Cross-hatching on an appliqued quilt

[Rita C.]

I am wondering about how to cross-hatch an appliqued quilt. Does one continue to stitch across the applique or does one stop at that point and join up the line on the opposite side? Margo, I know that you posted a photo of a most beautiful quilt that you had appliqued with cross-hatching - it was a traditional quilt in red and green on a white/cream background - but I can't find the thread. otherwise I would be examining it in minute detail to see how you did it. Would there be any chance you could upload the photo here, please, or a link to where I saw it before? Rita.

[Margo C.]

Thanks Rita! That quilt is my Coxcombs Quilt. It is the first hand applique project that I ever did, and now I absolutely love working on needle-turn projects!





This was before I got my Handi-Quilter and it is machine quilted on my Bernina 1090, using monofiliment thread on the top and cotton thread in the bobbin that matches the backing fabric. I probably used YLI, but now I also like Superior's MonoPoly and Maderia's Monolon. I just stitched right over everything is a very simple diagonal grid which was how I had seen some antique quilts done...except, of course, they were quilted by hand! The grid was carefully marked with Crayola markers before I pin basted the sandwich.

If I were doing it today, on my mid-arm machine, it would be easier for me to outline the applique (definitely with monofiliment!) and do a fill in the background to add more interest there with a cotton thread. Because the applique pieces are so large on this quilt, I would also quilt details on them to both add interest and to keep the quilting at the same density as the background fill.

When I cross-hatch on my Handi-Quilter, I mark the grid before starting to quilt, and stitch up to each applique element, and use the outline stitching as a travel path to move to the next line. That is the way I quilted my 2008 TQS BOM, Bouquets for a New Day!



The straight lines you see are basting stitches done with Superior's VANISH, and when the quilt was washed, they all disappeared.


Let me know if you have more questions!

[Rita C.]

Thanks Margo. That's just the information I need and that was the quilt I was thinking of. It really is a beauty. I have been trying to figure out what to do with my 2011 BOM quilt and I am leaning towards cross-hatching at the moment. I just wasn't sure what to do about the appliqued parts. I am just not sure I could trust myself to sew such straight lines on such a big quilt on the machine. I am just so afraid of messing it up after all the work I put into making the top. It's a scary prospect, whether I do it by hand, machine or get a long-arm quilter to do it. But thanks again for the information and the photos, they have really helped. Rita.

[Margo C.]

Rita, when I use my domestic machine to quilt cross-hatching like this where I skip over the applique, it's easier to stitch up to the applique, do about 1/4" of teeny-tiny stitches to tie off, drag across the applique, do about 1/4" of teeny-tiny stitches for a secure start, then continue along the same line of stitching. Since I use a walking foot for this process, and the quilt is packaged to go through the arm of the machine, it's easier to do it like this then come back and clip all of the threads (front and back) that were dragged across the applique.

Hope that info helps!
Margo

[Rita C.]

Yes it does Margo. I had completely forgotten about the walking foot. What a great little unsung hero it is! I think I will test your idea out on something smaller and work my way up to the big quilt. Thanks so much for your help. Rita.

[jimmie w.]

Margo, what are crayola markers? Do they disappear when washed? Where do you get them? Thanks, Jimmie

[Margo C.]

Hi Jimmie! Crayola Washable Markers are available anywhere that sells school supplies. I like the ones that are "fine line" because it puts less product in the fabric. There is a long discussion about them on this forum topic, including how to remove the marks!

http://forum/i-need-quilting-related...shable-markers

[Juliet W.]

