As a quilt teacher, I have had many questions about the best way to quilt a newly purchased or just completed quilt top.  And there are many ways!  From artsy to traditional, each of these techniques varies with how you want your quilt to look when it is finished.  Do you want to hide your quilting to make the pieced or printed design stand out?  Or do you want to enhance your quilt with specialty threads, yarns, or metallics to create a design on top of the design that is already there?  

The first, and easiest way to quilt your quilt top, is to bring it to your local small fabric shop to have it quilted on a long-arm quilting machine.  This machine spreads the quilt out between two long rollers, layers it on top of a batting and a backing, and then a quilter creates a design on the quilt of your choosing.  The cost of long-arm quilting generally depends on the type of design and how complicated or easy it is.

Another way to finish a quilt is to hand quilt a design.  This is a traditional method of quilting and can be a source of great pride when you are finished.  When I am hand quilting, I like to sit down with a good movie to watch because this method is time-consuming, but very satisfying!  Keep in mind that hand quilting takes a moderate amount of practice and you will get better over time with practice.  So, for those quilters with a little patience, you can create some complicated, stunning designs -- just give it a little time!  There are a couple of books that I recommend for those quilters that are just starting out or need to practice a little.  One is Quiltmaking by Hand: Simple Stitches, Exquisite Quilts, by Jinny Beyer and the other is Hand Quilting with Alex Anderson: Six Projects for Hand Quilters, by Alex Anderson.

Although hand quilting is a traditional technique, not all of us want to put that much time into a quilt, so there is machine quilting.  Machine quilting, using your own machine at home, can be just as complicated and beautiful as hand quilting, but with less time invested.   The first purchas you won't regret is to get a free motion foot attachment for your sewing machine.  This attachment looks like a horseshoe, and allows you to see the stitching as it is stitched so you can plan ahead.  There are many patterns and books out there for any level of machine quilter, and it takes much less practice to get it right than hand quilting.  Patterns for machine quilting range from tradition feather and rope quilting (as seen in traditional Amish quilts) to a more freestyle approach. 

Some of these quilting techniques include the following:

• stitch-in-the-ditch  This stitching creates a frame around your design that is stitched in the "ditch" between two pieced fabrics.  This creates an invisible stitching that is hidden around a block, allowing the block itself to stand out rather than the stitching.
  
• traditional running stitch  This stitching is used in way that does not take the design of the top into account, instead a running stitch is created diagonally across the quilt every 1" to 2".  You see this kind of quilting in antique quilts and some traditional Amish quilts.
• accent quilting  This type of quilting is used to enhance the quilt top design by making the quilting itself be a part of the design.  For example, using metallic threads or yarns to create another design altogether. This type of quilting also includes creating quilted designs in the borders or plain areas of the quilts.  For example, a feather quilted along a border, or a heart quilting inside a plain block.
• artistic enhancing  Quilting has, within the last 5 years, gone well beyond a simple running stitch with some cotton thread.  Today, there are quilts that use the quilting as another dimension of the quilt as a whole.  Where traditionally quilting is used to hold the three layers, quilt top, batting, and backing, together, artistic enhancing takes this one step farther.  When using this technique, anything goes!  You can use ribbons to create flowers, yarns to create mountains, buttons to create dimension, and all this not only holds the three layers together, but really enhances the look of your quilt.  With this technique you can really dive into your creative soul and you never know what comes out until you're finished!
  

A couple of books I recommend for getting started with machine quilting are: Machine Quilting: A Primer of Techniques, by Sue Nickels and Machine Quilting Made Easy, by Maurine Noble. These two books will give you a great overview of machine quilting techniques and give you a few simple projects to try, and use to improve your skills.

Quilting a quilt top is a great adventure and doesn't have to be only for the traditional-minded.  You can use metallic threads, silk threads, yarns, ribbons, hemp... pretty much anything that enhances your quilt, or turns your quilt into a work of art you'll love.  Experiment, experiment, experiment and don't be afraid to tear out what you don't like.  But, don't tear out too quickly, you never know if that mistake will turn your quilt into the next prize winner!  Most of all relax and have fun!  Happy Quilting!  Ursula, at Ella Bella May