I’ve just sent my little monsters off Trick or Treating and the house is in chaos (removalists arrive in four days) but it’s time to link up for I Quilt Thursdays here at Pretty Bobbins!  Thank you to all of the lovely linkers who joined in last week!  I am really enjoying reading all of your posts.  I’m sorry that I haven’t replied to all the comments on my blog yet, I am struggling with blogging time at the moment with moving preparations in full swing.  Nonetheless, this week I am going to share some of my troubleshooting quilting tips!

photo with permission from Dasha of Patching Pixies

First up I would like to share Dasha’s work with you.  Dasha is such a sweetie and has such a big heart.  She makes quilts and laundry bags for Aussie Hero Quilts (I think that is like Quilts of Valor for my American readers) and last week she shared her quilting on a BEAUTIFUL quilt for her friend Verna.  We first corresponded back in January when she wrote to me about bobbin tension and she claimed in last weeks post that she doesn’t love machine quilting.  Dasha, you might not love it, but you are have the goodies girl!  I LOVE the quilting in the below photo.  Now that is skill!  She is seriously accurate!  I’d love you to pop by and check out Dasha’s blog.  She is a new blogger and a great quilter  Thanks so much for linking up Dasha and for being my featured quilter this week <3

Photo with permission from Dasha of Patching Pixies

This week I want to share a few of my trouble shooting tips with you.  Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts was having a frustrating time FMQing recently and whether she wanted it or not I gave her a heap of advice that I thought worth sharing here too  For interests sake I will share some photos of my current quilting project, a bee quilt that I will give to my good friend here in Nouméa as a farewell gift.  I can’t blog without photos

First up, when you thread your machine make sure that the thread is coming off your spool in the right direction.  Check your manual to find out which direction this should be for you.  I actually use a separate spool stand as I find it gives me the best results.

When you are threading your machine make sure the foot is up and hold the thread taught where it comes off the spool by doing these two things you will ensure that the thread passes correctly through the tension disks. (I won’t tell you that I ALWAYS used to thread my machine with the foot down!)

I used the star on the back of the quilt as the guide for my quilting design. Yes, that was rather tiresome removing pins from behind whilst quilting!!!

Support your quilt!  The weight of your quilt can cause all sorts of problems.  I sit my machine in a sewing cabinet and put the ironing board behind it to carry the weight of the quilt.  If I’m working on a large quilt I will support it using my arms and shoulders and focus on only small areas at a time, then move the beast to rearrange the way I am supporting it.  If you don’t have a drop down table I would suggest that you build a support structure.  Even a temporary structure made of phone books or shoeboxes is going to be better than letting the quilt drag against the needle in every direction.

You’ve probably heard me say before, buy the best quality products that you can.  It really does make a difference.  My current quilt in progress is made up of bee blocks and of all of those various blocks, one little 2″ x 5″ strip (below photo – it’s the yellow with the flowers printed on it) saw me unpick five times! Based on touch alone it is not great quality.  I don’t expect my bees to spend lots of money on fabric for my blocks but next time I get a block with poor quality threads I will leave it out.  I think using quilt store quality fabric is a safe bet.  The quilting in that area had the same backing fabric, same wadding and no more seams than anywhere else and my machine was dropping stitches (which it NEVER does) and the bobbin thread was pulling through to the top.  Good quality thread, fabric and wadding will all help improve your quilting experience.  You wouldn’t do your plumbing with ancient leaky pipes, give your quilts the same love <3

Troublesome quilting

And that’s it from me for this week.  It’s almost 9pm (sorry I’m late with the linky!) and I have to sit down with a glass of wine and prepare to face more packing tomorrow!  What have you been quilting this week?  I’d love you to link up below.  I ask that you visit at least two other linkers and either link to me in your post and/or add my button to your sidebar/post.  You can find the button html code near the top right of my blog or at the bottom if you’re on a mobile device.  Remember that this linky is all about quilting process, I’d love to hear all about your process!