Straight line quilting okay for this??

[Margo C.]

Thanks all! I think I figured out a beginning idea, so will start with that and see if it makes the quilt look "done" or I need to add more after that or not. Going to settle with horizontal lines across, except then follow a diagonal (the red lines) across the middle, then back to horizontal on the outside. No idea for the borders, I think will do straight mixed with a decorative stitch that goes the same direction as the length of the border. Too many tiny seams in the pieced border to do anything fancy!

The Jacquie Gering blog was a great inspiration, as was your blog, Rosemary! Thanks! Now I'm excited to get started!! I won't start till Wednesday, as we're dog sitting Sat to Tues, but it's nice to have a plan now Yay!

[jimmie w.]

I am in the process of making a quilt with 2 inch half-square traingles. I will be hand quilting it, would it be best to press the seams open or press the seam to one side? Thanks, Jimmie

[Margo C.]

I am in the process of making a quilt with 2 inch half-square traingles. I will be hand quilting it, would it be best to press the seams open or press the seam to one side? Thanks, Jimmie

Jimmie, that is one of those things that you will get lots of opinions on! Personally, I think that seams pressed to one side are stronger than if they are pressed open because the only thing holding those seams together is the thread between them.

However, there are times when I also press seams open because I want to reduce the bulk of seams pressed to one side.

Sorry....that isn't much help. :?

[Nancy R.]

I haven't done much hand quilting so am definitely no expert, but generally you try to reduce the bulk as much as possible when quilting by hand. So, if you are planning on stitching right in the ditch, I would assume that you would want to press your seams to one side, away from the side where you will be stitching, so you are only stitching though a single top layer of fabric. If you are quilting 1/4" away from the seam, then it seems like you could press the seams however you want to help with construction.

Hope that helps in some way,

Nancy

[Nancy R.]

UPDATE --

Well, it's not done (ha!!) but I finally quit stalling, finished all the little things I needed to sew before hand, and finally ran out of excuses so yesterday I pieced the backing fabric together, pieced the batting together, and laid the monster out to baste/etc. Egads, it is huge!!!

But, I finally have a plan, and my sweet husband has said I can take over the dining room table and we can eat on the small patio table (which right now is my "sewing table"; no where near big enough to quilt this thing on!!) until the quilt is done. yay!! That makes things a LOT easier than trying to manage on the little round table.

Here is the plan --
1. ditch work in all vertical and horizontal seams, to stabilize the quilt before I really get to work.
2. outline the comics, start in the middle and work my way out. I will use straight-line, but FMQ so I am not pivoting. I'm confident I can manage that w/o too much trouble.
3. red top thread, outline/echo quilt inside the red bits. Start in the middle, work my way out, again with the straight but FMQ so no pivoting.
4. horizontal straight lines across. I will use one stitch type in the black sections and a different stitch type in the white sections. This way it more looks like the 2 sections are meeting in the middle/interlocking.

Here is where I have a question ---- by this point, the quilt should be pretty stable, and I know to start in the middle (as far as up/down) but can I start at the outside edge, go in until the middle (where the color changes), stop, go back out to the edge (ie, unloading the quilt between times) and basically do all the lines on the black side then adjust the quilt and do the white side?

Or better to start on one edge and go all the way across, just jumping over the middle/switching stitch, and then keep going on the other color? I think jumping over would be easier (then in the end I will go back and do any fill-in that I need to do in that middle section), right?

Then I will figure out border treatment. I think for the pieced border, just long straight lines that follow the edge of the quilt. For the skinny border....probably in reality, same thing, just long lines (maybe use zig zag in there?) but if I get very ambitious maybe I will do my mazey thing inside those. ha! we'll see. By then, I will either be super frustrated and ready to be done, or super confident and excited to try that. -snort!- we'll see.

Gray thread for all except the red parts, but gray in the bobbin the whole time. whew! Wish me luck! Here's the top getting ready to be pinned & basted....huge! and yes, that little white table? that's where I've been sewing. Can you imagine??? So glad DH is letting me take over the dining table instead

[Margo C.]

:shock: Big quilt....little table! :shock:
Sounds like you've got a good handle on getting it done Heather. Just take it one step at a time. You can do this!

[Margo C.]

:shock: Big quilt....little table! :shock:
Sounds like you've got a good handle on getting it done Heather. Just take it one step at a time. You can do this!

thanks, Margo! I'm finally over being scared of it, and ready to go. Can't wait to come back with pictures of the finished quilt!!

(and SO GLAD hubby is letting me take over the big table!)

[Lois B.]

I think you are doing fine. All I can say is that I am so glad you are not trying to keep this as a surprise. I am not sure I understood your question? Are you wanting to skip over the middle to start to avoid thread changes? I have not machine quilted anything that big so I wouldn't have good advice for you anyway, but I thought clarifying the question might help so that someone more experienced could offer suggestions. Good luck! I think it looks super and I can't wait to see it finished.

