Machine Quilting Progress

I recently purchased a Bernina with a stitch regulator. This foot is both a blessing and a frustration.I bought the machine because of this foot and the embroidery capabilities, which my current Babylock did not have.(Yes I know Babylock has embroidery machines).

What I discovered is the BSR will take time to get used to and will require hours of practice. Just like with any machine quilting. Prior to this, my free motion quilting was poor at best on a table top or domestic style machine, and I used a frame for most of my quilting. This frame allowed me to put my Babylock on it and use it in the same manor as you would a long arm. I was comfortable here and had started to expand my designs and skills.(But there were limits here too. As the Babylock's throat was small, and large quilts became a challenge. I had to quilt to the middle, and then remove the quilt and flip it. Now I needed to also be able to quilt upside down depending on the design. Another challenge unless I was doing a stipple or meandering which gets pretty boring. Many of the designs had to be worked horizontally (like border patterns)and my quilting area was around 6 inches or less as the quilt was rolled up inside the throat.

This is what lead me to buy my Bernina. I could have upgraded the frame and bought a machine with a larger throat, yes I know this. But for the same money, I now have much more freedom. I have embroidery, and I can quilt any pattern any size as well as do all the other basic sewing or quilting. The bigger frame and machine would only be used for machine quilting period. One other draw back was space. I found my old frame sitting in the corner collecting dust, as I just didn't want to go through the hassle of setting it up. It took up too much room and then my Babylock was out of commission for other sewing until the quilt was done. Another drawback to using your domestic machine on a frame. Unless you already have more than one machine to use.

Ok, why am I telling you all this? It is because I have now committed myself to learn how to machine quilt the right way. I also wanted a way to record my machine quilting progress. As I learn to master my machine quilting. I can do some basic quilting designs and patterns, but I want to learn more and not be intimidated or limited in my design anymore.

This is how "Sewing Sundays" started in my house. I wanted to dedicate time to improve my skills. The only way this will happen is if I work at it regularly. Now that doesn't mean I can only sew on Sundays, but I will at least commit to sewing every Sunday, no matter what! I will try to fit in more time, and want to eventually get to sew daily. But with my website, 2 blogs, and other life commitments daily is much to big a goal to consider right now.

I would also like to share my progress with you in hopes of inspiring you to work at improving your own skills. As artists the only way to improve our skills is to work at it. Wishing or wanting to improve is not enough, we must take action. We must also allow ourselves to make mistakes in order to learn. Trust me when I say you will make mistakes, but you must continue to move past them. Just keep going! If the finished quilt is just too frustrating to look at, then give it away! Make these practice pieces for charity and there will be no more guilt. 

The photos in this article were from one of my recent Sewing Sundays. This quilt has both straight quilting (with a walking foot) and free motion quilting. I made this quilt for a classroom project but never quilted it. It landed in my UFO pile shortly after I published the class. And then sat there because it seemed too small to bother setting up my frame for, and I was not comfortable enough with my domestic machine quilting. This is a common occurrence for my smaller quilt tops. But not anymore! Look out UFO's, I am going to bring you all back to life!

If you want to know how I made this quilt you can purchase the instructions for it at Quilting Weekly. The class is titled "Go Green with Selvage Quilts". There are actually 4 projects in this class using selvages.

Here is a valuable tip: The free motion quilting I did is a bit hard to see in most places on of the quilt, which was done that on purpose. I did choose a spot with the lightest of the colors so that you could see my design. but if you look at the quilt you can barely see the quilting without going up close. I used this thread which blended into the fabric because it made it harder to my mistakes! When I get more comfortable and improve my machine quilting, I will work with thicker threads and threads that stand out more.

When selecting your threads, do not just lay the spool on the fabric. Pull off a foot or more and lay that over the fabric instead. This will give you a better picture of what the thread will look like when stitched. On the spool the color is much more concentrated and may give an inaccurate impression.

I would love to hear some feed back on my quilt. Take a moment and leave me a comment. And then check back regularly for more Sewing Sunday projects and machine quilting progress.

Machine Quilting tips with Leah Day

Ladies and gentlemen, I know that if you have been quilting and on the internet for any length of time you have heard about Leah Day and her fabulous video series.  I can not get enough of her. She explains things in such and easy to understand way.  As a teacher myself I enjoy watching these to help improve my skills in both my own quilting and creating of my videos that I use on my website. I wonder if she will ever do a series on how to create your own videos? 


Not likely, so in the meantime watch these 3 short videos, as they are fabulous! Pay close attention to her set up of the tables. Proper set up is critical and sometimes overlooked by many quilters. Supporting your large quilts will help eliminate the drag when you're quilting.













 

Quilting sites worth looking at

Here are a few quilting sites or articles that are worth looking at. (or at least in my opinion they are) Take a look and see what you think.

This first quilting site is also from one of my favorite blogs, and if you follow this blog you may have seen this post. Michelle has a great site which is full of quilting resources including a quilting blog list, quilt shop lists and more. If you have not seen her blog then I recommend you look today to see what a fart, pigs and wombat have in common! As a quilter you know you can use a fart right now, no really check out the Quilting Gallery and find why.

