I can't add much to the great advice given by the others, just take it slow and don't stress yourself out. It doesn't take long to get the feel of it then away you go. Good luck with it, it sure sounds like a cute quilt. Show us when it is done.

If you have not yet basted the layers together, I highly recommend heavily starching the backing fabric. I do this by painting on a 1:1 solution of Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and water (using a large wall painting brush, so it is fast), tossing in dryer, then ironing with steam. I also spray starch the top before layering. Starch stabilizes the layers so there is less stretching and distortion while machine quilting.

If you have already basted the layers together, you can still stabilize with layers of spray starch. Spray starch, let dry (a fan can speed this up), spray again, let dry. Do this on both sides of the quilt sandwich.

If you are not doing to do free-motion quilting, then it helps a lot to use a walking foot.

I do not recommend starting by sewing all the diagonals, because these are on the bias. One of the problems with lines that cross each other is that these are the places where any stretching of the fabric will show up as a pucker or tuck. All of the diagonals in your quilt are on the bias, and the longer a sewn line on the bias the more likely there will be some stretching of the fabric -- which will show up when you start quilting lines on the opposite diagonals. Starch and a walking foot will help prevent stretching, but a first-time quilter may not realize that you still need to handle the sandwich carefully.

Ideally you would want to stitch on every block line across and up-down to stabilize the sandwich before sewing diagonals. However, stitching in the ditch (SID) is not that easy. What I recently did that I think would work on a Halloween quilt too is to SID with a fairly narrow zig-zag stitch instead of a straight-line stitch (using a colorful thread). This is a much more forgiving way to SID and is easy to do with a walking foot. Once all the block lines are stabilized, you could do all the diagonals. Once the diagonals are done, you could add lines in the plain blocks to the spider web veins, and then stitch lines to connect the veins. Because these would all be "wonky" zigzag lines, the spider webs would have wonky zigzag lines instead of straight lines.

Create a practice sandwich out of muslin. If you like, you can even draw several blocks on it with a ruler and permanent marker. Then experiment with the above to see if you like it before using it on your quilt.

doing straight diagonal lines across the blocks would be the easiest and looks great. use a walking foot /quilting foot if you have one. have fun!!!

Since you've never quilted before, I would suggest a simple stitch in the ditch (or in my case stitch close to the ditch). If you still want to put the spider webs in, the STID stitching will help to hold your solid blocks in place for the free motion work. I would definitely practice on some quilt sandwiches first. Leah Day's website has many, many free motion design ideas and she also has some very instrutional videos on there. Good luck and I know you will do fine!

zig zag on cotton, before making the quilt sandwich
 

“My apologies for not making clear that the zig zagging to make straight lines needs to be done before the quilt sandwich is put together and I think requires some type of stabilizer. It is a 20” x 60” quilted wall hanging.

“Thank you for being so kind as to respond. I should have been more clear as to what info I needed. I just needed to know how to do zig zag to create lines on cotton, but before the quilt is made into a sandwich. I think I need some type of stabilizer where the lines will be zig zagged. I will go visit my quilt shop if I can’t get an answer”

You could do orange peel in the 9-patches and spiderwebs in the solids.

I've only quilted with a walking foot. First thing is find thread that blends well with your quilt top and backing. You'll be more comfortable, I think, if you believe the mistakes won't show. Make sure you get everything flat and even on your sandwich. Watch some youtube videos for beginning machine quilting.

My first quilt was just a simple quilt made of strips of blocks. I just sewed a wavy line down the middle of each strip. I attempted to echo the line, but was not too successful with getting a true echo. It's going to be a "picnic" quilt, so I'm happy with it. You could do that.

The third one was a sashed "I spy" with 6" finished charms. Even though my batting allowed up to 10", I decided to quilt it closer as it's a kid's quilt and will get lots of washing. I just quilted the whole thing diagonally, in both directions. I aimed my presser foot toward the corners of the square and sashing. That way, I didn't have to mark it or measure anything. It worked well as slight variations in the straight lines are not lined up with the seams, so you don't notice if if they are not exactly straight. Depending on your batting, you could just use one line down the middle of your 9 patch.

I would suggest something simple, as learning to manipulate the quilt and keep things moving straight with the pull of the machine and gravity in the limited harp space is a chore in itself. As far as the spider web, it would almost have to be done with FMQ. I would make it at least twice on scrap sandwiches before attempting to sew it on your quilt or even planning to put it in there. Make sure you can do it before you make your plan. (I just thought of an advantage to the spider web. You can do it from any direction).

Please share with us how it goes. I've only quilted three quilts so far and they weren't very big. I'd like to know how other inexperienced quilters fare on their projects.

bkay