Ultimate All Over Quilting Tutorial – Sewing Machine and Longarm!

Ready to start all over quilting on a home sewing machine and longarm machine? In this quilting tutorial, we’re going to break down this machine quilting style and learn multiple ways to take one quilting design and cover your quilt with it from edge to edge.

This is a very basic, very easy style of quilting that quilters of all skill levels can master.

Updated 2023 – This post has been updated with more quilting videos, photos and instructions for quilting on a home machine and longarm machine too! There are many more ways we can do all over quilting and finish our quilts faster.

Click the links below to jump ahead in this quilting tutorial:

How Machine Quilting Has Changed Since 2010

Since originally writing this quilting tutorial in 2010, machine quilting has changed dramatically. When I wrote this post, machine quilting on a stationary sewing machine – the machine set down into a table – was the most popular way to quilt a quilt. Here’s a photo of me at my home sewing machine quilting a king sized quilt in 2015:

Now in 2023, home machines have gotten bigger, longarm machines more affordable, and we have new ways to set up our machines in tables and on quilting frames. Here’s a few new options for all over machine quilting:

• Home Machine on a Quilting Frame – with the machine on wheels, quilting feels much easier and faster with less strain on your body.
• Sit Down Longarm Machines – Some longarm machines can be placed in a table, giving you a lot more space for moving your quilt over the table top.
• Affordable Longarms on Quilting Frames – Longarm machine prices have come down and are affordable to hobby quilters. Quilting with a longarm on a frame really is the easiest and fastest way to do all over quilting.

With all of these machines and quilting systems now available, I’ve updated this quilting tutorial with new videos so you can learn how to do all over quilting on any machine with multiple machine quilting styles.

This includes free hand free motion quilting, walking foot quilting, pantograph quilting, longarm quilting, and even computerized quilting. Keep reading for the most comprehensive tutorial for all over quilting online!

All Over Quilting on a Sit Down Quilting Machine

If your machine is set in a table, you’re working on a sit down quilting system, or stationary quilting system. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a regular sewing machine or a longarm machine, the following elements will be the same for all over quilting:

• Movement – motion of your hands moving the quilt will be the same on a sit down home machine or longarm machine.
• Where to start quilting? – When quilting with the machine on the table, I prefer to start in the middle of the quilt to get the hardest space quilted first.
• How to fill the spaces? – I use Quadrant Quilting to break down the quilt into four spaces, then machine quilt each space with the design. This makes the quilting process feel progressively easier.

VIDEO – All Over Quilting a Baby Quilt

Are you ready to see how all over quilting works on a sit down quilting machine? In this quilting video, I’m stitching on a home sewing machine set in our Affordable Sewing Table, but this would work the exact same way if you were quilting on a sit down / table mounted longarm machine.

Watch this video to see how to begin all over quilting a baby quilt using free hand free motion quilting:

All Over Quilting works by taking one design (for this quilt I used Lollipop Chain), and stitching it all over your quilt. But where do you start and how do you move around the quilt?

This was the big giant question in my mind when I first got started free motion quilting. Everyone said simple to “Quilt from the center to the outside” but how is this actually DONE?!

And even more important, how do we quilt a really large quilt with All Over Quilting? Is there a way to minimize how much we must turn the quilt so it’s less of a wrestling match in the arm of our sewing machine?

Make All Over Quilting Easier with Quadrant Quilting

After a lot of brainstorming and quilting a few projects with all over style quilting, I decided to break my quilts up into 4 quadrants. This is where the name Quadrant Quilting comes from.

Here are the steps to Quadrant Quilting:

1. Start in the center of the quilt and pull up thread.
2. Begin quilting the design in a row, around 4-5 inches wide from the center of the quilt to one edge. This will likely feel easiest if you stitch the design from left (center) to right (edge of the quilt).
3. When you reach the edge of the quilt, stitch down a bit and begin quilting another row of the design, interlocking it with the first. This time you’re moving the quilt from right to left.
4. When you reach the center of the quilt, continue quilting straight down, towards yourself.
5. When you reach the bottom edge of the quilt, stop and rotate the quilt, sliding it over your table so the row you just quilted now runs from left to right. Now you will simply repeat steps 3-5 until you’ve broken your quilt into 4 quadrants.

Why is Quadrant Quilting helpful for All Over Quilting?

The benefit of Quadrant Quilting is it helps you quilt your quilt in a logical way, knocking out the hardest part of the quilt first. It also minimizes full rotation of the quilt within the arm of your machine.

You’ll only rotate the quilt when the least amount of quilt is in the machine (you’re on an edge) and then only a quarter turn.

Quadrant Quilting also keeps you quilting in efficient rows rather than random, haphazard directions. Quilting a design in a row is faster and interlocking the two rows together minimizes the appearance of the rows.

I find it easiest to quilt from left to right, working from the center to the right edge, but please play with this to see what method works the best for you.

