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Stitchers' Tips
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Tip from Sally.:
When quilting a large quilt - by hand or by
machine - there is often a large amount of
bulk at the sides that I want to keep out of
the way while I'm quilting the middle. I
roll the sides up and use 3 or 4
bicycle clips spaced along the rolls to
keep them firm and out of the way, so that
the quilt is easy to maneuver. |
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Tip from Judi T.:
I am part of a Block-of-the-Month quilting
circle. I like to preshrink all my fabric
for my quilts. When we get kits for
applique there are a lot of small swatches
of fabric to use when we cut our designs.
An easy way to preshrink them is to
thoroughly spray them with water and then
iron them dry. |
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Tip from Agnes:
Instead of tying off quilts by hand, I use
my button stitch (without the button) on my
sewing machine. Tape backing, batting, and
topping of quilt to table/floor, and start
pinning quilt from center, going out to the
sides using quilting pins to hold together.
When done, release quilt from table/floor
and start sewing with the button stitch of
your machine. I use this button stitch about
every 4 to 6 inches on my quilt. This is
faster than hand sewing. |
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Tip from Jan:
When making rag quilts using redwork, use
the same color in the bobbin. You will have
your beautiful pattern/design on both sides.
No cutting of stabilizer. The block is ready
to go. |
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Tip from Liz: When you
are machine stippling, use bankers' rubber
fingertips to keep hold of your material. |
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Tip from Judi T.: When
tying a quilt together, a little drop of Fray Check or other seam
sealer can be put on the knot to help prevent it from getting loose
later.
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Tip from Adelyn G.: I love my Brother Ult
2002D machine and use it for both
embroidery, plain sewing and quilting.
However, when handling bulky items like
a quilt, I found that often times my
arms or the fabric itself would make
contact with the touch pad for selecting
stitches on the machine. There I would
be sewing along with a nice straight
seam when suddenly I would find a zigzag
stitch being produced. Or the button to
tie off the thread would be selected or
unselected.
I found a piece of
heavy-duty clear vinyl and cut a piece
large enough to cover the face of the
selection area and scotch taped it on
the top of the plate securely. At first
I allowed the bottom section to just
hang loose but soon found that the bulky
fabric had fingers to reach under the
flap of vinyl. So I taped the bottom
edge loosely. This solved my problem of
errant stitches. I could still see the
selections I had made but there was
enough of a buffer between the naughty
fabric and the control panel and
everything sewed smoothly henceforth. It
is easy to remove the flap of vinyl when
I'm finished sewing bulky projects and I
simply put it away to use another day.
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