There hasn’t been a lot of quilting going on at my house these last several days and I think it might be because of these cuties:
They arrived on Thursday, with their Momma and Nanna, Uncle and his fiance’, and my sons. They stayed until Sunday, and we have had so much fun. The reason for their visit? My mother’s 80th birthday celebration. We had a surprise party for her and I’m happy to say we managed to keep it a secret. She had no idea. I love being able to pull off a surprise, and even though almost all of her children lied to her at least once this past week to keep it a surprise I’m sure she has forgiven us! 🙂
All of my brothers and sisters were able to come to the party. We haven’t all been together in a very long time, so we took the opportunity to snap this quick picture of us with Mom.
Kathy, Me, Missy, Jamie, Don, Carleen. Mom is seated in front.
Even though I didn’t get a lot of quilting done, I was able to start on my next customer quilt. Lynne gave me a wall hanging to do for her. She pieced the center using the pattern I wrote for Quilter’s World, added a border of tiny houses, and then the final Seminole border. I love how she made the pattern her own. She told me to ‘go crazy’ and ‘work your magic’ on it. So while I know how I’m going to quilt most of it, those houses are troubling me a bit. They are about 4-1/2″ x 6-1/2″, so not very big. I’ve had a dozen ideas and discarded about 11 of them. Any thoughts you have for a quilting design would be most welcome.
After loading the quilt I started stitching in the ditch (SITD). While I was doing that I could definitely see the difference in the section that had been stitched and the section that had not. I thought it would be good to share this with you so you too could see the difference.
Many quilter’s, especially those new to the craft, will question why we should take the time to stitch in the ditch. Not all quilts will need SITD. If an all-over design, or edge to edge design is being quilted, then SITD is not really necessary. I will stitch the ditches along the borders if I’m doing an all-over design in the center section of the quilt and a different design in the border. This just helps me keep the quilt straight and aligned properly on the quilting frame, and makes it easier to square up when trimming.
With a quilt that will be custom quilted with many different designs, like the one above, I will SITD to secure the quilt and define the areas I will be stitching. If a quilt isn’t pieced perfectly (and seriously, how many quilts really are?), ditch stitching will help prevent puckers and allow the quilt to lay flatter making it easier to quilt. The pic below shows the quilt before any ditch stitching:
And after stitch in the ditch:
See the difference?
I haven’t done any other stitching, yet the quilt already is laying flatter and looks better. The difference is also visible in the next two photos, which show the Seminole border before and after stitching.
Border before stitch in the ditch
See how much nicer the border looks now that it is stitched?
These stitched borders will keep the quilt square and flat. I have always SITD, even though it does take extra time. I feel that it is worth the time, and I like the results I get in my quilting. I know there’s many different opinions on the subject and would like to know yours. Do you stitch in the ditch on your quilts?
My plan is to finish the quilting on Lynne’s quilt this week. But I have a heavy work/class schedule, so I’m giving myself permission to take longer than normal on this one. Hopefully inspiration will hit soon for those tiny houses!
Now it’s your turn to share the projects you are working on, and the projects that have you excited to be in your sewing room. What are you crushing on for Main Crush Monday? You can link any blog post, Instagram or Flickr pic – here’s how:
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts on SITD! I quilt on Janome’s straight-stitch machine, so I approach quilting decisions differently. (Actually, I’ll make decisions about pressing to one side or pressing open based on whether I plan to SITD.) But I appreciate your take for those times I send my projects out to a longarmer.
Yes!! I’m a huge advocate of SITD, was taught by instructors from a very well-renowned shop in Edmonton many years ago of its importance. This is a beauty; how much fun to quilt someone’s interpretation of your own pattern!! As for motif in the houses, hmmm, I’d SITD definitely to define the windows/door, maybe alternate between the swoop-dee-swoops in the roofs (makes a flower bud right) and cross-hatching, and maybe back and forth lines in the house fronts, or wavy lines, or a simple X under the windows… I’d probably figure it out just before starting; usually the quilt talks to me as I work on other parts!
