amitymamaThe Attachment Parenting Community

Redterra · 07-09-2008, 04:23 PM

See, my downfall in life is that I have SUPERB beginners' luck. So the first quilt I ever made seemed rather easy, turned out BEAUTIFULLY, and ever since I've heard so much great feedback on it. And so... I *think* I can quilt. But really, I'm a hack.

So I've got 2 sides for my current quilt project. Both pieced, both 5" (finished) squares, but not expertly enough so that the "ditches" fit together, kwim? (You know, I think y'all actually discouraged me from piecing both sides awhile back... did I mention I'm a STUBBORN hack?) All kinds of crazy colors so I have NO idea what color thread I'll end up using, to begin with. But then... HTH shall *I* (think...quilting for idiots) quilt this bugger up?

My best idea so far? Tying? What if I just hand-stitched a cute little knot at each intersection of squares? I know nothing about this, so what does anybody who knows what they're doing think?

BIG Thanks!

Brunhilde · 07-09-2008, 04:35 PM

When you say knot do you mean "tying the quilt"? That's where every so often you use yarn or embroidery floss and stitch through once, knot it, and cut it. Tying a quilt is a quick and easy way to finish it. Other than that you don't HAVE to stitch in the ditch. You can do a weaving line all over the place or quilt a pattern onto it. You can stitch diagonal lines through each block in an x pattern. You can really do whatever you want. There isn't a specific way you need to quilt it. Here's a page that described "tying". If you Google "tying a quilt" you can find tons of links on ways to do it.

Redterra · 07-09-2008, 10:47 PM

Thanks! I'm certainly going to look more into tying, as weaving a line or even diagonals seem overwhelming to me right now. I really stink at hand-sewing, and so any stitching I do would have to be by machine.

RocketScientist · 07-10-2008, 07:15 AM

Either the tying or meandering, should work. I've never tied a quilt, but it sounds fairly simple. Instead of tying at the corners, I'd probably tie near the center of each square, because then you wouldn't see that one side is a bit "off" from the other, in terms of ditches/corners. Meandering takes a little practice, but if you have a better machine than I do, it can be a lot of fun. (it's not fun when I go a bit in the wrong direction and my thread tangles! I want a Bernina!)

Redterra · 07-10-2008, 07:52 AM

You know, Meandering might not be so bad if I chalked a pattern on there first... I know, then it's not technically meandering, but simple wavy lines might work ok! I might experiment. It's not a large quilt, so just maybe I can pull that off.