Stitch in the Ditch

The quilting stage of the Harry Potter quilt has been underway for a while now, and I am stitching in the ditch around the books and knickknacks.  I am not good at stitching in the ditch!  I'm just not good at staying on the lines! It seems so wobbly to me!  I started out with a neutral colored thread, thinking I could use one thread for the whole job, but I didn't like how that looked.  So I switched to matching thread.  This involves changing threads more often than not.  But it looks better.  There is a learning curve to this and now that I am almost done, I am getting better at it.  I have been ripping out some of the earlier work and redoing it.  Oh, how I hate ripping out free motion quilting stitches!  Most of them are tiny, overlapping and sunk into the batting.  It's a tedious job.  I am looking forward to the easier and more fun part of stippling the background and borders!

Here's one of my re-do's:

The Teacup--"Before"

The Teacup--"After"