Pat

Thanks for sharing your photos," Now thats is alot of inspiration"!
Your quilts are all beautiful. You do have a great eye for color and your quilting is stunning. "Great Workmenship". I think it's great that you keep that connection of our foremothers. You are quite the untique quilter for sure, Simply Stunning Work.
(Thanks for the great Inspiration)
Hugzzz,Kathy

I do almost all my sewing on my treadles and hand cranks. You can see them at this url if you would like to take a look:

http://community.webshots.com/user/pknord


I did just purchase a Janome DC3050 so I could have the ability to do a double blanket stitch for applique, though, and may use it to embroider stems for some applique flowers on a quilt that I'm working on now. But the quilt will be free-motion quilted and pieced on my beloved treadles. They are very relaxing to work on, and I get a feeling of connection with our foremothers when using them.

Pat in Rockport, TX

Brink

"Great idea on practice-ing on paper" You students are going to Love you,your feathers are awesome,great job!

Judy

Ditto. I don't like the basting spray at all for quilting either,just alot of Gunk Gunk Gunk ,and stickyness,over spray residue too. I sure wouldn't recomend using this basting spray on any thing bigger than a baby quilt. I would never use it again thats for sure! I tried it on a quillow.

Pat

I enjoy hearing about you using your treddle machine,they are really neat machines. Do you sew all the time on your treddle machine? You are a very unique quilter.

For everyone that is just getting into quilting,with alittle practice it keeps getting better and better, it's very relaxing, Enjoy.

Happy Quilting

That machine sounds so interesting. I can't even imagine what it looks like if you really get going. Can you sew fast on it?
Karen

Lulabell, yes, I do free-motion on my treadles, and I have one treadle that I use for straight-line quilting. It's a Davis Vertical Feed, and doesn't have any feed dogs. The needle moves down, pierces the quilt, then moves back, taking all three layers along with it so that puckers can't form, then the needle comes back up, moves forward, and goes down into the quilt again. It's fun to watch, LOL. It was made in about 1909, so is almost a century old. I love that machine. Well, okay, I love all my old beauties.

Great idea, Brink! You are a wonderful resource!

QuilterLynn wrote: You will have a greate time learning how to free motion. If you dont want to waste fabric when you are trying to get the motion in your hands, quilt on paper with no thread. And if you really like one of your paper-free-motion-patterns you can use it as a template with loose "powder" and mark your quilt;)

I had my FIRST class yesterday in machine quilting and am working today so can't practice! Boo Hoo.

But the teacher (Mary Jo Yackley in Houston) said it takes at LEAST overnight to get a motion or pattern in your head. Something about that part of your brain working on it overnight!

I guess I better get some of that fabric I don't like out and make some practice sandwiches for that 200-300 hours! We were introduced to many patterns to begin practicing on! Whew!

She also mentioned when you are on the phone with a long-winded friend (?) to have a doodle pad handy and just practice, practice, practice.........your brain will appreciate the training.

I always knew I enjoyed hand quilting for a reason! But I'm now convinced, I need to know both!

Pat, you are brave!! Are you free motion quilting?

Margo wrote:

Sharon Schamber suggests using these little washers in your bobbin.
they are called "Little Genie Magic Bobbin Washers". She said that keeps you from getting those nests that she says, as Margo said, are from the thread not being taut. When you stop and stop quickly it causes the problem. I bought some but have not tried them yet.

Judymc wrote:
Judy, nests on the back when you start can be caused by not holding your threads taut with the first stitch. Bring your bobbin thread to the top of your work and hold on to BOTH threads until you've made several stitches to lock them in place. The nests when you slow down is probably something different. I would guess that the tension of your bobbin case may need adjusting. If you have a BSR, I'm assuming that you have a Bernina. Maybe you can take the machine to your dealer and explain the problem. Once your bobbin tension has been set correctly, you really shouldn't have nests when you slow down and your top thread definatley should not break if you are using quality thread. Good luck!

Well, I used three different machines today. My Singer 319 treadle started acting up, so I switched to a Singer 15 treadle, which also didn't want to cooperate, so I switched yet again, to a Singer 115, and got a good bit more done on the charity quilt. I'm noticing some improvement in my quilting, too, as I go along, but still not ready for prime time.

200-300 hours????YIKES!!! :shock: I'm sure that's right--I've just started learning and even with the BSR, I'm still having trouble. Sometimes my stitching looks good and other times it looks awful! I've been using the poly Mettler thread in the top and bobbin. When I took my class at the dealer to learn how to use my Bernina, the teacher taught us to use the basting spray. Now I've learned that this can cause skipped stitches and "gunk" on the needles and in the machine. So, I threw out the practice squares with the basting spray. I keep getting those pesky "nests" when I start or hesitate. My tension just doesn't seem right on the back of my work and when I adjusted the tension, my top thread kept breaking. Is it possible that each machine is different and needs to be set differently? Help!!!

Krystallees

I think you are starting off great,you have the right idea starting off on the smaller projects you'll have better practice getting started! I'm always thrilled to hear someone starting off on thier first "quilting" project. You'll do great,I'm looking forward to seeing your baby quilt.
Enjoy the process!
Hugzzz,Kathy