Adventures on the Studio Frame Continued

Well, Christmas has come and gone and in the blink of an eye we are in 2026!

I did continue practising on the studio frame. After I had somewhat successfully managed to quilt an entire practice piece with a pantograph, I then went onto one of the charity quilts. Still using the Daisy Dotz#2 design (available through Urban Elementz) I made it through this floral charity quilt.

Suited it really well and sunk right in so any irregularities are really not noticeable which was a bonus. When I was quilting it row by row I was almost at the end when I saw that one of my rows further up on the take up roller had no tension at all on the back. I think for a moment I just stood there, looking at it. Was confused as to how to fix this as it definitely had to come out...the bobbin thread was literally just lying on the backing. Decided that I would finish the quilt first and then go back to the row that needed fixing. Easy enough, however when I rolled the quilt back up my laser did not align with the rows anymore! Never mind, I took the row out which was easy enough as I could just pull large sections right out. I then went back to the end of the quilt again, found my registration points and went back point by point until I was back at the row in question. Once I had everything aligned again I went and inserted a new row. This worked ok, the alignment was alright except for having moved over on the horizontal ever so slightly. I noticed it as I started and left it. It was more important at that point to just get the row inserted in an orderly manner rather then worry about a slight shift.

Since then I was thinking that I needed something to see my stitches underneath the quilt. I know people say to just feel the stitches underneath but that does not work for me. I was thinking that I needed some sort of contraption that allowed me to see under my quilt at the row that I was stitching. Initially I thought about a physical mirror, but then it hit me...I needed an app. So I started looking at that and found quite a few options. Got myself a simple app for the Ipad which is a mirror with some basic magnifying options. Also got a make-up mirror app which has even better magnification. So all I have to do is to place my Ipad on the table underneath with one of those apps and look at my stitching that way. Works very well, so hopefully a whole row out of tension will be a thing of the past.

After the pantograph quilting I loaded another practice piece. My new pantographs had arrived and I was eager to test whether my newfound skill (?) in pantograph quilting was transferrable to a completely different pantograph, i.e. would I have to start again at the beginning with those wobbly shapes and crooked lines?

The pantograph I was testing is called Airy Clouds from Hermione Agee of Lorien Quilting. On her website the pantograph comes as a 10in design however I ordered it as a 6.5in design...that was a bit arbitrary however I figured that I am more used to that size and it would hopefully be easier to stitch that out.

My first attempt...I was impressed! Not a 100% but acceptable enough. Found this design actually a bit easier than the floral one I had done before. This was very encouraging as that may mean that once you work out speed, movement and how to go about the pantograph quilting it might be transferable to a range of like designs. 
My other practice included my new rulers from Amanda Murphy ...Apples and Oranges

This is a set of three different sizes...4in, 3in and 2 in. While you could quilt these curves with another curved ruler it would involve some marking and getting your curves just right. I specifically bought this for making my life a bit easier and using this on quilts with simple squares as a quick and easy way to finish them off. Love this pattern! 

After that I did some more FMQ which descended into a bit of chaos as I was trying to control my stitches in Manual mode.

I got somewhat bored...it was practice without a real purpose. I decided that the best way to practice is to go on real quilts rather than practice pieces where I tend to become a bit sloppy when I get bored.

So I put a little Disney themed quilt together and had another go at stitching-in-the-ditch and rulerwork

This was good fun...I must say that I really like stitching-in-the-ditch on the frame. I find it way easier and definitely quicker. This time I had worked out a plan for how to go about the order of quilting, i.e. I ditched two rows first and then went back to doing the ruler work. Amanda Murphy quilts this design in diagonal rows however that would mean that you have to travel in the ditch over previously quilted lines which I did not like, so I quilted mine horizontally across which was equally as easy to do and gave me a very neat design on the back.

Well, that's how far I got with my practice over the last few weeks. I since made a list of quilts that I want to finish...I got to about 18 quilts...some of them are already done hanging in the cupboard, others are waiting to be made where I already have bought the backing or cut out the pieces and then there are others which are swirling around in my head to be done one day. No wonder I get stressed! For the moment I will concentrate on the pantographs and some rulerwork to hopefully give  me a bit of a sense of success as it is easy to be discouraged when you cannot execute something you previously were quite proficient at. This will clearly take a bit of time, so I may as well make it as enjoyable as I can. 

Karin

Adventures on the 10 Foot Frame

We spent another few days on levelling the frame...at some point the carriage had a slight tipping motion, so then we had to re-adjust the carriage and tracks and so it went on. But I think we now have got it right and the machine stitches without any major problems.

