How to start quilting you quilt?
 

As many have seen some of my finished quilts, I'm still a self taught quilter in general. I have an Innova with IQ robotics but I don't know if I'm quilting the correct way to get the most out of my experience and to have my quilt come out really well.

I normally baste the top and sides as I advance. I don't stitch in the ditch as my hands shake so badly even if I try to use rulers, I can't seem to keep my quilt foot up against the ruler. So my questions are these: Should I be basting the entire top, botton and sides before advancing to the actual quilting? Should I work from the top to the bottom or should I be starting in the center of the quilt when doing custom quilting? Should I try to stitch in the ditch of my blocks before I add the quilt pattern? I find when I baste as I advance the quilt that due to the draw-in, the sides don't always match up with the 1st row at the top and I'll tug outward to try to get them back to where they match up. I also find by the time I reach the bottom, I find a lot of fullness so I spritz and steam out as much as I can before proceeding. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong or in the wrong order. Any advice, tips would be greatly appreciated as my next quilt will be custom quilted again and I'd like to see this one come out better than the last one.

I was taught to do as you do - baste the top first, then the sides as they are exposed when you advance the quilt to the next area. I use a centering tape measure to make sure the block seams stay lined up. Quilt top to bottom (but then, I don't do medallion quilting - that you'd probably start in the center). Baste bottom when that's exposed, again still using the centering tape to make sure the blocks stay lined up.

I think if you're getting a lot of fullness (and increasing fullness) as you get towards the bottom, then the sides of the quilt are drifting in as you go. Once that starts and you don't address it early (checking/adjusting block alignment), it compounds as you go.

stitch in the ditch is really hard for me so I just skip that

To further what newbee3 mentions, it's very challenging to SITD on a longarm, even with rulers. Unless you absolutely want to emphasize the piecing, it's generally not done when you longarm due to the difficulty.

I think we all fall into our own way of doing longarming, just as we do with just about everything else. I do a *lot* of SITD when I longarm, and don't find it that difficult, probably because I'm pretty tolerant of drifting outside the ditch occasionally. I don't float the top, which means that I attach the bottom of the top to a rail rather than let it float free. I find that I can keep the sides where they belong that way. I often baste the entire quilt before starting the real quilting, because I can then roll the quilt back and forth, making it easier to do all of a particular motif at once, or to start in the middle (or anyplace else) if that's what I want to do. This also makes it easy to do all the quilting for which I want one color of thread, then switch threads for another part of the quilting. I have my own way of loading the quilt that works for me, but it isn't the way I was originally taught, or the way I've seen others do it online. I developed my habits based on what works for me, after trying lots of techniques that didn't work for me.

I do only free motion and ruler work. I have friends who have robotics (which I would definitely want if I quilted as a business), and friends who do mostly pantographs, which I've never even tried to do.

Dunster, thanks for your imput as I've seen your quilts and they're amazing. Good to know about basting the entire quilt and then go back to do certain areas first. Do you find fullness when you do it this way or do you do some basting within the body of the quilt also? I know you mentioned SITD so I imagine that would take care of any fullness that might arise with starting in the middle of the quilt.

So again, thanks to all who responded. Right now I need to fix my drifting on my robotic system as that's a big problem I have right now.

I have a couple of questions. Do you have any way of stabilizing the sides? I learned on an APQS Lenni (wonderful generous friend and teacher) and now have a Handi Quilter Amara. Both machines have two clips attached to the sides with heavy elastic rope.

I was taught to mark where the edges of my top are on the front bar--just a piece of tape but it helps to keep things straight. The clips and adjustable elastic also help to keep the sides where they are supposed to be.

I noticed a problem on a small donation baby quilt--the sides were pulling in no matter how much I adjusted. I realized two things were going on, I was using a very tight panto and I had pulled my backing too tight, so it all kind of squoze in, instead of lying flat. Could that be part of your problem?

And one other question/suggestion. When is the last time you checked if your machine table is level? A friend with ProStitcher was having many problems and they all went away after her table was re-leveled. I can always tell if mine needs a tweak because my machine will 'wander' on her own.

When I said that I baste the quilt, I meant the whole quilt. I set the stitch length to 3 and sew a couple of deep wavy lines all across the quilt as well as straight lines down the sides, roll the quilt, and repeat. I have to remove the basting as I do the regular quilting, but that's easy to do since the stitches are big. I also adjust the batting every time I roll the quilt, because it can have a tendency to bunch up in the middle.

GingerK is absolutely right that the table needs to be level. Also check to see if your leaders are straight. As they are rolled back and forth they can "get air in them" as my longarm tech put it, and go off-kilter. Stretching them out all the way and then carefully rolling them back onto the bar can correct the problem.

I have to admit my basement concrete floor is not the most level but I've added pieces under the legs where needed to get it as level as possible.

I also wonder if maybe I'm putting my 3 layers too tight with the clips on the sides as well as while advancing the quilt as I do use the belly bar as I know you don't Dunster.

As for my leaders, they never were straight from the get go when installed back in late 2012. I decided after my last quilt was removed, I was going to fix that plus the back leader was starting to fray so it needed repaired anyway. I ran a straight line stitch across the bad leader, cut off the bad section, folded it over and believe it or not, I used staples to make the fold so I could install the red plastic whatever it's called that you clip the red snappers to. I also used, again believe me, I used that shiny silver tape they use on A/C duct work to seal over the cut edge as that tape sticks forever it seems. Anyway, my back leader is now straight. Eventually I'll order new leaders but for now, this jimmy rigged method will do.