What do I do now?

[lendube]

Hi Quilty Ladies. Here is a pic of one block of the many on my queen sized quilt. It's a crazy nine patch so the pieces are wonky and not at all uniform. It's sandwiched and basted and I need to know what to do now. I watched youtube videos on rolling the thing to fit it into the machine and I'm thinking "in the ditch" might be the easiest way to go but what's the other method where you quilt inside the lines of the pieces? That sound mighty time consuming and I'm not sure how to move the quilt around to go horizontal. I didn't see that technique addressed on the video. I've got "warm and natural" batting in there and I know the quilting doesn't have to be terribly close together but I still want the thing to look nice, of course. What would you ladies suggest? I start as close to the middle as possible, right? I'd like to use a maroon thread on top and natural on bottom. I don't think I want to deal with invisible thread. It's got a muslin back. Some advice please so I can get started? Thanks so much.

[Bama]

Lennie, I usually free motion stipple quilts. It's more forgiving than quilting straight lines. With the feed dogs dropped, you can move the quilt in all directions. Sometimes I echo quilt around shapes or appliques. I have some clips (I forgot what they are called) to hold the rolled up sides out of my way as I sew. I rarely quilt a straight line, except for maybe around borders, so I probably can't help you much there. I would suggest using a walking foot for it though. Nice block.

[lendube]

I have a walking foot and use it often. Are stippling and free motion the same thing? I've done some free motion. Not sure what "stippling" is. "Echo", that's the term I was looking for. Think I'll do some practicing today and see if it feels (and looks) right. That may be the way to go.

[Magot]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39I5A3iyCtw

You can find it all on youtube!

Use the walking foot for stitch in the ditch and drop the feed dogs and use the darning foot for free motion quilting aka stippling. Don't try and stipple with the walking foot!

[keljo60]

Lennie, I don't have any other advise on the quilting part but I wanted to say how much I like your quilt and the color combination. I can't wait to see the finished product.

[LeapFrog Libby]

I have a set of those things to clip around the rolled quilt. I'm pretty sure they are called quilt clips. They look somewhat like the clips for your pant legs when you are riding a bike to keep the chain from eating up your pants.

[HeyJudee]

Lennie, you can do echo quilting with the walking foot and I think it would look good doing it that way. I did echo quilting but using my darning foot when I quilted my friend's magic tiles quilt and gave it to her daughter. It is a little more difficult using the walking foot as you have to keep turning the quilt but it will probably be easier for you to do that than trying to learn how to do free motion. JMHO FMQ usually requires practice (lots of it) in the beginning. And I never roll up my quilt...I don't know many who do as it is just too cumbersome to try to work with a quilt that is rolled. I just puddle the quilt the same as when doing FMQ. And I never use invisible thread but just use regular cotton thread, 50 weight or often 40 weight which is a little thicker. And I usually use a longer stitch length either a 3.2 or even up to a 3.6.

If you have other questions, just ask and I'll try to be around to answer.

[HeyJudee]

Lennie, if you (or anyone else) wants to learn more about FMQ, the Patsy Thompson video is a good one. But I have been following Leah Day's blog and her Free Motion Quilting Project. She has been creating various FMQ designs to give variety to quilting but she also has made lots of videos to help teach people how to do FMQ. She has lots of info and videos that would be good to check out.

Here's where to start and you will find many links to videos and other useful info.
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/p/start-here.html

And here's Patsy Thompson's website with a bunch of her free videos
http://www.patsythompsondesigns.com/free-video/

[bridesmom]

I love Leah Days blog, she has great information there! And Patsy Thompson too! I don't roll my quilts when I quilt them, I just puddle them up on a large table and move it around, it's a great arm workout! Looking forward to seeing it all done Lennie. Just remember you don't have to finish it in a day, do a bit at a time and then take a break. I usually do my big quilts in quarters, start in the middle and work my way out if I'm doing an allover design like stippling, or meandering, which is like stippling, just a lot looser curves and on such a big project you may like that better.

[lendube]

Oh, good hint about the working in quarters and puddling instead of rolling. I'm quite intimidated so I'm procrastinating. I've still got a few of the machine designs to take out but I should be able to start soon. I'll watch all of the recommended videos although I have already watched the whole beginners 4 part series by Patsy Thompson. I really like her.