Esteemarlu had more good questions on the way I quilt and I'll try to answer them here. I have just finished the SID quilting on this quilt. Since it is 90" long I've turned it in the machine just for demonstation purposes for this post. I start FM quilting in the top center (not in the borders) and work to the right. Just like you write a sentence from left to right. Image that I am sitting in that chair and the quilt is sitting on my lap. The excess quilt to the left of the needle is being supported on the extra table and the sewing machine cabinet. Believe it or not, there really is 45" of quilt bunched up under the arm of my machine in both of these photos. I use my needle down so that when I stop the needle is in the fabric. As I mentioned in a previous post I really only use two different bats: Fairfield 60/40 and Hobbs 80/20. 
The batting in this quilt is the Hobbs Heirloom 80/20. Because I have a thinner bat in it, I can fit half the quilt under the arm. The next photo shows that (just disregard the marking on the quilt). I usually just FM an allover pattern in some sort of meander. The last quilt was a meander with a flower. I suggest just drawing it out on paper so that you get accustomed to the flow of it. I work from center to the right and then back again, see Figure A.
I try not to be too precise about aligning the quilting in the center so that when I work the other side there is not a gap in the center. Once I have the whole side quilted from the center to the right I end my quilting, pull the quilt from under the needle and then turn the quilt 180 degrees. I put it back under the needle and work once again from the center to the right, see Figure B. I hope this helps!
great demo. thanks.
ReplyDeleteOh my, thank you so much for the instructions. Believe it or not that truly helps me out. I will make a practice baby size quilt.I just printed your post.Thanks a bunch.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for these instructions. I will try to practice
ReplyDeleteI was searching for a tutorial on machine quilting and found your post. This helps me a lot. I made a big quilt, and just finished machine quilting it. The biggest problem I had was not knowing whether to quilt it square by square or all over. Your tutorial helps me understand better for the next one. I wish I had seen this before I quilted but I'm happy with how it turned out for not knowig what I was doing. LOL! Thanks for the great tutorial!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this tutorial. My machine of choice is a Bernina 1080 I bought in 1994 and it still works great! I have hand-quilted for over 30 years but realize I won't be able to finish everything so I'm determined to master machine quilting with the same quality as my hand-quilting. I thought I was going to have to buy a mid-or longarm machine. You've inspired me to try this on my lil 1080 too!
ReplyDeleteI have a Bernina 1080 as well....I bought her in 1996...and she's what I use for all my piecing and dress-making. I never thought to freemotion quilt on her....(afraid of wearing out her motor). I've been a handquilter since 1976 but just started fmq'ing last year. I bought a Viking Sapphire with a 10 inch throat for machine quilting....but your results on the 1080 make me think I made the wrong decision. Thanks for the posts....
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