memepat

I'm wanting to do some cross hatching - vertically. What is the easiest way using my longarm. Thanks for your help.

Bobbielinks

I would need a little more information in order to help you. Are you wanting to cross hatch one block at a time or are you planning to do a border or maybe a wholecloth quilt?

Vitality

Yeah, need more info. If you are doing it vertically over the whole quilt, well I'd be tempted to do all the horizontal lines and basting and then turn it on the frame and to them the other direction. Especially easy that way if you have channel locks or some such.

PaperPrincess

Me too. I think you will see all the stops & starts of the lines you can't complete until you roll.

Vitality

You can make the stops and starts invisible if you tie off and bury but my gosh what a lot of work. Easier to just do them left to right and then turn the whole quilt on the frame and repeat.

memepat

I'm sorry i didn't give enough info. I would like cross hatch the full quilt(wall hanging). I was wondering if there was a way to do this without reloading the quilt. Thanks for your help.

sewwhat85

I would re load also

Vitality

Yes you can do it without re-loading. It's going to be a ton more work and time and you'll have a hard time making invisible starts and stops on the vertical lines, where you have to end in order to advance the quilt.

Bobbielinks

To do cross hatch on a full quilt, no matter what size, I would load the quilt top, backing and batting and baste across the sandwich about every 8 inches until the whole quilt was basted. Release the quilt top from my leader so I can now roll the quilt back and forth. Place a strip of masking tape along the outer edge of the sandwich on the takeup roller edge and another strip of masking tape about 6 inches in from the belly bar. (Or Tiger Tape could be used, but you would want to highlight which marks on the Tiger Tape you will be using) extending the tape a few inches beyond the quilt sandwich. (MAKE A NOTE AS TO THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE TAPES as you will need to know this distance when you move the tapes down to do each portion.) Take a ruler and make marks along both tapes with the marks opposite each other. Now, beginning at the top left side label the marks on the top tape: a,b,c,d,e,f,a,b,c,d,e,f,etc. or 1,2,3,4,5,6. Then starting at the bottom left side, mark the bottom tape d,e,f,a,b,c,d,e,f,a,b,c,etc. Insert needle at mark closest to the left top on the quilt sandwich (in the case of my diagram "c") and stitch down to the right to the first "c", stitch up to the right to the next "c", zigzagging your way across the quilt. When you come to the last "c"(or whatever letter or number you started with) follow the edge of your quilt either up or down to the next closest letter or number, (in this case:b) follow the "b"s back across the quilt sandwich. Continue in this manner until the space between the masking tape in filled in with cross hatching. Remove the first two strips of masking tape and replace them, matching the marks on the tape to the stitching on your quilt. Placing the top tape just far enough above your bottom stitching so you can join your next stitching to the portion you have already stitched. Measure very carefully when you place the bottom tape in place (Remember the measurement you took between the tapes- this is the distance you want to place between the tapes now) Also make sure that the marks on top and bottom tapes line up. Proceed to stitch the next portion. To understand my drawing you might want to rotate it 45 degrees to the left (grin)

PaperPrincess

Bobbielinks Thank You so much! I knew there must be some secret method for diagonal cross hatching. It's so obvious now & great explanation.