I always start quilting in the middle of the quilt and make a big cross. I then quilt in fourths until done. This works for me.

I always start in the middle and work out.

If by "middle", posters mean the middle of an edge, then I am in complete agreement. What I do not recommend is starting in the center of a quilt. Sorry if I misunderstood the initial posts!

If I am doing straight lines from one edge to the other edge, I start at the edge and go to the other edge. This way you do not need to bury your ends because you will be putting on a binding. Also, every other line of stitching should start on the opposite side than you did the last line. If I am stitiching around objects or doing an outline stitch, I will start in the center and work myself out to the borders. I think as long as you have the quilt basted good, you should not have to worry about it shifting.

I don't like to baste so I do very little of it. I start in the center out and never have a problem with puckers or tucks ripply fabric. I smooth the layers as I go. I really learned a lot about straight line quilting from this book: One Line at a Time by Charlotte Warr Andersen

I use fusible batting (Hobbs 80/20 fusible) and start straight line machine quilting at the top and work down, or if the design warrants, at the middle of the top line and work downwards and out to each side, just making sure everything is smooth, flat and not shifting. I have just finished a simple straight line design on a small wheelchair quilt with a fleece backing, and the top-down, middle-out method worked beautifully. I was happily surprised that the fleece backing didn't stretch ( it was batted with Hobbs fusible) and was very easy to do.

I do block by block before assembling (QAYG) I just did some southwestern pottery where every piece of the pot had its own straight line pattern.

Thanks for posting about her book, just watched a short video on it and looks very helpful! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ABMD4XrqlU