Don't step on the quilt

When you do a full float of a quilt top it will hang down on the floor.  This might not be a problem with a smaller quilt.  But what about a much larger quilt?  A larger quilt might get in the way of your feet while stabilizing.  Like this one is doing.  Even this quilt is not nearly as large as some that I get.  This is a twin size but often I get over sized king quilts which are lots of loose fabric and batting hanging in front of the machine. 

I often sit to quilt.  Lots of loose hanging fabric could be a big problem for me.  The wheels of my chair might run over the quilt.  I certainly don't want that to happen!  Here's my solution to getting the floating quilt out of my way while I stabilize the area I'm working on.  I have a rope permanently tied to one end of my machine.  It's far back under the quilting area.

I take the loose end of the rope and run it in front of the floating quilt to the other end of the table.  Loosely at first and kind of near the floor.  See the rope in front of the floating quilt?

Next, I tug on the rope so it pulls the floating part up and out of the way.  I tie this end of the rope to the table with a slip knot.   

I have the rope placed so that it pulls the floating quilt way back out of the way of my feet or my chair wheels.  I can stabilize the area without worry of getting a customer's quilt dirty from my shoes or the wheels of my chair.  I will pull the slip knot to let the quilt float again before I advance the quilt.

I hang the rope on the end of the machine while I'm advancing and measuring the top.  When I'm ready to do more stabilizing I use the rope again.

After the whole quilt is all stabilized, the rope is left there waiting until I start stabilizing the next one.  I'm not sure where the rope will be placed on the smaller machine table just yet.  I'll take photos and post those after I've gone back to the quilt shop.  

Whatever type table set up you have, the rope can be used.  I once experimented with using an elastic rope.  Sort of like a bungee cord.  It didn't work.  The heavier weight of larger quilts only stretched the rope and it wouldn't stay back out of the way. 

If anyone reading these hints for smaller machines has a particular question about techniques please just ask.  For example if you have seen or read something done with a larger machine and want to know if it's possible with a smaller machine please ask.  Either leave the question in the comments or email me.  (estes anita at bellsouth dot net)  I'm keeping a list of the questions for taking step by step photos while I'm at the shop.  Photos speak much better than I can. (smile)  The questions will eventually be answered in the form of a blog post.

Rippling edge

I was asked how to handle the edge when you are tack stitching it but the fabric is pushed along by the presser foot.  Ok, I'm using my Gammill for this but it works for all machines.  One thing you can do is use your hand to keep the fabric from being pushed along. 

Another thing you can do is take a stitch......

move the needle away from the edge.....

move over an inch......

move back to the edge and take a stitch.....

move away from the edge again.....

move over an inch again.....

move back to the edge and take another stitch...... repeat, repeat.....

Each time you move away from the edge and back again it moves the pressure foot away from the part that wants to bunch up.  The thread between stitches will flatten and hold the fabric.  I'm not sure the Voyager machine or any other smaller machine allows you to lessen the pressure foot.  I'm really against making unnecessary changes to the machines anyway.  If if ain't broke don't fix it.  Now if the pressure foot causes problems when quilting designs on the quilt then is when it's time to change it.  Check your owner's manual to see how that is done.

Sorry about the poor quality of photos.  My batteries were going dead and I didn't have time to wait for them to charge.  I had to keep working to stabilize this quilt.

It ends up square

Over the years I've quilted a lot of customer quilts.  Toppers (customers) would bring tops with issues and expect ask me to wave my magic quilting fairy needle to return it back to them contest ready perfectly square.  If you could have seen some of the issues you would know how very difficult it was to get those quilt tops quilted. 

Never the less, I did my best to accommodate their wishes by learning how to work around the issues to return a top anyone could be proud of.  One of the issues I often dealt with was where the measurements at the top and bottom edges would be off as much as 4 inches sometimes.  I'm going to show you how I take a wonky quilt with friendly borders and quilt it square.

First I measure the quilt top in three places.  Across the top edge, through the middle, and across the bottom edge.  Add the figures together then divide by three to get the "average" width.   For demonstration purposes I'll use 45 as the average number. 

Let me explain that I do what is called a full float of the tops when quilting.  How happy I was that day, many years ago, when I found out about floating tops!  I prefer this method because it gives me much, much better control to get a really square quilt.  There are quilters that do a partial float which is attaching only the bottom edge of the top to the leader.  There are other quilters who don't do either type of float, preferring to attach both top and bottom edge to the leaders.  If they could only see the difference a full float gives they would start doing it too.

First, I attach the backing to the machine leaders making sure it's centered.  I lay the batting on the backing getting it centered as well.  I put the channel lock on and sew a straight line across.  This holds the batting in place as well as give me a straight line to follow when attaching the top.

Next, find the center of the sewn line.  This would be at the center of the backing.  This mark is where the center of the quilt top will be placed.  I make a mark on the batting with a wash out marker.  (Ignore the extra quilt you see in the photos.  I often quilt more than one at a time without removing from the machine. Just look at the lower half of the photos.)

I measure out from the center mark going to the right.  At 22 1/2 inches I make another mark.  That's the first half of the 45.

I measure out from the center mark going to the left and make a mark at 22 1/2 inches.  That's the other half of the 45.

Next I put the center of the top at the center mark on the batting making sure the edge of the top is right at the sewn line.  The sewn line will help me keep the top edge straight.

Put the right side of the top at the right mark.  Sometimes I put a pin to hold it there, sometimes not.  If there is a lot of fullness to be worked in I use pins.  The more friendliness, the more pins needed.  This top has very little fullness to work in so I'm not pinning.

Move to the left and put the other side of the top there.

You can see the top has just a bit of wave to it.  I would either pin to ease in the fullness or simply work it in as I stitch this edge down. 

