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Stitch In the Ditch on longarm


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When I had my Millie I usually just basted both of my sides right and left and of course the top of the quilt.  If you watch lots of different videos on you tube and of course apqs videos and read the blogs there you can find lots of good ideas on when to SID and when you don't need to. SID is an easy way to travel from one place to the next without starting and stopping and this helps with the time involved when you are quilting and also secures the quilting area so there is less movement in the area being quilted.  Not every single block needs to be SID unless that is what you like to do.  If you do pantos which is an all over design you don't SID and they come out beautiful!  I say find what you like and practice, practice, practice and play around with different designs and see what you like to do.  Have fun and have a happy New Year!

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I mostly quilt for myself and almost exclusively do custom quilting, ditching all blocks, sashing and borders.  In the past I used monopoly however earlier this year switched to Wonderfil's  Invisifil and Superior's Micro Quilter and I believe both of these threads are 100wt poly.  They are extremely fine, blend very well, and I can see it a lot better than the monopoly so it is easier to find the thread and thread the needle.  I have used the Invisifil and Micro Quilter for stitching around applique as well as background quilting.   For all over quilting I do as posted by fbaldwin.

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Ladies, thank you so much for sharing your precious experience, much appreciated.  I only quilt for myself and I too, enjoy doing custom quilting.  I don't have a longarm machine yet, I'm using a sitdown Baby Lock Tiara II machine to do the quilting. I'm going to meet with APQS road show crew in Feb. and I maybe bring one home.

 

Thanks again.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello quilters,

I have another question, when you are doing "custom" quilting, how about borders and sashings? I image that you quilt from block to block while doing that you'll roll the quilt down, but how do you do the sashing and border when you have a completely different designs for them?  Can you roll the quilt back and forth? 

 

Thank you again.

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You can roll the quilt back and forth like Gail said, but it does have to be stabilized to keep everything in the right place.  There are many ways to do the borders and sashings.  I do mine as I go.  I pick patterns that are easy to match-up.  Some longarmers do their blocks then turn the quilt on the rollers to do the borders and sashing.  In other words,  they take the quilt off the rollers and put it back on so the long side borders and sashings are horizontal.  We each have our own preferences, which was developed as we learnt how to do things.  As far as custom or end to end, again it's a preference.  End to end is your "bread and butter" if doing customer quilts, it's quick but beautiful.  Most customers don't want to pay for custom which can get very expensive.  Stitch in the Ditch is considered custom and would be very tedious for stabilizing a quilt.  We usually baste the tops and sides of the sandwich.  If you're doing custom you can pin the area you're working on to stabilize it, but remember to take the pins out before rolling the quilt.  Christine all great questions.  Visiting a Road Show is a great way to see what APQS machines can do and how they feel.  You will be able to test the machines at the show.  This forum and the I love APQS facebook group is full of quilters ready to answer your questions and help solve problems.  APQS has the greatest customer service in the quilting world too.  Have fun and keep the questions coming, there are no stupid questions. 

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