Hi Margo! I think if I write here you will be sent the post?! I was googling " machine quilting cross-hatching" and of course a Quilt Show Forum came up. I was too embarassed to come here first but couldn't find my answer. I have finished all the feathers and wavy lines by hand, on a queen size quilt and I have now absolutely had it with hand-quilting. So, I decided to cross-hatch the borders. The quilt is roughly 108"by 84" and the border is 15"deep. On a previous quilt I did cross-hatching on one border by hand and on the opposite end by machine and now for the life of me I cannot remember how I did this. (I'm putting this down to stress and living in Venezuela, plenty of trouble here now!). So, I have found out that it is best to do it with painter's tape but my question is this. On such a large border do I start in the middle and do all one way diagonal lines to the end or should I stop and come back in the opposite direction to secure the fabric/ prevent shifting better. I have a Pfaff and IDT (marvellous built in walking foot). It's funny isn't it, this is such basic beginner's machine quilting stuff that I can't find a tutorial anywhere and it is in none of my 3 machine quilting books - all they ever seem to talk about is feathers!

[Margo C.]

Hi Margarita! You can use the painter's tape if you want to, but if I were doing it, I would pre-mark the grid with the Crayola Washable markers to make sure that the corners all come out to match. You may need to do some math, and use a ruler with a 45 degree mark to keep the lines straight.
If the lines are all marked, it doesn't matter what order you stitch them in! Good luck, and post photos when you get it done!

[Juliet W.]

Okay. Thank you Margo, what a speedy answer,still not rocket science for you anyway! So, I am replying immediately and now have to think about this, stuff like measuring exactly how long the border is and what width of cross-hatching fits in exactly etc? I love the idea of the markers as I have covered the thing with them anyway so what's a bit more and if the lines are marked I really will be able to listen to the audio book a friend lent me! Also my table is at cutting height now so before I take it down I can mark without doing my back more damage. Aha! I knew there was another question, this quilt has been heaved about and generally very handled, I spray basted it - do you think I can press the borders with a hot? iron or should I just try smoothing it out with my hands?

[Margo C.]

I wouldn't use an iron on anything with any kinds of marks on it!!

I have a large ironing surface that I would use to stab pin the borders to while marking them, keeping the fabric taut, but not stretched at all.

If you don't have that, maybe you could use tape and/or binder clips to hold everything in place?

[Juliet W.]

What a smart lady you are! I was looking at this monster this morning and it's actually not too wrinkly at all but I am glad I asked you that question because I don't have the large ironing surface but I can use my binder clips to hold it in place on my big cutting/work table which is a really good idea. In your debt again Margo, many thanks.

[Margo C.]

Glad to help! Have fun!

[Juliet W.]

Well... now you are going to understand why after 10 years I only qualify as a confident beginner plus I was thrown out of math class at 14. I measured the side of the quilt and decided on a 1.5" space which went into the number evenly, no decimals left over. Now here is where I probably went wrong, I started on the far left hand corner of the last border and began marking diagonal lines at the specified interval, after a bit I went back and did the opposite direction. I was putting the 45degree line on the border and I think my border line may not be as straight as my ruler. At the end of the border I did not meet the corner exactly by about 0.5" but I fudged it and one side is now marked. My sister won't notice but I want to get the other sides right. Should I be starting with a vee in the middle and sort of measuring off that? Also when you machine quilt do you go up and down in vees or keep doing one diagonal line in one direction all the time. See how I need to live in a country with an active quilt shop and a guild!! I hope I have explained myself all right, it's kind of hard to do. Can you help again, please?

[Juliet W.]

Margarita, I do know that when marking multiple parallel lines that you want to be all the same distance apart and fit into a set space, it is better to put a tape measure or ruler along one edge and mark the increments using either pins (which I would do in this case) or pencil marks (for paper). Then repeat the same process on the other side of the void, and finally join the dots.

This is because I have found that if you just mark one line and then using the parallel lines on your quilter's ruler to put in the rest, you will get slightly over sized parallel lines (it can be as small as the width of the drawn line) and the discrepency is accumulative (gets worse as you go along). (I have had this happen to me when cutting bias tape :roll: )

Whereas if you mark the distances with pins, you can easily check that you have the right amount of divisions, and should you just have a small amount of gap left over where it shouldn't be, you can just move the pins a little bit along until you have lost the excess and the gaps visually look right. I ended up doing this on at least one of the borders on Caught Redhanded, to get the quilting to fit the distances properly.