We've learned the absolute basics of walking foot quilting and now it's time to try a super simple design - gridlines.
Gridlines are basically just horizontal and vertical lines that cross to form a grid over your quilt. I decided to use this design in a T-shirt quilt block that featured a rectangle of a plaid shirt in the middle because this piece already looked a bit like a grid to begin with.
Marking Gridlines Over a T-shirt Quilt Block
I began by marking the gridlines design over the white background of the t-shirt quilt block using a Fine Line Pen. To mark this area quickly, I used a grid stencil with lines spaced 1/2 inch apart.
However, I didn't mark ALL the lines using the little hashes in the stencil (that's WAY too time consuming!). I just marked a line to the left and a line to the right and used a long ruler to connect them.
Notice how I angled the gridlines diagonal to the plaid fabric in the center of the block? I really like this look and I think it makes both the rectangle of fabric and the background stand out nicely.
Yes, marking all these lines is a bit time consuming and tedious, but if you want a perfectly spaced quilted grid, this is really the best way to do it.
Machine Quilting Gridlines with a Walking Foot
To start, I stitched in the ditch around the center plaid fabric rectangle, then began walking foot quilting along the lines within the plaid fabric and within the background in a pretty random, freeform way. You'll see what I mean in this walking foot video:
This is another reason why I think marking every line is necessary. Quilting this randomly, you really need to be able to spot and stitch to the closest line at any time. If I didn't mark the lines on the block surface, I would have been mostly guessing at placement and it definitely wouldn't have ended up lining up so nicely.
Using Gridlines In Other Quilts
As you can see from the video, quilting all these straight lines will go by pretty quickly, though it might require some fiddly direction changes and rotating your quilt or block to orient it in the right direction.
If you plan to machine quilt gridlines in another quilt, keep the size in mind. Marking the design will definitely help you plan your path through the project, but this design will require your quilt to be moved and shifted quite a lot within the machine.
Learn more about walking foot quilting by quilting these designs on your home sewing machine!
