying to stay in the ditch. I use my presser foot next to the ditch, as a guide.

I like your colors and the way you placed them. On a rail fence I usually let a predominant color zig zag diagonally across the quilt. Just goes to show, new ideas are always popping up. Especially by beginners.

As to quilting: Since black is the strongest color, I'd use black thread for quilting the body and blue for SITD. I'd use a walking foot for the body and SITD foot for SITD (it has a guide that opens up the bend in the fabric and helps stay ITD). For the body I'd stitch down the middle of each rale and let it continue across the perpindicular block to the next rale, both across and up/down the quilt.

When you start, stitch from top to bottom at your center seam. Then stitch from side to side at the center seam. This will secure the layers. Then, go from top to bottom alternating on the left and right sides of your center stitching.

Rather than worrying about staying in the ditch, you might think about doing a slightly curved line going from the top of the block to the bottom and weaving from side to side of the seam.

Really like your quilt! If you are going to stitch in the ditch, you may want to consider quilting with a decorative stitch. IU made a very similar looking quilt pattern, and quilted with a feather stitch. Might depend if your machine has that stitch or not. I used my walking foot.