Next after you recover from your laughter on the Quilting Galleries blog article and want to get down to some real quilting, take a look at the great machine quilting on the "Oh Fransson" blog. If you ever wanted to learn machine quilting this tutorial just may get you started.

If you need further help, and like the idea of videos, and personal one on one help with machine quilting, head over to Quilting Weekly they have a great beginners, Machine Quilting 101 class worth looking at. This site also gives you 2 free classes just for registering on the site. Not bad, and if you don't want to purchase a class they still have lots to do there. One area worth looking at is the forum. Where you will see loads of great topics to read through, all quilting related of course. They run a weekly special there where one class a week in on sale for 50% off. And Registration is free, so why not get on their mailing list to see what classes are on sale or what else they are up to.

The new kid on the block. I just discovered a new site called You Can Quilt This, which has only been up for a few weeks according to the Lori whom I met on twitter. If you want to know more about the site you can contact her through her twitter account. This site has lots of wonderful patterns for sale, and all at reasonable prices I might add. Definitely worth a look.

This should keep you busy for a few days until I find more quilting sites worth looking at. The internet is loaded with great sites, I know (I think mine is one of them) Did you know that I have another blog Online Quilting? Between running my 2 blogs and website I have found that my posting here has slowed down a bit. I am sorry for that, but I assure you that when I do post I will make it worth reading. If you have enjoyed my writings why not leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts. I love to hear from my readers.

If your interested in learning quilting I suggest you also take the time to sign up for my news letter at quilting weekly and stay up to date with all the latest in quilting. (just fill in the form at the top of this page)

Until next time,
Happy Quilting
Chris

Machine Quilting

Machine quilting is an area that many new quilters seem to struggle with. They have many questions and I get so many e-mails on this subject that I thought it was time to lend a hand.

When machine quilting, you need to take the time to prepare properly. Machine quilting (which is the act of sewing the 3 layers together. Backing, batting and the quilt top)requires practice in it's self. There is no way around the practice part, sorry ladies! To perfect machine quilting, you need to put in your time at the machine. You need to become one with the machine. But how do you do that?

Prepare the layers and build a quilt sandwich first

There are many ways to do this. If this is your first time, I suggest getting some batting, and muslin or scraps of fabric together. Make a square about 12 x 12 inches of all 3 layers.

1. Place the backing on the table, wrong side up


2. Place the batting on the backing


3. Place the quilt top on the batting, right side up

Now you need to secure those layers. This step is very important. You can do this in a number of ways.

1. With Spray Adhesives


2. With quilters pins


3. With Thread

Now if you are not familiar with these methods you may need to do a bit of research to figure out which one you prefer. Sometimes it depends on the project at hand. Spray Adhesives work well for small projects, but have strong odors that may be offensive to some people. You need a well ventilated room to use them in. Pin basting is popular because it is easy to move or remove the pins as you quilt. Giving you the opportunity to smooth out the quilt and keep control of the wrinkles. Plus by removing them as you sew, you don't have anything to remove in the end like you would with thread basting. Thread basting is quick also, and many quilter like that, because the thread does not get in the way of quilting. So they don't have to stop to remove it like you do with pins.

As you can see there are pros and cons to all of these methods, and you need to find the one you like best. UFO-rphanages has a list of tips on Spray Adhesives. Pat Sloan has a video that shows you how to pin baste. I don't agree with her on a few things but the video will give you an idea of how to pin baste. (I prefer the curved pins they go through the layers easier. & I pin much closer than she does and I think that helps keep the layers from slipping)Take a look at About.com they show a good example of how to thread baste.

Once you have the layers basted together using one of the above methods

Your next step is the quilting. There are two main types of quilting. straight line quilting & Free motion quilting

As a beginner you may want to start out with the straight line quilting. This is much easier to master than the free motion quilting. One helpful tool you should own is a walking foot, or even feed foot on your machine. This type of quilting uses the feed dogs to pull the fabric through the machine. The walking foot helps pull the top layers of fabric a the same pace as your feed dogs in the machine are pulling the bottom layers. Making the fabric move through much easier and helps to prevent puckers. Puckers can occur when the layers are not feeding evenly. (they also can happen when your layers are not basted properly, or if the layers shift and you don't adjust the basting)


As for free motion quilting you should attach the darning foot. Then you will need to lower the feed dogs or cover them depending on your machine. Free motion quilting puts all the control in your hands. There are no feed dogs to pull the fabric, you are the only one moving the fabric. If you just let the machine stitch with out moving the fabric it would stitch in the same hole repeatedly. Think of free motion quilting as drawing with your machine, by moving the paper not the pencil. This take more practice than you think! That is why I suggested you make a small quilt sandwich, and now you can follow the steps to basting and practice both styles on the sample piece before going to your project.

Here are a few websites to check out for more examples of machine quilting.

