Sunday, February 8, 2015

What's the Deal About Stitch-In-The-Ditch, Anyways???

DISCLAIMER:  I am a self-professed zealot when it comes to stitch-in-the-ditch (sid for short).  I occasionally will do custom quilting without it, but honestly, I have to grit my teeth.

When you finish reading this post, if you click on one of the pics it will open up a photo strip where you can see the pics more clearly.

This is my half-hexagon quilt, which has happily turned out really well, considering how sick and tired I was of all the blue and beige. In this first pic I have not done the sid, simply dropped in the bubble motifs.  Yeah, it looks ok.  Fine, in fact.  It's a little hard to tell that those bubbles are a motif, though.  They just look like a bunch of bubbles.

In this second pic I have outlined the hexies and added in the ghosts that run into the large separator strips joining the patchwork.  When I compare this to the first pic, the patchwork that I worked so diligently on just looks more...crisp.  And now those bubbles LOOK like a motif inside the hexies.

Now - look at the back of the quilt. The sid has MADE the hexies. Without that sid this would just look like a mass of bubbles.  It would have been a total waste of time dropping in the motifs - I'd have achieved the same effect with an edge-to-edge design.  But now?  Nice...
Here's a pic of the whole thing.

A little closer.

The back.  Leftover hexies appliqued for a bit of interest.  And really, what else was I going to do with them?
I'm not the only one who loves s.i.d.  So does Anita Zobens of Cottonmill Threadworks.  See her blog post HERE.

7 comments:

  1. I agree with you. SID makes all the difference. I also happen to enjoy doing it. I love my rulers!

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    Replies
    1. I like doing it too. Especially on a sampler quilt it gives me a chance to 'talk' to the quilt.

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  2. Helen Mary, this is SO lovely! Love your IQ patterns. Can you tell me which digital patterns you used? I have a hexagon quilt coming up soon, and I might just have to borrow your ideas! And I agree, the SID makes the quilt look better!

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  3. Michelle, you are a no-reply blogger so I can't get this to you directly. Hopefully you will see this.
    The motif in the block is Hex Bubbles by Kraker Quilting.
    The background quilting is a modified panto: Coils and Ovals Border L01902 by It's a Quilt Thing. I changed the ovals to circles.

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  4. The stitch-in-the-ditch quilting just makes the bubbles stand out and the quilt to sign.
    Maureen B.

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  5. Totally agree on SID, I use it all the time too.

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  6. I agree about the SID....to me it gives it a "tailored" look. It took me 3 years to get over my fear of stitching in the ditch and try it, but now it's hard NOT to do it!

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