 

So I decided that I was going to try out stitching in the ditch on one of the charity quilts. What a hoot! Had not paid a lot of attention to the size of the blocks which were rectangular. Once I loaded it I realised that the length of the block was too big for my space once I had affixed the ruler table. For a moment there I thought that I should just meander or loop over the quilt, however thought it would be great practice to continue with my original idea of stitching in the ditch even though this looked painful.

Wow...I probably never finished a quilt in such a clumsy way as I have done on this quilt. 

Firstly, I had no real plan on how to do this, so every pass was quilted in a different order and different way. Secondly, I was using Rasant thread which is close to 40wt...not my smartest choice! The starts and stops were quite unsightly in parts as I am used to burying my threads. I have got a tie off function on the machine which works reliably for the start off but not that reliable for the stopping position. So I did all sorts of things...sometimes I used the tie off at the stop position, other times I tried to bury my threads and all things in between. Definitely need to work on that!

The stitching in the ditch was quite alright, a bit untidy here and there but that was also due to the thicker thread and would have occurred on the sitdown as well. I did get the sense that it would be much quicker once I was used to it because everything lies flat and straightish with no moving around of the quilt. I did put a very simple motif in the white rectangles.

Not the prettiest choice but I really just wanted to try out different rulers and how I would hold my hands etc. That all worked really well and I did get into a bit of a rhythm with the advancing and towards the end of the quilt I had worked out a somewhat consistent approach on the ditching.

Not my greatest work but it got finished!

Next on the list of things was the pantographs. I practiced the Daisy Dotz#2 pantograph as that is one I had for a while and have done many times before. In addition, I have another baby quilt finished and do want to use that one on that. So, how hard can this be? I took an almost 2m piece of fabric for the backing and used calico on the front. Set it all up and off I went...quilted the partial design row first at the top of the quilt and bam...had not really looked at it a lot and got confused straight away on where I was and what lines came next. Great start! Started off with my rows and had the same problems as before, i.e could not get my shapes properly at times, i.e. wobbled a lot. It is a floral design and while I had become better at the petals, the leaves were at times slightly misshapen. Experimented with different speeds and different stitch lenghts which does make a difference, but then there was my body that had to move along which did also not work at times. Nevertheless, I did get my set up right and felt happy with how the rear handles were adjusted, where I was standing and how I moved across the row, so it started to go quite well. Definitely not to the standard that I am used to but it did go a bit easier. I did get a sense where I had to speed up a bit and then slow down a bit. Ran out of bobbin thread twice in the middle of a row which was not a problem as the laser and needle aligned nicely at that point, so I could just continue where I had left off without any issues.

Actually, this section looks quite good, must have been towards the middle when I had done the design a multitude of times.

Here is part of the finished piece

Not that you can see that much, but overall it looks quite good. My alignment of the rows was good, its nice and straight and the overall picture spells consistency. Was really quite happy with that and am thinking that it is time that I go on a real quilt. Have a floral charity quilt that I will try out next.

Definitely not that easy from the back of the machine, but so worth it...might have to stick to simple designs for a while but it is such a nice way to finish off a quilt. In terms of time, this took me about 5 hours to finish, so for a little baby quilt this would be so quick. I ordered some new pantographs of course. Wondering now how long it will take to learn new pantographs. This will be an interesting journey.

Wishing everybody a very nice Christmas with hopefully a few days of undisturbed quilting as we are moving into the New Year. 

Karin

The 10 Foot Studio Frame has Arrived!

It's been a hectic few weeks. The frame arrived 2 weeks ago and has now been all set up. There were a few delays, ie. my ruler kit only arrived last Thursday and the last day of my workshop also fell in between. Must say I did not expect that much 'mucking' around. It took about a day to set it up in the spare room. Then came an extraordinary protracted trial of trying to find a comfortable height. So I had it a bit higher initially, then decided that I might want it one hole lower and then yesterday we put it up again to where it was. Initially I was also unsure how much space I needed around the frame...did I want it set up close to the wall or not? ...that also changed twice. If I left space around both sides it meant that I had to squeeze through one side with the other side sort of ok, however in the end I decided on one bigger space on one side to walk around. The restriction on that side when placed towards the middle of the room just irritated me. All of this while trying to level the frame. Not an easy feat and I think we still need to do some fine tuning on that. The dealer came today to give my machine a spa treatment and to replace the bottom of the needle shaft...in all of this my needle could not be changed as the little screw  (already an issue a while ago) was stripped.

Today then I was also able to ask some questions which I had saved up for this visit. In a way it's been good to have a few days to take it all in. There are a lot of new things to get your head around apart from the actual quilting part. People are asking whether I like it...hard to say, it is just too new and all my usual processes of 'attacking' a quilt do not seem to apply.

