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learning how to machine quilt


Angi

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New to this , have never machine quilted in my life. I bought a second hand Bernia 930 a few months ago. Can I machine quilt with a darning foot? Don't know where to start? What else do I need? I have pieced the top ( my quilts are unique, like no-one could claim that they done them by the mistakes in them (only 4 quilts I have ever made)

I need to go to classes, never thought there was so much to quilting, boy its an eye opener, like drooling over the quilts I see and think someone actually made that, amazing.

Angi :)

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What resources do you have locally? Is there a quilt guild in your town? If you join a guild (and if it's friendly) you will find a bunch of people willing to help you or you'll have access to classes there. If there's a quilt shop near, check out their classes. There are quilters everywhere! And the on-line resources are only limited by the time you want to spent looking at videos and tutorials. Check out the local library for books about quilts and quilting. See if that local guild has a library with books to loan. The quilting world is wide open and easier to access than ever. Welcome to this friendly site and ask questions as you progress and share photos of your work when you're ready.

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Guess I should answer your other question! If you can lower the feed dogs on the sewing machine, you can use the darning foot for FMQ (free-motion quilting).

My thought would be to use the regular sewing foot to get used to how the machine works and do some straight-line quilting first. Find a resource that shows the ways to sandwich the top/batting/backer, how to stabilize it with safety pins or with basting, and the best way to position the sandwich so you can reach all areas when stitching. To make sure you don't get frustrated, please research before you start. You don't need to re-invent the wheel. Stand on the shoulders of those who have figured it all out!

After you get some straight stitching done and are comfortable with quilting, lower the feed dogs and try out free-motion. Pushing the fabric under the needle at a constant pace is the key and takes a lot of practice, But it's so satisfying when you get the hang of it. Good luck!

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the way I use to teach my students to quilt on a domestic machine is that I would get some very inexpensive pillow panels (pre printed designs about 12"-20") after we sandwiched them with backing fabric, cotton batting and the panel...pinned every 3-4"... I would have them follow the outlines on the panel.  After that we would go inside the panel and do some background work, swirls, echo lines, meandering.  some would get more adventurous and use different colored threads for each thing we did.

 In doing this they learned how to move fabric under their machines and follow lines plus background fills.

It might help you to practice this way until you feel more comfortable before trying to quilt your top.  :)

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You also might want to check out Craftsy on line. They have some wonderful classes, and I believe they have one or two for beginning machine quilting. They're not terribly expensive, and once you've paid for a class, you can go back and view the lessons any time you want.

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Good advice from Laura and Linda.

When I first started this quilting adventure and before I got my LA, I did a lot of vertical, horizontal and diagonal straight line quilting using my walking foot. Then I expanded by using several of my favourite decorative stitches that I have on my machine. Free motion quilting came later and took some practice. Fortunately my domestic machine has a stitch regulator so the process was a little easier to learn.

There are many resources to draw from including online tutorials. A good domestic machine quilting book is a wise investment. Have fun!

Leslie

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Leslie I assume a LA is a long arm? I am orginally from Scotland so never did quilting of any sort. A straight line stitch is that sewing with the foot you normally sew with? The free motion quilting I will practice with that. I am checking out about the classes available here.

 

One question I have is the quilt I am doing has about 3-4 inches wide squares, I read that the quilting makes a difference,is it best to sew along the squares(sewing in the ditch?) or more in the centre of each square, appreciate suggestions.

Thanks

Angi :)

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Angi

This forum has lots of great information (and abbreviations). You are correct, LA is longarm. When I quilted using my domestic sewing machine (DSM), I started using a walking foot for straight line stitching. A walking foot is a specialty foot, if your machine didn't come with one, your regular foot will work for stitch in the ditch (SID).

You can't go wrong with SID, the choice is yours whether you want to SID or if you want to stitch through the middle of the blocks. Straight line quilting or SID is a good place to start. For an interesting look on a kids flannel quilt, I have used a decorative stitch and variegated thread, stitching the horizontal and vertical lines over the block seams rather than a straight SID.

Free motion quilting is done with a darning foot and the feed dogs lowered. The goal is to synchronize the movement of the quilt under the foot while stitching at a consistent machine speed to achieve uniform length stitches. It will take some practice to get even length free motion quilting stitches.

Good luck and have fun!

Leslie

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