Speed Tip – How to Quilt Your Quilt Faster

My baby quilt took 3 hours to machine quilt, but it would have been faster to finish if I’d quilted the Lollipop Chain shapes bigger. I find the widest row I can manage is around 4″ wide, but I could have quilted the individual Lollipops bigger and each shape would have secured more of the quilt at a time.

Remember – the smaller the shapes, the longer it will take to quilt your quilt.

But quilting really big shapes is hard to do when you’re pushing the quilt with your hands. It is a lot easier to quilt designs on a bigger scale when quilting on a frame… we’ll stitch more into that topic in a bit.

Here’s what my baby quilt looked like after being Quadrant Quilted with Lollipop Chain:

Do you see the “+” sign over the quilt with the rows of the all over quilting design? This method knocks out at least a 8″ channel through the middle of your quilt.

This is like eating your vegetables before desert – you’re taking care of the hardest part of your quilt first, and with each new row the process gets easier and easier.

VIDEO – Quadrant Quilting

Now it’s simply a matter of quilting each quadrant with more rows of a free motion filler design so they fit together seamlessly. In this video, I show you how to interlock the rows and quilt an entire quadrant with one design:

Quilting each open quadrant is a simple series of steps:

1. Pull up thread on the inside corner of the quadrant, closest to the center of the quilt.
2. Stitch a row of the all over quilting design from left to right to the edge of the quilt.
3. Stitch down a bit in the batting and start a new row, interlocking with the first as you quilt back towards the center of the quilt.
4. When you reach the center of the quilt, stitch a row straight now towards the bottom edge of the quilt.
5. When the bottom edge is reached, stitch to the right a bit in the batting area and begin a new row heading back towards the center of the quilt.

As you form each row, the work of machine quilting will feel easier and easier because less and less of the quilt will be bulked up in the arm of your machine.

How All Over Quilting Looks

All over quilting is very popular! It’s soft, cuddly and very easy in compared to other machine quilting styles. Here’s what my Cheerful Shapes baby quilt looked like, and you can see how much the thread texture stands out on top of the piecing and appliques:

This is partly because I contrasted thread so boldly so you could see what I was doing in the videos. Uou would probably try to match thread a bit better.

I like how the piecing and applique design – cheerful applique shapes obviously designed for a baby quilt – match with the kid friendly filler design. It makes the whole quilt come together and the intention obvious: this quilt is intended for children.

But all over quilting isn’t just reserved for kid quilts. If you’re making a bed quilt, this form of quilting is a great choice because it’s fast and durable.

Most Beginner All Over Quilting Method

So far we’ve learned all over quilting using one machine quilting style – free hand free motion quilting. This style of quilting requires you to memorize the design and stitch it in rows across your quilt using a darning foot.

But what if you’re not comfortable with free motion quilting? What if you are new to quilting and haven’t had a chance to memorize a basic design? Do we have an even more beginner method for all over quilting?

Yes, of course we do! Beginning quilters can do all over quilting using their walking foot. This is a quilting foot that is specially designed to feed the layers of your quilt through your machine evenly. Many sewing machine brands call this foot an “even feed foot” for this reason.

The one downside with walking foot quilting? It’s definitely slower than free motion quilting and this foot is only available for home sewing machines. If you’re quilting on a sit down longarm machine, you’ll need to stick with free hand free motion quilting.

Here’s what all over quilting with a walking foot can look like on a baby quilt:

VIDEO – Walking Foot Quilting All Over Spiral

All over style quilting with walking foot quilting (wow – we have lots of different quilting methods and styles!) will change our quilting process a little bit. Yes, you can still do Quadrant Quilting, but this will likely result in lots of thread breaks and a lot more wrestling of the quilt in the arm of your machine.

Why? Unlike free motion quilting, you must shift the direction of the quilt as you stitch with a walking foot. This style of quilting uses the feed dogs on your machine to evenly feed the quilt forward. In order to stitch a curving line, you must move the entire quilt to make the curve.

Instead of Quadrant Quilting, the best method will be to pick a center fill spiral design that allows you to start quilting in the center of your quilt. Then all you have to do is use the edge of the walking foot or a guide bar to help you stitch the design spiraling out from the center.

See how to quilt a Super Spiral design in this quilting video:

Yes, walking foot quilting a giant spiral on your quilt could get a bit time consuming, but the effect is really cool!

Gamechanger – Using a Quilting Frame

When I originally created this quilting tutorial, I’d never quilted on a longarm or a frame, and now I’m a longarm and quilting frame dealer. Let’s learn a few new methods for all over quilting on a frame too!

The first thing to understand is all over quilting doesn’t work the same way when your quilt is put on a quilting frame. No more quadrant quilting, no more quilting from the center of the quilt. Here you can see my home sewing machine set up on the Q-Zone Hoop Frame and you’ll see why:

On a quilting frame, the quilt is rolled up or clamped to the rails of the frame. The layers of the quilt are also locked together and tensioned by the clamps or rails of the frame. You won’t need to quilt from the center of the quilt anymore. It makes a lot more sense to quilt from the upper edge (or side if you’ve loaded it that way) and stitch across the quilt in rows.

