Line Dance SAL - What's next?

Now that you have a finished quilt top, what's next?

I thought I'd add a few tips and ideas for quilting your Line Dance quilt. I know it can be daunting to find a quilting design that works, and it sometimes feels like piecing and quilting are two entirely different crafts.

My personal favourite is sending a quilt to my longarmer when I like something more elaborate. My sewing machine (I have a Bernina Aurora 440QE) has a fairly small throat space, so doing the more intricate designs involves a lot of squishing a quilt through a small space, having to reposition very frequently, etc. so it's just more of a hassle than a fun part of the process.

I do quilt on my machine, though, but when I do, I prefer walking foot designs. So a lot of straight lines or wavy lines (using a serpentine stitch), crosshatches, tartan-style patterns etc.

Pattern cover quilt

My first Line Dance sample above, which is on the cover of the pattern, was quilted by Heather of Red Willow Quilts and she used the Kapari pantograph.

I knew I wanted something a little curvy to contrast with the geometric lines of the quilt top, since it was going to be an all-over design and wasn't going to follow any of the seams. I always feel that if I select something very geometric for an already geometric quilt top, then the lines have to match up with the fabric patches or it will look wrong. But if I pick something more curvy, then it's obvious that the two are separate parts of the overall design and it's all done on purpose.

Quilting the SAL top

I'll be quilting my SAL quilt top myself, so it'll have to be a simple design. Since the Line Dance quilt is very geometric, I'm considering doing a crosshatch of sorts. Instead of just going across the whole quilt at regular intervals, though, I plan on following each ribbon, and stitching 1/4" away from the ditch so the stitching is more visible. 

And here's what just the quilting looks like, and what you'll see on the back of my quilt. It's got a bit of a tartan feeling to it, which I like. It adds interest and while it's "just" a straight line design, it's a bit different.

Now I just need to decide on a thread colour...

More quilting ideas

Here are a few more ideas you could use on your own Line Dance quilt top:

One of my favourite stitches is the serpentine stitch. I use it a lot, for example on one of my Scrappy Love samples (above). I love it because it leaves the quilt looking crinkly and cozy, plus it doesn't show a less-than-straight line quite as much as an actual straight line does.

This is a built-in stitch, so the machine does the wavy thing and I just feed the quilt through straight. On my Bernina Aurora 440 it's stitch #4, it's a multi-stitch zigzag that I adjust the width and length on until it becomes nice and wavy. If you don't see the stitch on your machine, google either serpentine or multi-stitch zigzag to see if your machine has it.

A diagonal crosshatch like what I did above on my Holiday Spirit quilt is another simple but effective option. Putting the design on the diagonal helps with what I mentioned above about the quilting lining up (or not) with the patchwork, so on the diagonal it won't match anywhere and will look much more "on purpose" than if you did it straight up and down.

Of course, if you choose to longarm it, there are plenty of options to choose from and decide with your longarmer (or yourself, if you own your own longarm machine). Here's a link to the pantograph library at the Longarm League, to get you started on picking a design.