re Tic TacToe

Posted by on July 11, 2010 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

I haven’t figured out how to add a comment so am sending it this way. Your Tic Tac Toe top is delightful. I like the dark backgrounds with white crosses sprinkled around in the quilt.
To help with some of your questions, I would suggest that you quilt it then bind it. If you plan to quilt in the sashing, you might like to try using a serpentine stitch if your machine has one. A quilter friend used it instead of a straight stitch and if you are trying to stitch along a seam ( in the ditch) it hides a multiple of “oops” I went off the line. It looks nice too. If you think that it needs more quilting after doing the sashing you might tie it in the blocks. That would certainly be secure enough to withstand lots of washing.
I took a machine quilting class recently and the instructor suggested pinning the quilt layers well, press the backing and top well. Then to layer them tape them down on the edges to hold them taut then pin approximately 4″ apart in the centre of the quilt and closer around the outside edges. A walking foot on the machine will help to feed the top layer and prevent bunching up pleats where you stitch over lines. It probably won’t be needed if you don’t use batting. Some machines have the walking foot built in. Remove the pins after you have quilted to make the whole thing lighter to handle. A hint I learned to help support the quilt, move your ironing board next to you and the sewing table and adjust it to the height of your table. It gives you more surface area beside you to hold the quilt as you are quilting. Practice on a few small pieces to get the hang of it and take your time. Don’t forget to breath – we tend to hold our breath as we are trying to machine quilt – the instructor was right about that, I learned that from experience too. Happy quilting!
Cory

2 Comments

  1. Those are great tips, Cory, thanks for posting them.

    I've also basted a large quilt on a table, using big clamps (from Home Depot) to clamp the section of backing/batting/quilt top that is on the table and letting the rest hang over. Like you suggest, I start in the middle baste that, take the clamps off, slide the backing/batting/quilt top so a different area is on top of the table, smooth it out and clamp it to keep everything in place, and pin that section. I remember reading (somewhere?) about how you can baste a quilt against a wall, too. Quilters are ingenious people and great problem solvers.

    FYI, to post a comment, you just need to look at the bottom of a blog post for the "0 Comments" link and click that. It will go to a view of the blog post with a "Post a Comment" box at the bottom of the post and you'll be good to go.

  2. Thanks for that – I love the idea of the ironing board! I'll be free machining it (I'm an embroiderer rather than a quilter by habit), but the biggest piece I've freemachined before was only a couple of feet square and easy to push around!

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