Both Mary's and Fran's way of starting and ending are just fine. For stitching in the ditch, I quilt in quadrants always starting in the center and moving out to the edges; here is what I do: Optional - to stabilize the quilt and give me the 4 quadrants to quilt in, I make a big + - starting in the center and stitching straight out to the top edge of the quilt; then start in the middle again and stitch straight out to the bottom edge of the quilt; now start again in the middle and stitch out to the right edge, and lastly, start in the middle and stitch out to the left edge. Now you have your quilt anchored by this big +. Now you can stitch in the ditch around your blocks in each of the 4 quadrants, always starting in the middle of the quilt and working out to the edges. You could stitch the top row in the quadrant from center to the edge, then quilt the row to the far left in that same quadrant moving down and proceed through all the blocks, always quilting from center to the edges to help prevent puckers on the backing. We HATE those puckers!!! Hope this helps! Teresa

I do have an extension table...not as big as the ones on Clutter Gutter, but it was designed by Viking & that's what I have. It's better than nothing. I cleared off the table I'm using of debris, but don't have much room to set up any more tables around me...so I gotta make do with the room I got. I don't see myself pushing a Qn quilt through this machine. I think I'll send it out! I might try the teflon sheet if I can find one. The "Circles" I'm doing are actually straight sided hexagons & not true circles, but I'm pushing the fabric through like I'm doing a circle. I think it was the middle ones that really made me frustrated. Of course those were the ones I started on. The ones on the edges weren't so bad. 1/2 of each hexagon was easy (being on the edge) & 1/2 I had to wrestle with the bulk. The ones in the middle were wrestling with bulk the entire time. I did 11 before going to bed so far...no puckering in the back! My walking foot is installed properly with the "fork" attached to my needle position. I found that as long as I was holding the quilt scrunched up between me & the machine...it went through the machine pretty easily. I finally gave up on the quilt clips. And I do leave the needle down. However, I feel that I'm being rough on my machine because when I pull my quilt around with the needle down...the needle moves around. But I guess it's pprobably good that the machine gives a little Fran, I just might try the free motion foot on the purple triangles that are left between the hexagons. That might help because I will need to turn the quilt 3 times for each of those & maybe I can stitch backwards/sideways for those. ShirlUK, what kind of polish do you use? My machine is plastic. Can't stand gloves. Will only resort to those whem I'm desperate! When I put gloves on, I feel like I'm enclosed in a small box. It's weird. Wome advice from the experts & a bit of practice. :) Thanks all! Will post a picture when I'm done quilting.

I start and end my machine stitching exactly like Harriet describes, although with FM, you have to sort of just figure out the correct speed to move the fabric to get the short stitches. I've never had the stitching come out of a quilt at these points. If you are quilting for a show, I'd recommend starting out with your preferred stitch length, leave the tails and knot and bury as Mary recommended. Either way, you do want to bring the bobbin thread to the top and hold the tails when you start so you don't get a big thread snarl on the back of the quilt. BTW--Harriet's book is still the best one out there IMHO. Annie

Yup, I agree with the above posts. I do everything by hand, and I don't see how the blocks would automatically turn out too big just because you sew by hand. I will say, though, that it is essential for me to have stitch lines drawn onto the pieces. From what I read, people on machines emphasize perfectly accurate cutting so that they can carefully sew a perfect 1/4 inch seam by a guide on the machine. Then, they don't have to mark at all, you see. I have a couple of excellent books, "Quiltmaking by Hand" from Jenny Beyer, and "Mastering Precision Piecing" from Sally Collins. They both include sections on making accurate templates, and they both swear (at length) that templates should include the seam allowance. That way you can pin four or so layers of fabric together and your cutting goes a lot faster. When you're making your template, you use an extra fine Sharpie to make dots at the seam intersections, and later punch them out with a 1/16 inch hole punch. When you get to sewing, you line up your edges (very helpful here if the fabric was starched before cutting) and lay the template again to mark the dots on the top piece facing you. If you need help to sew a straight line (like I always do) you can lightly connect the dots, too. For hand sewing, this way keeps the speed of cutting 3-4 layers at once, and eliminates the effort of drawing stitch lines and dots on every piece, that you then find yourself flipping over a thousand times checking the back stitch line. If you draw the stitch line, and then eyeball the 1/4 inch seam as you cut it, planning to match the stitch lines as you hand sew, you have to draw and cut one piece at a time, and take extreme care as you pin through the dots, and since the seam allowances are uneven, you have to pin lots mores along the stitch lines as you flip back and forth to check alignment. When you make a template, be aware that every time you draw around a shape, your line has added width to the shape. You always use the inside edge of your line as the cutting line, not the middle of your line. It's useful to have a very fine point mechanical pencil that will snug right up to your template, and even so, after you cut there shouldn't be any line left on your piece. If you rotary cut, the same goes for the lines on your ruler. They have width. Always take care that the line obliterates the edge of your fabric, not just butts right up to it, and never showing a couple threads on the other side of the line. It seems trivial, but if you add 1/32 inch to every edge, then that's 1/16 to each piece. If your block has a row with eight pieces to match up to some other part, then the eight piece row will be 1/2 inch (8/16) inch too wide. Hootie hoot ! What a long mixed up rambling of a post! I'm leaving it anyway, since maybe it will help you. The main thing you could do is get either one of those books. They are both thirty bucks, and I enjoy Jenny's the most as a good and comprehensive read--even though I don't do the quilting like she does-- but Sally's is half as thick and straight to the point of accurate piecing, with some really good pictures, but nothing on hand quilting. (Be aware that I love books.)