Let me show you some photos of the first attempts on the frame:

Pantograph quilting

That was really hard to do from behind the machine. I am obviously not great at following a line with a laser. The hilarious part is also that I don't seem to be able to coordiante my body. While my upper half moves along the feet just don't want to cooperate properly. Too funny!

I had tried other bitses of just freemotion quilting by then but did not take a photo...strangely enough there are some designs I can do really quite well, whereas others I struggled. As with the pantograph the adjustment is multifaceted...I struggled to 'work out' the involvement of my whole body, seem to have two left hands and also struggled with the speed settings. The machine glides so easily that it often just glides away with me. Nevertheless, I decided to just do one of the charity quilts with a simple meander as I could do that really well.

So off I went and muddled my way through that. Struggled a bit with working out when to advance at times, misjudged my available space a couple of times and did a somewhat untidy baste job around the top and the sides. But it got done! Stitched with a thread that blended in on the quilt top but contrasted on the beige backing. Bold choice, but I wanted to see the stitch quality on the back at the speed I was going.

The finished quilt

Close Up

Great...stitching hardly visible

The back

Not too bad...every now and then you can see that I tried to fit more shapes in my available space elongating them a bit to make them fit. Found it very tricky at times to judge what distance I had both on top and at the bottom of my available space.

Overall, not a bad job...maybe a bit more untidy to what I would have produced on the sitdown, but I was quite happy with that...the shapes looked smooth, had no puckers or folds and the quality of the stitching was perfect. Apart from that, it went really quite fast helped by the fact that I had loaded the quilt sideways to make the seam that ran through the backing load up on the horizontal.

Since then I have honed in on more dense designs that I often do in Manual mode. I do find Manual mode a bit harder on the frame as I have not worked out a comfortable speed for me.

This photo is several days ahead and I felt that I had a bit better control. Practising another pantograph (need that one for a baby quilt I am making)...still a killer to produce nicely flowing lines, but getting better. Had the ruler kit by then and made myself a little border. The feather might look ok from afar but is pretty haphazard...tried my darnest to do some of that in Manual Mode but also did some with stitch regulation. Then the pebbles...again, very hard to do but I think I have worked out a comfortable speed on those in Manual Mode. Swirls, strangely enough work well for me on the frame as does Ribbon Candy.

Did some ruler work, more pebbles and so it goes on. Every day a little bit to gain some control. 

Next on the list is another charity quilt where I will try out stitching in the ditch. Let's see how that goes.

Overall impression:

This will take some months to master. Went to one of the stores here and bought a bolt of inexpensive batting to use for practising. The charity quilts will be good to further get my head around loading and advancing quilts. While this is not difficult it is just different and at times confusing to the brain, ie. a few times now I have forgotten to baste the sides as I am used to that being done already by the time I get to the actual quilting. So, lots of re-training necessary and of course...practice, practice and more practice.

Karin

One Last Time E2E On The Sitdown

It's been a few months again, but this time I have got a good excuse. Our grand daughter made her grand arrival at the end of August.  At the same time, ie. within days my younger daughter moved out into her own apartment. So for the last few months we have been extremely busy with providing support for both of my daughters which has involved a lot of running around, practical help, organising things and also some baby sitting. 

Very little quilting was done, in fact no quilting was done at all and it was only the other day that I pulled out one of the charity quilts. A fairly old-fashioned little quilt with almost too much of a good thing going on in terms of busy-ness.

Decided to do an edge-to-edge design over it using my trusted Golden Threads paper again. I sped this up a bit this time and traced and stitched two rows in one hit which did affect accuracy a bit but on the busy quilt that was not even noticeable at all. 

Why, you asked... for the last time! Well, after much research and soul searching I have decided to put my machine on the frame (which will arrive in a couple of weeks). It all started about a year ago when I thought about computerised quilting. I know people have various opinions on that but it appeals to me as it combines my love of quilting with my passion for design work on the computer. I started looking at this for a while, however decided against it in the end as the Bernina Q-matic is just too expensive to justify getting it for just a bit of fun. So I concentrated on what I saw as the benefits of a frame and added a Pantograph kit to my order as the next best option. I can't tell you how many YouTube videos I watched quilting on the frame over the last year...learned lots about loading and how it all works and then went through an extended period of indecision and I think that I am still a bit unsure about it all as I simply do not know how long it will take me before I make the transition to moving the machine rather than my hands and whether I will like that change or not. Over here there are actually no opportunities to try in all seriousness before you buy. My closest shop only has the Moxie from HQ set up and quilting on that does not compare to a Bernina. I have tried the Bernina Q20 on a frame for a little moment at the last show and also had a look at another quilter's set up but that's about it! However, I do know that I need to change things up a bit...I need extension, more of a challenge and some renewed learning. The last two intense projects I did left me feeling very bored and confused as to what direction to take. In the end I decided to take the plunge. I will keep my table, just in case, so that I will have the option to revert back to sitdown quilting if I absolutely hate it. This should be very interesting, to say the least.

