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