As I advance the quilt I want to be sure the quilt top stays the same all the way through the quilting and end up with the same 45 inch measurement at the bottom edge.  The way I do this is by measuring from the end of the belly bar.  I have velcro attached to the very end of the bar.  My measuring tape has a bit of velcro on the back.  I attach the tape measure then......

go to the edge of the top.  This one is at the 19 inch mark on the tape measure.  It's not actually 19 inches from the end of the bar.  I put the velcro on the wrong end of the tape measure.  I didn't want to change it so I left it that way.  It still works. 

I write this number on a bit of tape on the bar so I don't forget it.

I have the same velcro set up on the other end of the belly bar.  This time my measurement is at 9 inches from the end of the bar.  Yup, it is a backward measurement too.   

I write this number on another bit of tape.  The reason for the difference in the two side measurements on this quilt is because I actually off centered it.  I want to keep as much of the extra backing in one piece as I can so it can be used later.  I shifted everything to the right allowing more of the backing to be in one piece.  It doesn't change the way this technique is done.

Now I'm ready to tack stitch (or pin) the top edge along the straight sewn line.  Notice the extra fullness along the side?  Each time I advance the top, I will work this fullness in and tack or pin it down.

As I quilt and advance the top, I am able to lift and shift the top as necessary to keep the edges at the correct side measurements..... because of the full float.  Keeping the side measurements the same will show where the extra border fullness is and allow me to work it in as I quilt.  Another thing to remember is that as the top is quilted it will draw up while the rest of the top doesn't.  The side measurements help me keep the top at the correct width no matter how much the quilted part draws up.  This prevents hour glass shifting.

Why do I sew a straight line to follow?  For a couple of reasons.  Just looking at the machine you might think it's perfectly square but it's not.  On my machine the bars are farther apart at one end of the table than the other end.   I realized this when I kept observing tops shifting sideways during the quilting process.  On my machine the bars are farther apart by 1 1/4 inch at one end than the other end.

Also leader fabric pulls and stretches.  With use and stretching the leader can be off by an inch or more from one side to the other or in the middle.  Looking at the machine the bars appear to be perfectly level but they aren't.  The long expanse of the bar is impossible to hold level, it's going to sag a bit in the center from the sheer length.  Sewing the straight line assures me, right from the start, I have the top on the machine as straight and even as I can get it.

My previous machine, a shortarm, didn't have channel locks.  What I did back then was to use a piece of cardboard, with a binder clip holding it onto the tracks, behind the forward and back motion wheels.  This prevented the forward and back motion wheels from moving allowing me to sew a straight side to side line.  Hmm.... I think I've explained everything. 

 

Why is the backing too short?

Have you ever wondered why, despite careful measuring, the backing comes up short when you get to the end of the quilting? 

Well here's the reason.  Let me show you by doing a picture demonstration.  First find a magazine.  Any will do.  The front of the magazine represents your quilt top. The back of the magazine represents the quilt backing.  The inside pages represent the batting.  Now roll the magazine up starting at the spine and rolling with the front page inside.  This is just like how the quilt, batting, and backing would roll up on the pickup roller. 

See what happened?  The backing comes up short.  Now open the magazine and insert a second magazine inside.  Roll it up as before. 

See what happened?  The front and back pages are even farther apart.  This is what happens with a thicker batting in the quilt sandwich.  When you plan to use a thicker batting, or a very puffy one, you need to compensate for this by adding a few extra inches to the backing. 

It's the process of rolling the quilt sandwich, on the pickup roller, that takes up so much backing.  It doesn't seem logical.  It would seem that the quilt would have a bow in it after quilting but that doesn't happen.  That part I can't explain.

Creating a stencil

I thought you might be interested in how I made this stencil. This is only one of many ways I get a design from the paper to the quilt top.

I first draw the design on paper with pencil. I can make changes easily by erasing and redrawing.





When I get a final drawing, I trace it onto a piece of clear acetate film. The kind made for computer printers. I get mine from an office supply store.

I trace the design using a dark permanent marker. Sometimes I scan and print the design with the computer printer and black ink. Either way, I want the drawing dark enough that I can see it when the film is on the quilt top. Next I sew on the marked line with my domestic machine. There's no thread in the machine. I'm using the needle to make tiny holes. I use the longest stitch length setting.

As you may know, acetate is slick. I don't want it to slide around when I'm using it so I paste some of this on it. Making sure not to fill up the holes I just made.

Here you can see the rubber cement placement. It's covered in chalk dust after using it for awhile. The rubber cement keeps the stencil from sliding out of place as I wipe across it with a chalk pad. The cement does pick up chalk but this isn't a problem. When it starts to fail at keeping the stencil in place, simply paste on more rubber cement. Just paste over the old stuff because it won't matter. It takes only about 5 minutes to dry to tacky state and I can start using it again.

A close up of the cement in the center area of the stencil.

Don't do as I did and put the cement on the wrong side and use it that way. I made the mistake of using my stencil with the tiny raised dots on the front side and this is what happened. It nearly rubbed the surface of the pad clear off. I had already used the stencil and stitched several already so I didn't want to turn it over. The raised dots should be on the underneath side where they will happily help hold the stencil in place.

When the buildup of rubber cement and chalk start to bug me I simply rub it off with my finger. The cement easily rolls up into little bunches that are tossed away.

I hope this helps get your stencil ideas flowing. Just think of all the possibilites of designs you can create. A word of caution though. Be extremely cautious when using blue chalk. It's very difficult to remove from a top. I don't use blue chalk myself because it once ruined a special quilt. Threw mine away and never replaced it. Some people have mixed 1/4 teaspoon of blue with a whole packet of white and found it still too difficult to remove.