1. Machine Quilting for Dummies (love this one)


2. Popular Patchwork


3. Expert Village has some great videos on YouTube.com here is one of them. Once your at YouTube.com type in "machine quilting" into the search and you will find plenty of videos to watch.

I hope this helps shed some light on machine quilting. There is still plenty more to learn about machine quilting which I will need to cover in another post. I did not want to overwhelm the new quilter, and I also know that if this gets too long, you may not read it all. Machine quilting is an important topic and I want to be sure you do read it all. So until next time get that practice piece out and have some fun. Play around with both straight line quilting and try some free motion quilting as well.

If you have any comments you would like to share on this subject please do so in my comments section. I love to read them. I also have mailing list you can join at the top of this page, I recommend you join if you want to learn more about quilting. My members get weekly quilting tips and much more. Enjoy Quilting today!

Can I quilt with these two feet? part 2

Can I quilt with these two feet? Part 1 was about what a walking foot is and what it is used for.

As I said in part one, machine quilting is a time saver over hand quilting. Now for those of you who still enjoy hand quilting I am not stopping you from your slow tedious process. In fact I still enjoy it a little. (Even if it takes years to complete my quilt)

When referring to "quilting" of course I am talking about the top stitching that is done to hold the 3 layers of the quilt together.

Most quilt designs fall into 2 categories. One being straight lines and the other being curved or continuous lines. When dealing with straight lines like stitch in the ditch, outline quilting or grids you are best to use the walking foot.

But for all the curvy lines like loops, hearts, flowers and all the continuous line designs you will need to use your "darning foot" or "free motion" foot. When using this foot it is important to know that you will need to lower or cover up your feed dogs on your machine. This allows the fabric to move more freely.


Here is a picture of the ones for my machine. You can see that I have one that is a closed circle and the other is open. I prefer the open one, which makes it easier for me to grab my threads and move them out of the way. I actually had a friend who cut a closed one and filed it for me. Sort of a custom foot! It's good to have friends.



You will need to refer to your machine manual to see what foot is recommended. Just like the walking foot, there are generic ones available. Check with a sewing machine repair shop, or a shop that sells your particular model to be sure you have the right one.

Once you discover how much fun free motion is, you may never want to hand quilt again! I am not going to lie to you, free motion quilting does take lots of practice to get right.

For new quilters it is best to have someone show you how through a class or private lesson. But if you are like me, and want to try on your own get a book and make a few small quilt sandwiches (16-20 inches will do) and just practice.

A teacher once told me that before you take a design to your quilt. Draw it on paper, and trace it 8 to 10 times. This helps train your brain and hands. Now try the design on the practice mini quilt. If you are comfortable with it, and it flows nicely you are ready to try it on your quilt.

Good luck and have fun with this. There are many great books out there to help you with designs as well at the "how to's" of free motion quilting.

Can I quilt with these two feet?

Can I machine quilt with these two feet? No, I am not referring to your own two feet, but the feet on your sewing machine. This article will be a brief lesson on what feet are needed and how to use them for the type of quilting you want to do. It will be broken into 2 parts. The first one being about the walking foot.

Machine quilting is a time saver from the days of the past. Quilters of the past had only one option and that was needle and thread and the only machine they had was their own two hands. So speed was controlled by them. There are many quilters today who continue to hand quilt. Many do it because they enjoy the process, and others do it to preserve this time honored tradition and want to pass it on. Ladies I salute you!

My first quilt was quilted by hand, and I am still working and my second hand quilted project. Which I have been working on for over a year now. Of course I am not working on it daily, so who knows when it will actually be completed!

When it comes to quilting I like speed! I want to get the quilt done, and move to the next project. Which meant I had to teach myself to machine quilt. There are just to many quilts I need to or want to make and I don't have that many years left in my lifetime to do them by hand. If you are like me and want to get the quilting done quicker then you need to learn the basics of machine quilting.

First of all you need to be sure you have the right foot for the job.

Below is an example of what a walking foot looks like. Most machines today either come with this or you can purchase one from the manufacture. Check with the shop where your purchased your machine to be sure you have the right one. If you have an older machine you may still be able to purchase a generic one. I found one for my Kenmore which is about 40 years old. So not impossible, just need to do a little hunting.


Here are some resources to help in your hunt.

Try Nancys Notions or All brands.com and another one might be Overstock.com

Before purchasing a generic walking foot online you need to know your shank style.

All feet come in one of three styles:

low shank

high shank

slanted shank

When in doubt go to a sewing machine repair shop with your machine and they can tell you. (who knows they may even have a walking foot for you to purchase there!)

This should help you at least know what a walking foot looks like, now you need to know what to use it for. Here is a great definition found at about.com which should get you started.

Using your walking foot is pretty simple and is used primarily for straight line quilting. Simply attach the foot and start stitching. It is best to start with small stitches to lock the threads at the beginning and at the end. (back stitching is not recommended with a walking foot).

Part 2 will be on the free motion foot. Also known as the darning foot.