quiltmonkey

Sure! You can do whatever you want! So, I am assuming that you are doing the edge to edge feathers, and then going back afterwards and adding details to the leaves and wings. That would look nice! Please share a photo we would love to see it.

Honestly? It looks pretty terrific to me.

Go Pro mounted to your machine? Maybe you need two Go Pros -- one pointed at the needle and one pointed at the screen. I hope someone else chimes in.

My best advice is to take classes from Myrna. She's the BEST teacher. In the mean time, I suggest scrolling through all of the posts here in this chat forum, and then go to the photos forum, and then go see the other chat forums here on the APQS site. There's a wealth of information and probably a century's worth of institutional knowledge combined on this site. Another thing to do is go on You Tube and just search around for beginner longarm quilting videos. Lots of great stuff out there.

My power cord is heavy and sometimes it hangs up on something (another cord, the carriage, etc) I try to pull the power cord out into the center of the table.

Yes, there is a "delicate but firm pressure" to apply while using a ruler/template. If you push too hard down it will cause more drag. Experiment with a firm amount of pressure to keep the ruler in place, but not pushing down too much.

Yes, this is what I did and it fixed that problem.

Is Microquilter thinner than Bottom Line? Does it work well in the bobbin?

Hi Eric, Laura has a great suggestion when you need to completely rip out a huge section of quilting (skinning) but it's a little tricky and it's something you might want a partner to help you with. Anyway, to answer your question, which is more around how to restart quilting where you've removed a small amount of quilting - and to start out again. This is what I do: I use what looks like a dental tool, not a seam ripper. My favorite one has more a blunt end to it, not super sharp tip. The sharp curvy tips can easily get caught in the fabric. I've attached an example. When I need to pull out stitches and start again, I don't remove all of the excess threads until I've backtacked to start stitching again. I hold on to these threads, along with the new starting threads, to keep things taut. Then, I carefully backtack several stitches, tiny tiny stitches, to hold in place, then I clip those threads off and start again.

awesome!

I'm weird. I like to pin my quilts onto the leaders. I also have zippers which are great, but only use those to zip on my practice quilt or another quilt that is going to be big extended custom project so I can zip it off quickly. But 99.9 percent of the time I'm pinning. It just takes me a few minutes to pin on the leaders (I use corsage pins) and I think I like pinning because I spend time looking at the fabric, seams, straightening, looking for any potential problems, imagining what I might quilt... my mind starts getting busy! One word of advice about buying a lot of stuff all at the beginning.... don't get carried away. Many times we buy these gadgets and cool things and never use them. I also use curtain rods to hold up my clamps. I'm pretty basic and no frills.

I want to smoosh her with smooches.

Hi Barb. I've not suffered from pokies on top. Usually top tension too loose is the problem. As a rule, go looser in bobbin and tighter on top.

Try a different (new) bobbin case. (everyone should have spare parts like this). If you don't have a spare bobbin, order one. In the mean time, clean your bobbin thoroughly. Remove the tension spring inside and blow out completely and wipe out liberally with a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol, then before inserting the tension spring back into the bobbin case, adjust slightly the little "wing things" so they are popping up a little more. Now, try loosening the bobbin tension. Personally, I prefer loosey goosey in the bippity bop bobbin and tighter on the tippity top tension.

Great advice from all of you! I appreciate the link to prior situation. Going to get some synthrapol. PS thank you for the kind words on the flower basket quilt!!! shana