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Re-rolling quilt on Millenium to stich side borders


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Okay....I have completety custom quilted the entire center of a queen size double irish chain quilt.  I have quilted the top and bottom borders.  I do not want to unload and reload the quilt to reposition the sides.  Is is okay to just re-roll the quilt to the beginning and begin stitching down the left side border...then leave the NEEDLE DOWN and re-roll some more until I get to the end?  I am not quite sure what to do at this point.

 

I really really really would appreciate any and all input on this.   I DO NOT want to mess up now.  Thank you, Teri

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Hi,

 

I am a newbi when it comes to this forum and also not a professional....but...when I had my smaller nine inch frame, there was a lot of rolling...and I always just left my needle down when I rolled.....it worked just fine....I would think that if you had basted or pined the sides of the quilt as you did that center that the sides would be fairly straight and I don't know why you could not do as planned as long as you can quilt the borders in that vertical position.  I mostly meandered and so being able to quilt in differant directions wasn't a problem...I am now practicing motifs in differant directions now that I have my new machine....yikes...I really need to practice those changing directions but I am really having a ball with it....right now I am thinking I will probably be an "organic quilter" instead of a "precision quilter"....but who knows...that could change...I will watching for those more experienced responses to your question....Lin

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Personnally, I'd rather turn my quilt to work on the side borders.  I don't like to keep rolling and doing them bit by bit.  Turning the quilt at this point is much faster than when you put the quilt on to begin working on it.  Of course, sometimes the quilt is too long to turn on my 11 foot frame so I have to do it bit by bit.  When that happens I keep my needle down as I roll.  Be careful as you roll that you don't overshoot your space and have the needle in the fabric and hit the bar and cause a tear in the fabric.  I did this once on one of my own quilts when I first started out.  I "fixed" it by putting a small applique of hearts on the back and larger ones on the front to cover the stitching from the back applique.  I gave this lap quilt to my daughter and she thought the hearts looked terrific, a great design element, and didn't know they were a fix to a hole in the quilt.  :)

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Wish I was home today to get started.  You ladies have certainly given me confidence.  Thanks to all.

 

I do have one more question.  Sometimes, my needle gets stuck in corners in the down position.  It will not come up for anything.  I jiggle the machine head and usually wind up turning the machine off and back on to try to loosen it.  It happens where there is more than a couple of layers of fabric on the back (corners).  Any other suggestions?  And, does this happen to anyone else?

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Hi Teri.  I'm a newbie as well and I just turned my first quilt last weekend with help from this forum.  I won't kid you, it took me a long time to get turned, trimmed and back on.  I had not pinned it adequately enough so there was a bit of shifting, even with the SID.  It wasn't square , so that is where the problem was.  I kept getting puckering on the back.  I took it off the frame, trimmed it all parallel to the quilt top edges leaving about 2ish inches, added extra safety pins in the unquilted spots and put it back on the frame. It worked out great and there was much much less puckering.  I won't say it's perfect, but really it didn't turn out half bad (LOL, no pun intended).  Now that I think about it, it was kinda like Thanksgiving dinner..... all day to prep and 20 minutes to quilt..... LOL.

 

as for the needle, mine does that through thick layers of fabric, but on the way down and not up.  when that happens, I just kinda jiggle the machine a little and that helps it along.  

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When the needle is stuck you can try using your manual flywheel (?) to move it.  That's on the upper left side of the Millie.

 

I have re-rolled and it works.  I'm more comfortable turning the quilt.  It's an advantage to have started with a perfectly square backing.  Then you can turn without trimming, which might take some time depending on your workspace.  If you need to trim, measure out from the closest seam to keep the stitching square.  It's sooooo much easier to me to turn the quilt so you can quilt borders in one sweep.

 

Good luck and let us see the results.

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Wish I was home today to get started.  You ladies have certainly given me confidence.  Thanks to all.

 

I do have one more question.  Sometimes, my needle gets stuck in corners in the down position.  It will not come up for anything.  I jiggle the machine head and usually wind up turning the machine off and back on to try to loosen it.  It happens where there is more than a couple of layers of fabric on the back (corners).  Any other suggestions?  And, does this happen to anyone else?

If i nudge the turny wheel thing on the left side upwards, it finishes the stitch.

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