Patchwork Help, Advice, Tips and Tricks

Stitching in the Ditch

You may read in the instructions of a quilt pattern that you should 'stitch in the ditch'. This is very functional quilting with the purpose of holding the wadding in place securely without the lines of stitching being too obvious. 


When you have two pieces of fabric joined together and then pressed open there is a natural dip at the joining seam. When this is your quilt top and it is placed on the wadding and backing fabric, as soon as you start to do your quilting stitches they tend to tighten the layers together. If the stitching is on the line of the original join of the two pieces of fabric, as where two blocks are stitched together, it is known as 'stitching in the ditch'. As soon as you quilt along these lines the stitches should sink well into the other stitching line beneath it and obscure the quilting stitches.


Sometimes in a quilt there will be very functional quilting such as this which ensures that the whole quilt will stay together with more decorative quilting added to create interest within the design.

More Stitching