Tips for Stitching in the Ditch and Walking Foot Quilting

I have a lot of tips for you today on walking foot quilting and stitching in the ditch. Ditching may not be loads of fun, but it’s an important quilting skill to build. Learn how I get started walking foot quilting and stitch in the ditch in this video:

Click Here to find the pattern for the Crown of Scraps Quilt Block. Remember my tutorials and videos will remain online indefinitely so you can begin any time! The best part about this quilt along is you can make a sampler quilt exactly the size you need. Choose from crib, throw, twin, queen, or king!

Walking Foot Quilting Tips

One thing to remember about walking foot quilting – you use the feed dogs on your machine! This means you shouldn’t cover them up or drop your feed dogs when quilting with this style. I set my stitch length to 1.5 mm because I like small quilting stitches. Feel free to adjust this setting as needed to make the perfect stitch for you!

I’m using the new Grid Glider to help my quilt blocks slide over the machine bed. This polyester sheet sticks to your table and has a big opening around the needle plate. You can leave the Grid Glider in place for walking foot quilting, piecing, applique, free motion quilting, and ruler foot quilting!

Stitching in the Ditch Tips

The biggest key when stitching in the ditch is to S. L. O. W.  D. O. W. N! You have got to slow down the speed you’re quilting so you have more control over where you’re stitching. I used the speed slider on my Eversewn Sparrow 20 to slow the speed down dramatically. The result is better looking stitches exactly in the ditch!

The purpose of stitching in the ditch is to outline your patchwork shapes and secure the quilt. The only downside to stitching in the ditch is you can’t see it. However, ditching is a terrific choice if you just can’t figure out a good quilting design AND there aren’t that many seams in your quilt to stitch.

That’s it for this quilting our Crown of Scraps block with straight lines. I have another idea for quilting this block that I’ll tackle on my longarm next week.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day

More Videos for the Crown of Scraps Block

How to Piece the Crown of Scraps Block

Half Square Triangles Piecing Tutorial

How to Piece Hourglass Squares

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

5 Responses

  1. Cindy says:

    Thank you

  2. Nicole says:

    Great video

  3. Kathleen Lyden says:

    What was the name of video where I can learn more basic stitching in the ditch etc, totally beginner quilter using walking foot etc

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