Starts and Stops

 How to start and stop your machine quilting?

Many advocate tiny stitches. I have been doing this including going backwards but I don't like the thread build-up.

Others pull all threads to the front, tie and bury. This is much more time-consuming. 

Videos I have watched give tips. If doing it with a machine do 4/5 micro stitches but no backwards stitching, bring bobbin threads to the front and just clip off. If tying, do no micro stitches just pull to the front, tie stitches together about half an inch from the top and bury. One tip is to use a self-threading needle.

Maybe it's time to experiment with both and decide what I like best, both the look and how much work is involved. I know I am over messy starts and stops. Maybe I can add some photos. 

Instructions from one quilter:

Do not use micro stitches.

Do leave a long enough tail to tie a knot with.

Quilt the line. At the end, leave enough thread tail to tie a knot by hand. Six inches is usually enough. At the ending stitch, tug on the needle thread to work the bobbin thread to the top.

Knot the starting thread tails together by tying a square knot. This knot should be about a quarter of an inch away from the quilt top. Thread a hand-sewing needle with these knotted thread tails. Insert the needle into the hole of the first stitch and push it into and through the centre of the batting for about a half inch. Pull the threaded needle through and out of the top. Trim your thread tails close to the top of the quilt. Repeat as needed.

By burying the thread tails in the batting there is little chance of them shadowing or showing through the top of the quilt. If possible, run the needle along an existing line of quilting to further camouflage the thread tail if the top fabric is light and your thread is dark.

Spray Basting

There are many videos on Youtube of spray basting - it's worth watching a few. Some people do it outside even in the wind. Some just spray the batting outside and then take it inside. It all seems much easier and more manageable than I ever thought possible, so it's time to try it. The below video is a short simple version that covers the main points. 

From all the videos I've watched these are the main points: 

• work in a well-ventilated space 
• press your three layers in preparation particularly the quilt top tape the backing down on the floor - obviously not carpet 
• have drop sheets around it to protect the floor although spray will wash off 
• if doing this on a table use a flannel sheet taped to the table to hold the backing 
• smooth out backing but do not stretch 
• lay the batting on top turn back a section of batting, spray the backing, lay down the batting and smooth it out keep working in sections 
• don't spray the edges of the backing/batting you not covering it all 
• do the same with the quilt top 
• smooth out but do not distort, 
• make sure corners are square 
• leave on the floor for 30mins or so until all glue is dry 
• wash any residual glue off the floor or wash the flannel sheet

 

FMQ Tutorials

 There are literally 'heaps' on Youtube and you can invest a lot of time watching them. Here have put those I find particularly helpful and informative and most of all watchable! People's personalities, manner and for me specifically accent make a huge difference as to wether or not I can be bothered. And then, of course, content is paramount. 

Sone beginner tutorials from Tiny Orchard Quilts:

Double needle free motion go to the link below. 

https://weallsew.com/double-needle-free-motion-quilting/

Straight Line Qulting

A good system to keep your straight line quilting straight and even. 

97D Foot

 This has taken some getting used to after years of using the 37. 

when hexagons don't fit together! (oxymoron)

Hexagons are a tesselating shape right? So they should always fit together right? Wrong!

I found this out the hard way......but it could have been worse so I am thankful and willingly to share my trauma. 

Hexagons do tesselate but I wrongly assumed that meant they would always fit together.

Yes but in reality, it depends on how you sew them together. There are pitfalls, BEWARE!

I prepared over 1000 hexagons and joined them into 150 small rosettes being one hexagon in the middle surrounded by 6 more. (Traditional Grandmother's Garden blocks often have two rows of hexagons around a centre and there are a variety of options for patterns to create when joining them together. I just wanted to use the basic 7 hexagon rosette.)  

This is my small rosette.

This is the arrangement I planned to use. 

So I laid out my 150 blocks in a pleasing colour way to then work out how to sew them together. I was looking for a system to manage this process. I could see a construction pattern -  one small rosette in the centre with 6 rosettes sewn around to create the large rosette, then join two large rosettes together with two filler small rosettes between them.  As long as I carefully labelled and numbered each small rosette, I could stack them all up and work on it as time allowed. Keeping the layout in order to maintain the colourwash effect was my focus.

Right is the large rosette with two filler rosettes that you then add the next large rosette to. 

Fortunately, I only labelled two large rosettes before beginning sewing and left the rest of the quilt laid out. 

So I began sewing. The first one was a bit of a struggle as I figured out how to handle it but the second one went together much more easily. My system was to label the rosettes: Centre 1, 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6 and would join them with 1/1 being where 1 is on a clock then add clockwise from there around the centre small rosette. You can see the labelling system in the photo above right. 

All good? No! It wasn't!

Fortunately, I checked after making the second large rosette. When I laid them back down with the rest of the quilt there was a problem. The first one fitted back into its space but the second did not. How could that be? They are exactly the same shape right? Wrong!

I laid one large rosette on top of the other and they were not the same. That really did my head in! 

Look carefully at the photo on the left. You can see half a pink rosette poking out on the left side.

I am not a mathematical person however I have always been able to work things out. I learned to quilt back in the day when you drafted your own blocks, did your own math and still I don't use patterns. I was gobsmacked! However, my lizard brain knew there was a reason and that if I stopped stressing, it would come to me. 

Later, after wine and chocolate, I went back and looked at the two large rosettes and thought "it must be something to do with the way I sewed the small rosettes around the centre rosette".  So I looked closely. 

Loud crash of the penny dropping!

When you place the centre small rosette with a flat horizonal edge at the top and begin sewing the 1/1 small rosette onto it, you have two choices - the first seam can be along the horizontal top of the hexagon or on the diagonaol side of the hexagon. In my first large rosette the seam is along the horizontal and in my second large rosette the seam is on the diagonal. Different! 

But surely it doesn't matter? Yes, it does! At this stage, the lizard brain stepped in and I instinctively turned one of my large rosettes over and voila! they fitted on top of each other. Mirror image. 

Photo left is upside down rosette sitting on the other rosette. Mirror image of each other.

I had  inadvertently created two mirror image blocks. They can be sewn together by adding filler hexagons but that would mess up my design and colour layout. 

Half a day of reverse sewing of my second large rosette followed - longer than it takes to hand sew them together initially - then back together again with the first seam between the Centre and 1/1 being along the top horizontal edge of the hexagon. Double check! Triple check!!

My large rosettes now fit together as I had envisaged with two small rosettes between each one.

However, I may have aged 10 years. 

I think the simple version of this explanation is that the small rosette can be orientated in two ways and you have to be consistent as you piece the quilt. 

And when you join them you need to be consistent in where you begin and the order of seams.

Printing on Fabric

Exploring the options regarding printing on fabric to include in quilts. It would mean the purchase of an ink jet printer - objects I despise! - but hey these new ones with tanks rather than cartridges seem a better option. Informative article below re all the issues:

https://www.linda-matthews.com/printing-photos-on-fabric-using-an-inkjet-printer/