Video: Quilt Positioning

Here's a short video of how I fit a bigger quilt under my machine.


No rolling, just "puddling". Look at that sunshine! So nice to enjoy it at my machine. Below is the quilt I'm quilting. You might remember this pic from during the design process.


Here's a bit of the quilting and I want you to look closely at the difference in the stitch quality here on the back:

Free motion quilting tension issue

I broke one of my own rules on quilt positioning here! This is an excellent example of what happens when you quilt straight lines by pulling the quilt directly towards yourself. Because of the difference in flexibility of the needle, it can throw tension off by just a tiny bit. I usually try to angle my stitching so I never pull directly towards myself. This seems to correct the problem better than trying to adjust the tensions just the tiniest bit for stitching in this direction.

Have you run into this issue? I don't think it'd just an issue for my machine, or for Janomes for that matter, but just a tension issue due to needle deflection (flex). A larger needle can reduce the flex of the needle somewhat, but I'm already using a 90/14 here and don't want to move up to a 100/16.

8 comments:

  1. Interesting note on the quilting! I dont think I've ever noticed a difference in stitch quality specifically related to direction. (I've noticed it specifically related to user error!). I'll keep my eyes open in the future for sure.

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  2. I just noticed that I am having a problem doing lines 1/8 in or less on the outer edges of my quilt. Your post is timely. I ran out of thread so didn't sew today, but am eager to try adjusting my direction tomorrow. Thanks.

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  3. I noticed a similar thing when I quilted a baby quilt I did recently. I also have a Janome but I was doing stippling and had the same issue except it was when I stitched AWAY from me. Going left, right or towards me was no problem. I also found I had a lot of thread breakage until I REALLY slowed my hands down --- much slower than I usually do. I did try moving up to the larger needle but didn't like the big holes it left in the fabric so went back to a 14!

    I think it comes down to the "feel" as you stitch. On each quilt, the combination of stitch pattern, fabrics and batting will make the "feel" different and may require you to adjust how you move (or how quickly) just slightly to get even tension.

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    1. When you say stitching away from yourself, do you mean pulling the quilt towards you? Because that’s what I mean. Like stitching in reverse.

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  4. Yes, I have seen my janome do this too! Most of the time the machine also sounds different if I pull the fabric " the wrong " way. It spunds like the machine has to work harder or maybe it is just " protesting" to all of the hard work, ha ha!
    Esther
    esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo com
    ipatchandquilt dot wordpress dot com

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  5. Thanks for the video Amy. I too have found that puddling works well and it is much easier than rolling a quilt. You are absolutely correct about the straight line quilting and sewing on an angle.

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  6. Once again your blog provides simple, common sense tips! And I love the no rolling support. I have tried rolling my quilt several times and always go back to puddling. I just can't seem to get a good feed using rolling. The weight of the roll just doesn't flow for me. Anyhow, just wanted to say thank you!

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    1. And once again you leave such encouraging comments! Thank you so much!

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