chrisquilter Posted August 28, 2012 Report Share Posted August 28, 2012 I have a customer who wants a quilt basted. It is 120.x120 I would love any advice on how you all do this. She is going to use her embroidery machine to quilt the blocks. The quilt is all 6inch blocks some plain and some pinwheel. I have never basted a quilt before, so I am concerned about over stretching the top and back. I do a partial float when I quilt. Thanks in advance for your advise! BTW,How do you charge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffq-lar Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 I charge a half-cent per square inch. Load the top onto both rollers instead of doing a partial float to keep tension on the top for even basting. A big meander works for the stitching. I use a "castle top" horizontal/vertical sequence which results in a grid without having to stitch long verticals. A friend tried to do this technique with a baby quilt with horrible results. She thread basted and spray basted the top to stabilize it and hooped each plain block for embroidery. She ended up with a puckered mess after the first two blocks she tried. The embroidery draws up the fabric a lot. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisquilter Posted August 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 Thank you Linda, I was afraid that possibility. I'm going to talk to her again. I am pretty sure she is going to use a quilting design available on her embroidery machine Hopefully not a dense one! LOL. Would you recommend a poly or cotton-poly batt. She gave me both. At first I thought the extra loft of the poly would help take fill up any puffiness. Now I am not sure I really value your opinion as I want this to succeed for her. It is a wedding quilt for her son. The whole thing scares me to death, but sometimes that is par for the course in this business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyAboutQuilting Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 Chris, I have done oodles of machine embroidery and what I have found is if a person wants to do some embroidery for some of the quilting, the best thing to do is just do :)redwork designs. There are oodles of them available and they look as nice on the back as they do on the front, whereas the regular embroidery doesn't have a pretty backside to it. Just a thought.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffq-lar Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 Hi again, Chris, As for batting--if the digitized design is dense, poly batting will poof extra around the motifs as the design is smooshed (technical term!) by the stitches. It just seems like a hot mess to try to do it this way. If she can be talked into doing a test run of this technique maybe she can see how it will be a difficult and perhaps result in an unacceptable end product. Think of someone handing you a layered quilt with embroidered motifs already stitched. And they ask you to quilt the rest of it on the longarm. The tucks and puckers would be on the front AND the back. At least with the longarm we can stretch and flatten with pins and tension to get something we can run the machine over. She won't have that luxury. I think maybe suggest to her that she do the embroidery first--with multiple stabilizers--on one layer, then give it to you to baste. I think in her mind she thinks doing the embroidery will be enough quilting for the whole thing. But we all know it won't be enough to fill the blocks and give a pretty result. Back to the batting--I think the flattest and firmest batting would be the best, even though she won't end up with a cuddly quilt when she's finished. Try to control the puff. So 100% cotton, the thinnest you can find would be my recommendation, if she goes ahead with this plan. Or if she can find it, have her get Thermore--very dense and flat, usually used for garments and wallhangings, it has lots of body and not much drape. Not the best for a bed quilt... As you said, it would scare me to death as well and if she doesn't take your gentle suggestions just baste it and move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zora Posted August 30, 2012 Report Share Posted August 30, 2012 Chris, I would use the lowest loft batting. When I did quilting on my DSM, I used hobbs 80/20. The lower the batting loft, the easier it is to quilt on the DSM. What she is probably doing is a design that is intended for quilting, such as a block motif. My friend does this all the time on small projects, and it doesn't look much different than a computerized quilting design on a longarm....usually just smaller. She is wise to have you baste for her. I think it will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabric007 Posted August 30, 2012 Report Share Posted August 30, 2012 bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisquilter Posted August 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2012 Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I will talk with my customer. I am sure she will be willing to try an experiment on another piece. Thank you so much everyone! Your advise is invaluable. It is so wonderful to have a resource like this forum for specific questions like these. Where else would I have access to so many people with hands on experience. You are great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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