Originally Posted by
Lori S
Its a beautiful quilt! As for the quilting... I would not do either I would do a wide echo stitch that runs down the middle of the light strips and then on the batik area would quilt a square on point going contrary to the square of the batiks creating a diamond , I would do this about half way to the center of that batik square.
If I really wanted to keep the darkest sashing from shifting at all I would stitch right down the center of the dark. Sometimes I find the narrowest sashings will shift a bit and not appear to be the straight line they are before quilting. Since its the contrast is so great and draws you eye to that portion... I would stitch that dark sashing.
Lori S has made an excellent suggestions. I prefer to do quilting that will enhance the piecing of the quilt top. You have made a very beautiful quilt top with the selection of your fabrics. For those who can stitch straight, try an decorative stitch. I love the look of hand quilting and use that as my guide when I machine quilt. I would start by stitching the dark sashing in the ditch first before trying anything else. Be sure you have support (such as a table) right next to your left side so the quilt is supported thru the quilting process. Put an ironing board in front of the machine so that also supports the quilt. when I was taught to machine quilt over two decades ago, I was told to roll up the excess of a quilt and toss it on my left shoulder. THAT DIDN'T WORK FOR ME! Support is extremely important when quilting any quilt.