The Machine Quilting Roadmap for the Carolina Lily
Today’s Topic: Stitching the Major Quilting Lines and Stitching in the Ditch
One of the primary reasons quilters fear the quilting process is they don’t know where to begin. In this series, we will follow a roadmap for machine quilting a king sized quilt-The Carolina Lily.
Fear and Fretting
First of all, the fear of ruining our quilt tops is common. I suspect ALL quilters, regardless of their skill and experience, suffer some anxiety as they begin machine quilting. The anxiety is directly proportional to the amount of work and/or love we have for the quilt top. For this reason, I had no problem quilting some of the old quilts in my UFO basket, but it took me years to get the courage to begin quilting this favorite quilt top.
Fretting, (fear mixed with procrastination) is primarily caused by being unsure of the quilting roadmap.
In this series, I hope to offer you one possible roadmap for machine quilting a big quilt.
The Quilting Roadmap-Part One
Preparing to Quilt
- Get over yourself! It’s only a quilt!
- Press the quilt top and take a few photos
- Start Planning the Design
Designing and Samples
- Choose and mark the major design lines
- Sample batting, thread, and motifs
- Create and press backing (not shown here)
Load the Quilt and Double Batting
- Load the quilt (or baste if quilting on a stationary machine)
- Test threads for top and bobbin
- Adjust tension
Quilting the Major Design Lines
- Stitch in the ditch quilting
- Stitching major design lines
- Continue to plan the design
A Stitch in the Ditch Quilting
The first quilting decision to make is whether or not to do stitch-in-the-ditch quilting.
A stitch in the ditch (SITD) quilting is simply stitching in the seam lines of pieced blocks and around the edges of applique blocks. The quilting line is intended to be invisible, therefore it is usually stitched with lightweight thread in a color that matches or blends with the underlying fabric.
If the line is invisible, why should we bother? SITD quilting sets the block lines and adds emphasis to the design. This simple-though bolded-sentence hardly does justice to the effect of stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. It is a visual that you simply must sample for yourself–and not all quilts benefit from SITD quilting.
I will write more on this in a future blog post.
For the Carolina Lily, and especially with the double batting, I decided to stitch in the ditch all of the major seam lines as well as around the applique.
How to STID
When I am not quilting on a long arm on a frame, I stitch in the ditch with a walking foot to ensure straight lines and even stitches.
On the longarm, I used rulers to do my best to keep the lines straight and in the well of the seam line.
Stitching around the applique was challenging. The shape of the leaves and the stems did not correspond to any rulers in my collection so I had to free hand around them. The precision was very challenging! I am not perfectly happy with the results, but I did my best!
To complete all of the SITD lines before moving on to the next step, I stitched a section, then rolled the quilt, repeating this process from the top to the bottom of the quilt. This process took about ten hours.
Add the Major Design Lines
My next step was to stitch all of the major design lines. These are the lines I designed in the first step to give an overall structure to the quilt design. The major lines will divide up the quilt into design sections and help your eye flow between the sections. They become natural dividing lines for the motifs as well.
I wanted these lines to be visible so I used a slightly heavier weight thread, Glide 40 wt.
Most of these lines were marked with a blue washout pen before I loaded the quilt on the frame. I used a ruler to stitch the lines.
One thing I learned–more drawn lines are better than less! In some cases, I marked a line but didn’t mark the line that was to be stitched 1 inch away. My thinking was that I could use the markings on the ruler to stitch the second line. However, when the quilt was on the frame, the position for the second line was often an awkward position to set the ruler, so it would have been better to have the line pre-drawn.
Stitching the major dividing lines took around 3 hours.
Continue to Plan the Design
- While I had some ideas about motifs, the time spent working on the lines gave me more time to reflect on the placement of the motifs as well as the scale.
Design -Stitch-Design-Stitch is a sequence that works best for me for several reasons:
I don’t have to plan all the quilting before I stitch. (Less time fretting!)
The act of quilting helps spur ideas!
I often find I change pre-planned ideas once I start quilting.
I guess the important thing to remember–you don’t need to have every quilting stitch pre-planned in order to begin quilting. The ideas will come!
Please Share!
Do YOU fret about quilting?
Are YOU confident about the steps in the quilting process?
Have you made a sample of stitch-in-the-ditch quilting?
We’d LOVE to hear!
Leave the fretting to the musicians!
Your Fret free friend,
Lori
