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