Thick seams

[Sheila S.]

I have a customers quilt and it has very think seams, like when points meet. I am not sure the machine is going to go over them without breaking a needle. These seams are very thick. Should I try to do this quilt or just say I can not do it. I will be doing a pantograph on it, if I decide to do it. I have a Lenni and love it and do not want to break it.

[HeidiP]

Is it consistently thick or just at seam intersections? If it's consistently thick you can raise the hopping foot, but not more than four business cards.

[dbams]

Shelia, if you go slowly over the thick seams, you should be OK.  Not so easy to do when you are working on a panto from the back, but you can do it!

[Sheila S.]

The thickness is only at seam intersections.

[Sharon Deming]

I also have a Lenni.  I had a quilt top with really thick seam intersections, recently, and decided to be on the safe side. I quilted it from the front with an all overall pattern which could be easily re-routed to avoid the big seam bumps. My customer agreed on the pattern and  understood my reason for wanting to do it that way. Because of the seams, I always slow down for pantos.

 

Let us know what you decide.

[cegates]

I can handle thick seams by going very slowly  - or at least I thought I could until I did a heavily pieced batik top.  I broke countless needles on this top and really messed up my machine for a while.  The batik fabrics have a tighter weave and some of the seam intersections were just impossible.  If the fabrics are regular quilting cotton, just go really slowly.  If it is made of batiks I would recommend a quilting plan that avoids those trouble spots.  You may be able to clip and press the seam allowances to reduce the bulk.  

 

Carol

[ecmoore]

The way that I approached that was to mark the thickest points on my pantograph overlay prior to doing that row, and then "rerouted" the pantograph around them.

[Greenmtn]

I have done several with thick seams where several points meet.  I did not have any needles break.  I did pantos from the back and I did find it would "push" me off my line when I approached some of these bulkier areas.  I just slowed down and curved back onto the panto line when possible.  I would suggest a panto design that can accommodate potential bobbles and not look skewed.  Mine were very organic and flowing and you could not really tell.

[LisaC]

I recently quilted a flannel quilt for myself which had pinwheels with a super bulky center intersections. I used my circle maker to create large circles with the center of the pinwheels being the circle center; the circles interlocked and created another secondary design, but avoided the intersection.  If I didn't have a circle maker I would have done an all over like Sharon so I could avoid those intersections. Good Luck...........excited to see what you chose to do.

[Sheri Butler]

i'd avoid it like the plague, but that's just me.