The biggest benefit to quilting with your machine on a frame? It’s so much easier! The feeling of quilting is so much easier because your machine (home sewing machine or longarm machine) is on wheels!

All Over Quilting on a Frame

All over quilting on a frame will still involve quilting your design in rows across the quilt. When quilting on a frame, all over quilting can also be called Edge to Edge quilting. Here are the steps to all over quilting using free hand, free motion quilting:

1. Pull up thread on the upper left corner of your quilt.
2. Quilt a row of the design across the quilt from one edge to the other. Quilt the design wide enough so it uses your full quilting space.
   
   With a home sewing machine you’ll likely have 5-7 inches of quilting space. With a longarm machine you could have 10 – 16 inches of vertical quilting space.
   
3. Fill the ENTIRE space as you stitch across with your all over quilting design. This is efficient use of your time because you’re using all of the quilting space available and securing the maximum amount of quilt at a time.
4. Advance the quilt through your frame to reach the next open area. Make sure to leave a bit of the quilted section available so you can interlock the rows.
5. Quilt back across the frame with your quilting design, interlocking the rows together.

VIDEO – Quilting Stippling on a Quilting Frame

Here’s a newer quilting tutorial which showcases quilting on a frame with a home machine. I’m using the Q-Zone Hoop Frame in this video and stitching across my Independence Day Stars and Stripes quilt panel with a row of Stippling.

See how all over quilting works with a frame quilting system in this video:

To continue with the design, simply advance the quilt through the frame to reach a new open space. Clamp the quilt securely (but not too tight!) and quilt another row across the quilt.

Pantograph Quilting to Create an All Over Quilted Effect

In the video above I quilted Stippling easily edge to edge across my quilt using free hand free motion quilting. I’ve been quilting this design for years and can quilt it on any scale and in pretty much any quilt.

But what if you don’t have this skill? What if you haven’t memorized any quilting style designs?

No problem! You can quilt with pantographs. This is a quilting style that can give you the same all-over quilted effect – large scale design, soft feel and fast quilting experience – but with a drawn guide to help you quilt the design.

What you need for Pantograph Quilting

Pantograph quilting does require your machine to be mounted on a quilting frame. In addition to the frame, you’ll also need these accessories:

• Pantograph designs
• Back table on your quilting frame to support the design
• Laser light to trace the design – For home sewing machines on a quilting frame, we use the Gracie Laser which is a battery operated laser light that can attach to the home machine carriage.
  
  For Qnique Longarm machines, we use a Qnique Laser Light, which is attached to a bracket secured between the wheels on the longarm.

VIDEO – All Over Quilting with Pantographs

Yes, pantograph quilting counts as all over quilting! I’d argue that longarm quilted pantographs are what popularized this quilting style in the first place.

This method is very easy for beginners because having the paper pantograph helps you see how to quilt the design. Following the design and advancing the quilt carefully also keeps your rows evenly spaced and the quilting design consistent across the entire quilt.

See how I quilted my Paisley pantograph design from edge to edge across my quilt using my longarm machine:

VIDEO – Computerized Quilting Pantographs

Finally we have one last method for all over quilting and while it is the most high-tech and expensive, that doesn’t mean it’s outside of a beginner or hobby quilter’s reach. This is computerized quilting and it’s a method of programming the quilting design using software (Quilter’s Creative Touch).

This system then moves your machine and automatically quilts the design for you. This is sometimes called quilting automation or quilt motion and it is a super cool form of quilting on a frame! See how I used computerized quilting to cover my quilt with a single design:

When I originally wrote this all over quilting post, I probably would have considered computerized quilting cheating. I’d also have turned my nose up at walking foot quilting too.

All of these quilting styles are valid. All of these quilting methods are worth trying out! I’m so thankful to have a much more open mind when it comes to quilting today and to be able to enjoy all of these different quilting methods.

There is no wrong way to quilt your quilt tops… except to not quilt them at all.

Which All Over Quilting Method is Right for You?

As you can see, there are many ways to do all over quilting! You can quilt on a stationary machine, pushing the quilt over your table top and quilting the designs with quadrant quilting. You can also use your walking foot to quilt a giant spiral over your entire quilt.

Quilting on a frame is a great way to make quilting feel easier. With this method, you’d quilt designs across your quilt either with free hand free motion quilting (no marks, no guides), or with pantograph quilting using a drawn design to guide you.

Finally computerized quilting can open a whole new world of beautiful designs and help you finish your quilts even faster. No matter which method you use, no matter which style of quilting system you have, all over quilting offers you a fast and easy way to finish your quilts.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this very detailed all over quilting tutorial. Please add the images and videos to your Pinterest boards, share with your quilting friends, or add a link to this resource on your website. That really helps me out a lot!

Click Here to find a gallery of my best all over quilting designs and tutorials.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day