quiltmonkey

Call APQS they can send you fuses.

This is going to be a little tricky if you want to exactly fit a pantograph perfectly on your quilt top. The best bet to do this is, prior to loading the quilt on the frame, I think you are going to have divide your top into "rows" and mark your quilt top (e.g. pins, or a light mark with water soluble pen) and this will give you an idea when the quilt is on the frame where your next row is starting. Because this is rolling up and your measurements will slightly skew with the batting and other factors, you will likely have to "fudge" the width of the pantograph slightly to make it fit. If I were you, I'd give myself a little fudge factor space (a couple of inches) that way you can make the pattern a little higher or a little lower (slightly) as you move along through the quilt. Those minor adjustments will barely be noticed. by the time you get to the last row, chances are your pattern will fit in, either slightly adjusted higher or lower. That's my best advice. Good luck! Tell us how it works for you.

A long handled screwdriver is going to give you the most leverage / torque to loosen and remove a screw. Follow Nigel's advice by tapping to get the screwdriver into the grooves of the screw. Being careful, slow and deliberate, while pushing in/down into the screw, turn left and you should be able to get that screw loose without stripping the top of the screw. Definitely a long handled screw driver is your friend.

If I plan to quilt different sections as I go, I use corsage pins to baste my quilt in those sections (as I advance along)

Hi. These are really good questions. There are lots of ways to skin a cat, and lots of ways to quilt a quilt. For your specific situation with the border designs, this is what I do (in this order). As a note, I'm not sure if you fully float your tops or partially float. I have always been a partial floater because it gives me a little more control when I'm rolling and starting out to stabilize, etc. Because you are doing the special borders, I would quilt the middle section first and the borders last. That stated, load the fabrics on the frame as you normally would. Instead of basting down the top edge (because you are doing borders) pin the top edges and the sides. During the quilting process, the fabrics shrink up a little. That's why I quilt the middle first and then the outer borders. So the order of quilting is this: 1. Stabilize the top edge and outer borders by pinning -- not sewing/basting. 2. Roll down and pin the borders/sides. Quilt the center. Repeat these steps pinning the outer borders and quilting the center section until you get to the bottom. 3. Since you are at the bottom, you can quilt the bottom border first. When you are ready to quilt the outer borders, you want to arrange your designs from the corners first and work the design toward the center / middle. It's way easier to fudge the center section of the border design than try to fudge a design into a corner. Corners and out is the easiest way. You can draw out/mark your design before you load the top onto the frame, or you can mark it while it's on the frame. I usually use white chalk or blue water soluble markers. Because the sides of the quilt are rolled up, I usually quilt the bottom and top borders first. Then I go back and sew baste down the side borders that I pinned and get ready to quilt the sides. If you don't have enough length on your frame to turn the quilt, you will have to mark your designs on the side borders and quilt and roll. Your corner sections will already be quilted, so you only have mark the designs and fudge in the side border designs toward the center part of the side borders. Anyway, that's how I normally do it when I have a special border design that I want to fit in. Best wishes and have fun. Share a photo when you're done! Shana

Sometimes I get this way too (no go mojo) but taking the first step in quilting is like a light switch turns on and the mojo is on the go go.

How old is your Millie? Chances are Yes, you can upgrade the head and keep the old table, but new heads require either 1) a new carriage to mount the new head on or 2) different axles installed on the bottom of the new head to fit your current carriage. Call the APQS office and speak with the staff there. They can help you get what you need.

Have you tried contacting the EZ Quilt people here? http://www.quiltez.com/butler/

Have you tried contacting these people for advice? http://www.quiltez.com/butler/

Hi, I have an ideas/suggestion about your interest in IQ. Please send me an email at Shana@showstopperquilts.com

You can quilt through this but go slow. Or, you could just quilt around the numbers. Whatever you feel most comfortable with. Remember that these machines are industrial strength.

I use 4.0 for most threads, but I move up to a 4.5 when I'm using the 30 weight So Fine. I also have 3.5 size needles that I use with Bottom Line on top.

Hi Shawna, I did a lot of searches on the Internet sites through various methods on the word "Homeland" and "P3 Designs" and I could not find anything. Just double checking::: Are you sure it's called Homeland? Perhaps it's a different name? It's easy for our memories to mix things up sometimes.

Thanks for sharing your process, Vicki!

Oh wow, Vicki!!!!!! That is lovely. OK I have to ask... I don't cross hatch very often (rare rare) So, can you share how you cross hatch over the applique? Do you stop, start or do you tack and hop over and tack and start quilting again and then snip the hops later? Do you mark the hatches? How do you get it so even and straight? Do you load it on point so you can do vertical and horizontal stitches rather than diagonal? Share your secrets, BABY!!!