Hi Beth, I agree that quilting in the ditch is often very important. I also find that it gets me ready to do FMQ.
Happy birthday to your mom, and thanks for sharing the before and after SID photos! I have always SID because the quilting books I learned from told me to… Mainly because initially I was quilting on my domestic machine and had to roll a quilt up to smoosh it under the machine throat, and wanted to keep the layers of the quilt from shifting during the wild wrestling match that quilting on a domestic machine always was for me! I also prefer the look of quilts with SID and applique outline stitched (is that still called SID or is there another term for quilting around applique?) because it really defines and draws attention to precision piecing and applique work. I’m pretty neurotic about my piecing, though, so it was really informative to see how SID can actually IMPROVE how good the piecing looks after the fact. That is a gorgeous quilt top, I love the little houses, and I can’t wait to see what you do with the quilting! As far as how to quilt the houses, well, a lot depends on the overall density of the quilting you’re doing. Definitely you’re going to SID the houses, and then I would do a background fill to make the houses more 3-dimensional. It might be nice to add some quilted details to each house.
Thank you for the SITD tips. I will keep that in mind for my next FMQ project. Love , love , love the beige toned quilt… and I am a color type gal so that says a lot!
What a great family get together in honor of your Mom’s 80th. We are very lucky to still have them in our lives. I am thankful for mine everyday. I like that you SITD on this quilt. I also use this to define the blocks for quilting when I am not doing random meandering.
Do you not use a ruler when sitd? Thank you for the linky party.
Happy birthday to your Mom. I enjoyed reading your post and have used SITD but mostly on small projects. Your post is a good read and hadn’t thought about SITD to stabilize the quilt. Thank you for this tip.
I’m actually one of those people who don’t stitch in the ditch. I recognize that it might look a bit better if I do, but I’m usually happy enough with the results and I’d rather just move on to the next quilt!
Happy Birthday Mom! And yea for all the siblings coming together to celebrate. I appreciate your info on SITD — I’ve done it a bit with mixed results. There is a reason why I have a computerized long arm. Looking at the houses a couple of things come to mind: A bit of SITD within the houses. Perhaps some echo stitching within the roofs. I was going to say some smoke from the chimneys but there are no chimneys. And, maybe, if the batting allows it, not much more. Hum… could you stitch some bushes, flowers, cats and/or dogs in front of the houses? As I said, I’m better with a computerized all over design.
I’m so glad you were able to have such a great surprise for your mom and get everyone together!
I love SITD and am a huge advocate of it; your photos are very clear depictions of how it is beneficial.
It looks like a very fun way to spend the weekend and well worth setting quilting aside! I don’t long arm quilt, but I love hearing the details and tips about it!
So awesome all of the siblings could be present to celebrate with your mom. I never used to do a lot of SID when I started LAing 15 yrs ago. But 10 yrs ago I started SID and I really like the look and feel it is so worth the effort.
Yay for being able to keep the surprise for your mom! I think I’d be distracted by those adorable little faces too 🙂 I definitely stitch in the ditch if I’m working on something I will be custom quilting. It’s a great way to anchor things down. Hope you are able to sneak in some quilting time this week!
Happy 80th birthday to your Mom. And what a great birthday present to get the whole family together for a party. Thanks for sharing about what the SID gains you when quilting. I’m filing all these tips away for the day when I finally have the time and motivation to try quilting my own projects.
Hi Beth! What a fun party for your Mom, and how nice that your siblings were able to attend the surprised party. It looks like it was a beautiful day, and it sure is fun to have some littles around isn’t it?! I never thought about SITD, but I sure see the difference with the before and after photos you shared. Good luck with your quilting – I look forward to seeing what you decide for those houses. ~smile~ Roseanne
I would be distracted from quilting too with those adorable little ones around. I always SITD. It helps to stabilize the quilt and as you say keep it square. I think every quilt can benefit from it.