Karamarie

That's_It_I_Quilt: I have never heard of a "stitch in the ditch" foot. Can I ask what kind of a sewing machine you have? I have a Janome and may have to check into if there is one available for that machine. Thank you.

Watson

I just took a Craftsy class on FMQ and that instructor said not to SITD beforehand because FM can create puckers against the pre-sewn seams this way because the fabric is contained by the SITD but is being pressed out by the FM stitches. (Didn't explain that very well....)
How do you all avoid this? Or is it not a problem?
Watson

Here's a blog post about it, although she doesn't talk about the puckers here:

http://www.afewscraps.com/2015/05/fm...-in-ditch.html

Fastpedal

From experience I would say definitely SITD before you start quilting. No matter how carefully I spray or pin baste if I do not SITD I get puckers on the back side of my quilt. Sometimes they can be fixed and other times I just have to leave them and this fustrates me.

Sewnoma

I think it partially depends on your basting skills, and also on how stretchy the backing fabric is.

If the backing is NOT stretchy in either direction and you can get it well-basted, I think SITD before FMQ makes sense because you can then remove all the pins after the SITD and you can FMQ with confidence knowing it's all been taken care of.

But if your basting is like mine and a little sketchy sometimes, or if you have backing fabric that stretches in either direction, I think SITD beforehand can give you problems with puckering when you run up against one of your SITD seams.

Therefore, for MY quilting abilities/techniques/habits, it usually works best if I do NOT do SITD beforehand, or if I do, I do very minimal quilting and then follow the same patterns with my FMQ. Like I might sew one long vertical SITD seam and one long horizontal SITD seam, dividing the quilt into 4 quarters. Then I FMQ each quarter separately, starting at the center and fanning my way back and forth across the quarter until I hit the corner.

Or if I know I'm going to be FMQ'ing a sort of "medallion" into the center of each block and keeping my FMQ stitches at least an inch from the block edges, I'll go ahead and SITD around all of the blocks beforehand. That inch gap lets the fabric have some space so I don't get any puckers, and can help emphasize the blocks.

Thats_It_I_Quilt

Janome 8900 and looking at it I think it is the S foot.

Thats_It_I_Quilt

(Was in reply to karamarie)

HouseDragon

*LOL* I much prefer the block shown without SITD.

Since I "baste" with Elmer's glue dots, I've never even thought of SITD-ing every block, and I've never gotten any puckers.

I'd suggest making two blocks and SITD one. Then quilt them the same way and wash to see which you like better. Or make four or six and make a table runner while you're at it. SITD every other block. That way you can practice sashing, SITD, quilting, and binding all in one project and have something to show for your work when you finish.

rryder

I ditch, but not necessarily on every single pieced seam. I use STID as a way of stabilizing blocks that I want to FMQ without having pins get in the way, and also as a way of helping a pieced area pop by isolating it from the rest of the quilt.

Rob

charlottequilts

I have the opposite problem of some folks. I wanted to do ditch quilting on my last quilt, but when I tried it on sample blocks, I couldn't seem to get right next to the seam, but instead, sewed right on it. I was sure it would chop through some of the block seams, so I gave up. Maybe I was over-thinking it?

hugs,
Charlotte