So, anyway, here is the charity quilt that I just finished on the sitdown with an edge-to-edge design called Lorien's Festival from Hermione Agee.

Told you it's a bit overwhelming...just a tad too busy for me. Photo also not that great...also trialling a new photo editor 😣

The back though looks stunning

Loved doing this pantograph and am hoping that it will not take too long before I can figure out the pantograph kit on the frame. That does look like a lot of fun to me and should speed things up enormously.

Will post again when the frame is here.

Karin

More Baby Quilts

The cute little Teddy Bear Baby Quilt is finished

This is so very cute! I used the Handiquilter Multi Clamshell tool to quilt the 4in clamshells over it. Works every time and looks great on baby quilts.

Also finished my special baby quilt ready for the new arrival

The fabrics in this one are just gorgeous...soft and playful in apricot/pink tones. You probably cannot see this but the fabric has a bit of a cottage/farm theme. Really pretty. It is from Art Gallery Fabrics...a selection of 'Cottage Grove' fabrics. The pattern will be available in my Etsy shop within the month. I have done all the photos, now it is just a matter of putting the pattern together which should not take too long.

Also made a little fabric book

Got a panel with the pages from the last quilt show. Easy enough to do in terms of putting this together however, this was digitally printed fabric which I did not realise when I bought it. Had to be really careful with the stitching as it leaves little white runs as soon as a needle pierces it. Dislike that as it makes the job unnecessarily harder. 

So, what's next? I had a fair amount of fabric left over from the Art Gallery Fabrics 'Cottage Grove' Fat 

Quarter bundle. Have cut that all up into squares and will be starting to put that together soon for a very simple baby quilt to be hopefully sold (on Etsy). Actually seen some new rulers by Amanda Murphy called the Apples and Oranges rulers which would make for a perfect design on a simple squares quilt. Mind you I have to find the rulers first...always takes a bit longer before things come to Australia.

Happy Quilting!

Karin

Cute Baby Quilt

Must be the baby season! Had to quickly finish another baby quilt for a friend of my daughter's. Chose this cute teddy bear panel from Devonstone Collection (design #DV6130) to quickly quilt a clamshell design over it. Then had to hunt around for a suitable backing...as the colours are somewhat washed out I thought that this would be challenging but found something straight away which fitted it perfectly.

Too cute! quilted it with my trusted Aurifil thread 50/2 in a soft yellow colour. Was lucky as I also found a solid in the same colour as the narrow inner border. Currently finishing off sewing the binding to the back and then this can be gifted.

Happy quilting!

Karin

More Ruler Work and Two More Finishes

Its been a productive couple of weeks...managed to finish all of the charity quilts ready to be delivered next week.

Had a lovely 'I Spy' quilt to finish. Given its colourful fabric I just meandered over it. Still find that the most effective and fast ways to finish some of the more scrappy type quilts.

Nearly got side tracked again in going through my stash to find similar fabric that could be used for an 'I Spy' quilt. Such a good isea and a fun project! Restrained myself though and kept going with the next charity project.

Now this one took a bit longer as I had to ditch the seams first but then I got going with some simple curves in the blocks. What started out as just wanting to do a motif in the larger yellow squares turned to an allover design. Really enjoy using Lisa Calle's Pro Echo rulers!

Put a piano key border around it as well using a blend in purple colour. Came out great and finished it off nicely.

Next will be another baby quilt panel that I will quilt up for one of my daughter's friends who is expecting and then my machine will go in for a spa day. I had some issues with my stitch regulator...minor, and maybe related to the particular project I was working on. Experienced some racing of the needle at odd times. This has since stopped and could very well be attributable to the sliding mat I have around my needle plate...not sure. I thought that maybe the edges of that might have been catching the fabric, so I have now taped this down a bit better and have not experienced this again. But in speaking to the dealer we decided that we may as well have a bit of a look and while at the shop the machine might as well get cleaned and oiled on the inside. Not strictly speaking necessary, but can't hurt...I have had this machine now for over four years and while Bernina talks about it only having to go for service at 30 million stitches I have since heard different viewpoints. In the end I contacted Bernina some time back asking around service and they had said that it was recommended to have your machine looked at every couple of years to make sure everything runs fine. As I am thinking about putting my machine on the frame at some stage later this year I thought it might be a good idea to get the machine running as best as it can. (assuming that I will have a horrendous adjustment period).

That's all from me today...have a nice quilty weekend!

Karin