Debbie, your runner is beautiful! Quilting is the most challenging part of any project for me! This is one when I would probably stitch in the ditch. You might consider using Monopoly from Superiors Threads with Bottom line in the bobbin. I use my edge stitch foot (Bernina #10) to help me stay in the ditch.

Terrie...if you like cross hatch...then do cross hatch !! There are no rules !!! Absoutely nothing wrong with that !

Blooming heck Terrie you certainly have your mojo back. All those mug rugs and now a full sized quilt!

Debbie, I'm wondering how your table runner turned out?

I am just sandwiching a full sized quilt and was thinking of asking my TQS gals for advice on the quilting. It will be the FIRST time I will machine quilt a full sized quilt. I know how you feel about not wanting to spoil a project you've worked on.

Thanks to all the encouragement here on TQS, especially with my mug rugs, I am going to do this. I just have to keep thinking ' I'm not an idiot, I'm not an idiot, I can do this...etc."

I signed up for a Craftsy class on machine quilting with Wendy Butler Berns and she says to SID the main sections - maybe about 8 inches or so, depending on the pattern, and along the borders etc. She doesn't say ESS.

I have to buy more pins because I have used over 100 on just a third of the sandwich - is that too much or just enough?

The pattern is Churn Dash, so I was thinking of SID around each 12 inch block, then around each churn/monkey wrench pattern. Then try my Walking Foot for cross hatching the background. Then I read on this topic that if you have geometric patterns, you should use curvy quilting.
Any advice? Would a wide Baptist fan look good?

Thanks for all the advice. I really appreciate it! I am ready to tackle this project and think I will do the ditch and echo quilting with my walking foot. You are all so encouraging and knowledgeable. I think my biggest quilting fear is that I will destroy a project that I have worked on. BUT I will never learn if I don't try...so thanks for all the suggestions.

I really like all the suggestions here for you, but I just wanted to say that I started out not liking the quilting as much as making the top and now, though I like top making just as much, I think I enjoy the quilting more. It took me a while to get to that point. It's all a matter of practice and figuring out the kinds of quilting you like best. Nothing wrong with nice walking foot quilting...sometimes it is just what is needed.

Like

The decision of whether to ditch or not depends on the look you are going for. If you want to emphasize the piecing, then ditch stitching is the place to start. If the piecing is off by much, then ditching can emphasize that, too. If you get a quilt professionally quilting, then it will most often not be ditched unless you are paying for fairly high custom because ditch stitching takes so much more time. There are ways to highlight the piecing without ditching by doing things like "continuous curves", where you sew a curved like from point to point rather than following the straight ditch. You can also get a cool, contemporary look by ignoring the piecing completely with your quilting. It really all depends on what you want your quilt to look like and how much time you want to spend quilting it. As with all parts of quilting, there are no rules (except to put in enough quilting to hold the quilt together).

Debbie,
How about using a twin needle? one needle going in the ditch and the other needle would be just outside ......you can get different width needles and you could probably use your walking foot.
Anne

I think if you are doing an overall pattern I wouldn't ESS, only if you're a perfectionist which everyone else here is It takes ages and with me causes bulges because i can't then ease the fabric.

Debbie, I just went back and look at your table runner again and I think you would be able to make the brown triangle stand out a little more if you stitched in the ditch. They seem to be getting lost in the rectangles. It could just be the way my computer is showing the color. Just a thought.

Ditching Every Stinking Seam (ESS), as Cindy Needham likes to say, makes for a nicely finished quilt. I've just been looking at your table runner again. If you Ditched the whole thing and then quarter inch edge stitched the design in the blue parts, all with your walking foot, you would have a very nicely quilted runner. You could always add more, but IMHO you won't need it. The back will be as fabulous as the front, obviously reflecting the piecing of the front.

shoeboxquilts wrote: Thanks. I appreciate the advice. I have it sandwiched but haven't quilted it yet.

: Here is another question. Is it always necessary to stitch in the ditch or can you use other designs without doing stitch in the ditch?

When the block is geometric, I always use circular or curving motifs. And, if the block is applique, I use lines, cross hatch or hanging diamonds around the applique. You can mark with a HERA and if you like the look, actually quilt it. For examples see Michelle Yeo's Stars Upon Stars Quilt. You have beautiful colors and work! Good luck.