How should I quilt my new top?

how bout putting a pix of it so far on your webshots. seeing the fabric might help us with ideas. cheers, jeanne

You could stitch-in-the-ditch all over, and then go back and add flower-quilting here and there, particularly in plain fabrics or those with very tiny patterns. Or kittens. Or bunnies. Or whatever! If you have some patches with largish images on the fabric, you could quilt around the edges of the images. For plaid types of fabrics, you could echo quilt following the plaid. Etc. Etc. You have lots and lots of things you can do, and since you have mixed fabrics already, there is no reason not to mix the quilting within the patches. After you stitch-in-the-ditch, of course! Don't worry about what the back looks like!

You could easily go through the diagonals of all the squares. Then you'd have a diamond grid on the back. You could then do a machine tack in the center of each diamond, using just one repeat of e.g. a little heart or flower. Roberta in D

"Carissa" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:djePh.29101$__3.23733@edtnps90...

Thank you all for the advice :) I will try and get a pic of it later today, my neighbor wasted my camera batteries. I like th eidea of a fancy stitch in the center, I will have to check my other machine and see if it will do one. The one I use normally is very plain. I dreamed about pastel ribbons last night lol, so when I saw that suggestion, I was thinking it must be so. My daughter is three, almost 4 :))

Carissa

It's very easy to tie a quilt with ribbon bows. Just set your machine to zig-zag with a 0 stitch length and a narrow width. Place a piece of ribbon about 8 in. long (shorter will be too hard to tie) and tack it down in the middle of the ribbon length with about 6-8 zig-zag stitches. Add a dab of fray check to the thread ends, tie the bows- tiny is better- and trim the ribbon ends. I use ribbon on spools from WalMart- they cost less than a dollar. You can travel from one tack to the next and do an entire row then go back and clip the threads to save time. You can also put a dab of permanent fabric glue on the ribbon before you tie the bow- be sure to clean up any glue mess after tying the bow- and the bows will not come untied even in the wash. Be sure to read the directions on your batting to see how far apart you can make the ties- some battings allow up to 12 inches and others will want every 2 inches.

Leslie & The Furbabies > Thank you all for the advice :) I will try and get a pic of it later today,

Pat-

Well, the first thing that pops into mind is that I'm an not coordinated enough to tie a bow without the ribbon being "fixed" to something! I can't even picture in my mind how you would do that??? Second, the way I do it, the stitching won't show, but that's just a personal choice of mine. I know there are plaves like Home Sew that sells huge bage of tiny bows for a very modest price- that would be really easy to tack using your way and save some steps and no wasted ribbon! I just checked their online store- oh my!!! They have some darling ribbon flowers that could be glued over a thread tack or stitched down as you suggested. I've gotta try this with their ribbon flowers!!!

Gee, my brain and hands.... neither seems to be working today. Please forgive all the errors and typos in my post.... I'll try to do better! VBG

Leslie & The Furbabies > Pat-

Oooo pretty, thank you for the website too :)

Carissa

How about marking first from one corner to the other diagonally, in both directions. Then quilt in a grid from there, skipping over all of the minkee areas. Then go back and machine tack in the center of the minkee squares.

It would form diamonds instead of squares on the back, with an occasional surprise break in the grid. There wouldn't be too much quilting on top of the minkee so it would still be fluffy. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Leslie, if you ever have the need to tie a bow 'mid air', let me know. I can explain it to you in only 50,000 words or more. Back before persecuting Martha Stewart became a national sport, I watched her show quite a bit. I didn't learn how to weave my own ribbon, but I did achieve Expert bow status. Polly

i'll ask. dont leave the rest of us in suspense, Ms Polly. how does one tie a bow in 'mid air'. we'll be counting your words as a test, lol. :)) which reminds me....Ms Stewart is adding a special fabric section to her website, today iirc. i imagine it spills over from the show. i cant imagine how this will go. i must go check her site and see. jeanne

I can't tell you without my hands. If Leslie needs a bow tied, I reckon she'll just have to send me the ribbon and I'll tie it. Polly

without your hands? omg, did you lose those in the stash last time you were rootling thru it? at least they're in a good place. :)) snorfle, jeanne