Stitching in the ditch is a must for your quilts to lay and hang nice and flat.  My first big experience with SID was when Linda called me to come help her with her quilts for Season 3 of her TV show.  I agreed, got off the phone and thought "What would she have me do on her quilts?".  Then I was sure it was loading them, assisting her with what ever she needed.

When I got to the lodge she said we had 16 quilts we had to get done.  That is a lot of quilts and we knew it couldn't happen without the Statler.  We were both fairly new to the Statler back then and I didn't own one, but felt secure enough to place patterns.  Linda had the quilts all picked out and we discussed what pattern we would do on the first quilt and then of course, Linda would freehand.

Then she said you can stitch in the ditch and get the next quilt all stabilized while I am free handing.  "We have to get 3 quilts a day done to get through these quilts.  I started to panic!  I of course, stitched in the ditch on all my custom quilts, but that was in my home, in my studio and no one was there.  Especially not Linda.  I really panicked!  These were going to be on TV!

Linda went upstairs and I literally started hyperventilating.  The machines are in the bottom floor of the lodge and it was February.  That means lots of snow.  I opened the double door and went outside and started praying.  OK, there were a few tears of terror. Then I thought "Well Linda wouldn't have asked me unless she had confidence in me."  I calmed down and turned to go back in.  The door was locked from the inside!  I couldn't walk around as I had no coat or boots on and there was about 3 feet of snow.  So I started knocking.  Keep in mind this lodge is huge, 9000 square feet and well insulated.

Pretty soon I was pounding as it was very cold.  Linda came down opened the door and wanted to know just what I was doing outside with no coat!  Then I looked at her and told her I was praying as I was scared to death.  She retorted, it was just SID to which I replied "On TV Show quilts!

Just as she is in class, she told me I would be fine or she wouldn't have asked me to come and help if she didn't know I could do it.  So I chose a baby quilt because of course, it was the smallest.  It was octagons!  For custom quilting that means you go around every one of them.  I learned the easiest way to look at it as continuous lines.  Linda is so good at that. 

When I finished Linda said just go ahead and quilt it.  I almost passed out.  I said "No way, am I going to quilt on a Linda Taylor TV Show quilt!"  See Linda truly believes if she can do it we can do it.  She told me I had been in all her classes many times, quilted for customers and she had seen my quilting, so she was perfectly comfortable.  I put my foot down and said there was no way.

I stabilized the quilts placed Statler patterns and she free handed.  It was such a great experience.  I became proficient and very comfortable with SID by the end of that week.  It was so fun quilting with Linda and being taught one on one from such an extraordinary quilter.

All those quilts hang beautifully and I learned you sometimes get out the ditch, just stop and get back in and don't you dare pick out what you don't think looks right!  So remember that SID is a basic to great quilting and "you can do it!"  You also will learn to like it and know that it's ust part of quilting.  So don't forget to SID!