[Lois B.]

I think you are doing fine. All I can say is that I am so glad you are not trying to keep this as a surprise. I am not sure I understood your question? Are you wanting to skip over the middle to start to avoid thread changes? I have not machine quilted anything that big so I wouldn't have good advice for you anyway, but I thought clarifying the question might help so that someone more experienced could offer suggestions. Good luck! I think it looks super and I can't wait to see it finished.

No thread changes, but I'm going to use one type of stitch in the black section, and a different stitch in the white section. So I'm not sure can I just start on one edge of the quilt and go all the way across, not stitch on the red/comic parts (because they will already be quilted in their own design and I don't want to "run over" the comics), then start stitching again on the opposite section, in the new stitch and go out to that edge. To save repositioning the quilt, mainly.

I can do the little trick of actually stopping, pull up the bobbin thread, snip and bury, then move the quilt to the next bit and start again. Just wanting to make sure there's no big error with 1) starting on the edge and 2) skipping over the middle. I can't see why there would be, but......

Much to do before I get to that point so that's good. And definitely not a surprise; he had to help choose which comics to print on fabric, chose the layout from various designs I drew up for him, etc.

[Norma H.]

I think you can do exactly what feels best for you when you sit there.

[Norma H.]

For myself, once the central red comic section is quilted I would then start there and stitch towards the outer edge, rather than the other way around. Also to consider, you don't want to have more than half the quilt to the right of the needle if you can possibly help it - bulk in the harp of the machine would give you less manuvering room.

By the way I was able to wedge a kitchen sponge under the far/wide edge of my machine pedal and that slowed down the speed of my machine a bit, which made fmq easier. If lines are not stitching smoothly, it might be that you need to speed up the movement of the hands - not the machine! Personally when I was finishing my Too Loud Man quilt last week I came to the conclusion that using a walking foot and stopping to pivot all the time was not a dreadful way to go... it was certainly easier than trying to do fmq over large areas :wink:

PS envy your basting area :mrgreen: - you've got space to walk around the outside of your quilt!

[Norma H.]

For myself, once the central red comic section is quilted I would then start there and stitch towards the outer edge, rather than the other way around. Also to consider, you don't want to have more than half the quilt to the right of the needle if you can possibly help it - bulk in the harp of the machine would give you less manuvering room.

By the way I was able to wedge a kitchen sponge under the far/wide edge of my machine pedal and that slowed down the speed of my machine a bit, which made fmq easier. If lines are not stitching smoothly, it might be that you need to speed up the movement of the hands - not the machine! Personally when I was finishing my Too Loud Man quilt last week I came to the conclusion that using a walking foot and stopping to pivot all the time was not a dreadful way to go... it was certainly easier than trying to do fmq over large areas :wink:

PS envy your basting area :mrgreen: - you've got space to walk around the outside of your quilt!

re: starting in the middle and going out, I thought about that....I'll have to see when I get there. Have done all the vertical ditch work today, will do (or start) the horizontal ditch work tomorrow and go from there.

Thanks for the tip about the machine pedal; I've been counting how many seconds it takes my hands to get through the machine while guiding it with the walking foot, to get an idea how fast/slow to move the fabric while FMQ, LOL!

I *think* the FMQ won't be bad since it is small sections, lots of times. In other words, outline one comic (5x7 area), then the next, then the next. We'll see; pivoting all that bulk to do those small squares sounds dreadful!

Def. never more than half to the right; that was bulky enough! Doing the ditch work today I did the dead center seam first, then one to the left, then one to the right, then did all the right hand ones, then the rest of the left hand ones. That dead center one was a bear, then the very outside one was awkward too because of ALL the bulk being over on the left (and I've scooted my machine to the farthest right corner of the table....), but I'm finding it not as hard as I feared, at least not this straight line part. We'll see about the rest......

Thanks all for being so encouraging, as always

[Lois B.]

This is exciting! :lol: :lol: :lol: I am embarrassed that I am so easy to entertain. ops: ops: ops:

[Lois B.]

This is exciting! :lol: :lol: :lol: I am embarrassed that I am so easy to entertain. ops: ops: ops:

not easy to entertain; thoughtful enough to be a constant encouragement to the fledgling quilter in the group

[Lois B.]

This is exciting! :lol: :lol: :lol: I am embarrassed that I am so easy to entertain. ops: ops: ops:

not easy to entertain; thoughtful enough to be a constant encouragement to the fledgling quilter in the group

And enjoying passing on things that we have found helpful. It is always nice to help someone towards a lightbulb moment of their own.

By the way here is how I wedged my spongethe foot pedal is on a block so that I can reach it and it has a plastic storage box behind it to keep things from moving too far (besides which that is where the box lives anyway :wink: )