FloridaMissy

I enter a lot of quilt shows and have some nice ribbons. I always tie the 2 threads together in a double overhand knot and bury the tails. When you take tiny stitches or back track it can look distracting to the judges. If you are not going to show your quilts either method would work fine. By the way I do this before I advance to the next row.

years ago I belonged to a site that allowed you to post pics for free. Of course they were bought and I was told I could down load all my pics but they now had all rights to my pics. People still re-post pics of quilts I've designed. Are you hoping to gain more customers by showing your work? If not and it is just to share then post them here on this site because we certainly enjoy seeing all of them.

I entered 3 quilts in this years show. Received 2 Honorable Mentions and Judges Choice. Thought I'd share a picture.

Congrats on the newest member of your family! Cute as a button.

I have a turbo winder from APQS that has started acting strange. When it winds about 3/4 of the way the spinning slows down to a crawl. It doesn't shut off it just slows way down. I adjusted the little post that senses how much thread has been wound which has helped. Are we supposed to oil this unit some where?

I only take my Featherweight! Love that machine. Makes a perfect stitch and is a work horse. I also find the sound very soothing. I bought a small compact roller case in Lowe's tool department that works great for this machine.

I don't see why not. Couching is simply laying down a ribbon or yarn etc. and doing a zig zag stitch to secure it. I watched one show where a lady put beads onto a quilt with her long arm. However, she had removed the hopping foot!!! I wouldn't recommend that, lol. https://www.apqs.com/couching-with-your-longarm/ https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=couching+with+a+long+arm+machine&view=detail&mid=D7928BF7591D75FA86B2D7928BF7591D75FA86B2&FORM=VIRE the above video is from Dawn C. at apqs

I bought the titanium blades and I had the same blade in my cutter for 2 years!!!!! That is with heavy use. They are impossible to find at your local quilt shop but they can be ordered on line.

So bright and beautiful. I can see a baby just loving the colors. Great job.

I always outline and go around every element in the applique block. I do in some cases stitch on the applique if it is a large piece. If you don't it can make them look puckered. I make sure that it is okay with my customer first. I do not have a computerized system.

Betty, thank you for coming back and reporting on what worked and didn't work. There is nothing more frustrating than tension issues especially random tension problems. I would bet on the needle size as the biggest help in improving the tension.

Thank you so much for sharing this beauty with us. Great job.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to your and the family. So happy to hear the twins are doing so well. Hope you find time for a little sewing.

I am stumped. Have a customer who brought me a very large Medallion Mystery bom quilt. I'm struggling with quilting ideas. It has a large 36" medallion which is a large block with sashing around it. Then there is a ring of blocks around the center of various sizes 8 & 16" blocks and there are odd size filler blocks. The outside border is made up of 2 borders of different colors and sizes. I thought about an edge to edge. I've consider custom in the medallion and borders with some sort of meander in the odd size blocks. Has anyone else done one of these? Help

Posting pic of customers quilt.

I knew you were going to say that! We got 3 inches of snow so it won't be taken outside and it is so big I can't get a picture of the whole quilt. I'll try later and see if I can get at least half of it.

Connie, so glad you were not injured but I'm sure that it made you nervous. I have a great respect for my machine (fear) that it will attack me one day! lol I have had numerous needles break when quilting a top that has lots of thick seams. It causes flex in the needle I guess and snap. Sometimes in multiple places. I have noticed that many of my hand needles are snapping at the eye very easily lately.

All of a sudden I started getting a random loop on both the top and bottom of the quilt. I did a search of this site to see if it had been discussed and it had been. The forum said adding a small piece of batting in the thread guide helped. Here is my problem. I have the thread guilds mounted on the top of my Millie for small spools and also the one made by Hartley Fence for large cones so you don't have to keep running around the back to change the thread color. It is when I use these thread holders that the loop problem begins. If I place a cone on the back thread holder I have no issues at all. Has anyone else had this? You cannot place a piece of batting in any thread guild from the top and I have tried a net over the cone to no avail. Your insight is appreciated.

awesome!

Thanks for the info. I will experiment and let you know how it works.

I did the same thing with a large floor magnifier lamp. I had near my favorite chair. I had bumped it with the sweeper pushing it closer to the window. I came home the next day and could smell something burning. It smelled like and electrical fire. I frantically searched all over the house and finally spotted the chair which had a quilt folded across the back of the chair. It had burned through the multiple layers of this quilt and burned the chair bad enough it had to be thrown out. I was lucky that all the fabric was fire retardant.

I also quilt for free on charity quilts for my guilds. I will limit the # I do per quarter. I do not want this to become my full time job. I provide the thread and they provide the rest. I was very interested in doing Quilts of Valor until I found out that they wanted me to provide the backing, batting, thread and my time. On top of that they want you to pay for the shipping back to them. I am retired and on a fixed income and could not justify that kind of expense. I told them I would do a few if they delivered them to me and provided the back and batting but they were not interested. When doing charity quilts I reserve the right to pick the type of quilting and thread.

I am the odd ball. I can never get the tension right with the paper bobbins. I seem to get a lot of backlash. I prefer the magnetic bobbins or I wind my own. On the positive side though they seem to hold a lot more thread.

Kathy, I feel your anxiety and felt the same way when I first started. My dealer gave me a quick 1 hour lesson and that was it. Another dealer took pity on me and suggested I come and take a class with 2 teachers she had coming in. They were great teachers but no way was I ready for any of those lessons. I barely knew how to turn the machine on and I was terrified it was going to create me bodily harm! At last all I can say is load everything you can old sheets, etc. and practice over and over and over. Draw lines to represent boxes, sashing etc. I asked friends to give me lap size quilt tops to practice on. They new I would make mistakes and they were okay with that and it gave me practice pieces and they got free quilting. I do quilt as a business now and have won some awards. Take classes. Watch videos and join blogs. There are some great on line classes through places like Quilt University, Craftsy etc. If you were near me I'd take you under my wing. I hope you find a good quilting friend. Ditch the double batting. The wool bat will give you plenty of definition of your stitching. Melissa

If the red fabric is fraying badly it tells you that the weave in it must be pretty loose. Sometimes sewers like to grab the seam allowance at the top and bottom and help pull the fabric while sewing. If she is doing this it will help it to really stretch. She should pin in a few places and perhaps use a walking foot to help ease the fabric along. I am noticing from your picture that following your grout line on the right hand side that the top of the quilt is about an inch and a half wider than the bottom border. Lovely quilt.