Quilting your Quilts

As part of my Summer WIP It Challenge, I sent out a survery in my newsletter about what steps of the quilting process they would like to see some blog posts on. Basting, quilting, and binding were the answers I got. I did a post on basting during the first month of the challenge. You can read that HERE. For this post I’d like to talk a little bit about quilting the quilt yourself on a domestic machine.

Before we get too far into the post, there are some things I have to make crystal clear… There is absolutley NOTHING wrong with sending your quilts off to be quilted. Quilting is supposed to be fun. So, if you don’t enjoy quilting the quilt yourself, by all means send it off to be quilted. The point of a supposedly enjoyable activity is to ENJOY it. So, if piecing the quilts is the only part you want to do, send them off to be finished and start piecing your next quilt! I don’t have any experience with sending them off. That’s not a flex, it’s just meant to let you know that the things I’m going to talk about in this post are meant for helping you quilt the quilts yourself on a domestic machine. So, if you are sending your quilts off to be longarmed, you will need to mind your longarmer’s instructions over anything I say.

I’ll also be talking about free motion quilting in this one because that’s what I get the most questions about. If you don’t want to learn free motion quilting, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. You can make a whole lot of beautiful quilts with your walking foot. I have a few posts on using your walking foot to quilt. I did go over a few methods of walking foot quilting after we finished up my Checker Cakes Quilting. You can read that post HERE. That post also links to some instagram reels I made to demo both of those methods.

Scared to free motion quilt?

I’m not sure why sewing the layers of a quilt together is so intimidating. It really shouldn’t be. If you do it “wrong” or “badly”, you aren’t really hurting anyone. “Bad” stitches can be ripped out for a do-over if you want one, or you can also leave them and carry on with your quilting. Nothing will explode if your stitches aren’t even, and the quilt police won’t knock on your door if you dare to free motion quilt an actual quilt (instead of practice sandwiches) before your technique is “perfect”.

If your technique is different than what some expert says it should be, does the person you’re making the quilt for know or care? I am 100% certain there are a few “experts” who would rip my technique apart if I asked them to critique it, or if they just felt like it. I almost always floor it, I don’t use templates or rulers, I don’t drop my feed dogs, I don’t always stop moving the quilt completely (or even slow down at all) when I adjust my hands. I could go on, but you get it. I break “rules”. I do what works for me, and I still manage to get nice results. Just a little tip about those “nice results”. This is all relative, and you get to define it. So, what I mean by that is don’t beat yourself up if your piecing, free motion quilting, or whatever isn’t as perfect as what you see people posting online. Two things to consider as far as that is concerned:

1) Everyone was a beginner at some point, even your favorite quilting influencer. There is nothing embarassing or shameful about not being “as good” as someone else. If you are just starting out and your free motion quilting, or piecing, or binding, or whatever isn’t as perfect as someone who sells quilts for a living and makes literally dozens to hundreds of quilts every year it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. I would actually suggest not worrying over how your quilts look compared to someone else’s. It’s not a competition. The only one to compete with is yourself, and by that I just mean try to get a little better with each quilt. But most importantly remember quilting is supposed to be fun. If comparing your work to others’ isn’t fun, then why are you doing it? On the other hand, if you find it inspiring, then by all means, carry on!

2) It is highly likely that the quilt your favorite influencer is posting online isn’t that perfect either. They may have picked the most perfectly mitered corner in their binding to take that picture, but how do the other corners look? They may be zoomed in on the part of the quilt where their quilting stitches were beautifully tensioned and fabulously even. That part where they had to double back because they somehow managed to wear out the needle bar from heavy duty sewing all day every day and ended up with a few skipped stitches before they could get the machine fixed… yes, I did that, and no I didn’t post a picture of those stitches online. How about that full shot of a beautiful freshly crinkled quilt out in the Alabama sunshine? Yep, those aren’t perfect either, but without a closeup you don’t see the imperfections. You see what we want you to see, and most of the time that ends up being a picture of our best work.

So, now we’ve established that you shouldn’t be scare of free motion quilting. BUT, knowing you shouldn’t be nervous and actually not being nervous are two completely different things. I was pretty nervous when I first started trying to learn free motion quilting. I was afraid I’d mess up, and guess what? I certainly did plenty of that in the beginning, and still do a little of that now. But they get fewer and farther between the longer you practice. Accept that you’re gonna mess up and move on to getting in there and trying. We’ve all heard the saying that anything worth doing is worth doing right. That may have some merrit; there’s definitely nothing wrong with giving it your all and trying to do your best work. BUT, I think a strong case could also be made for the opposite saying – anything worth doing is worth doing WRONG or BADLY, mess it up over and over again. With each mess up, the next one will look a little better. This is called practice. Progress is still progress no matter how small.

The best way to learn free motion quilting is to do it. Free motion quilt something. Starting small may cut down on a little frustration just so that you aren’t having to add wrestling a big quilt around in your machine’s throat to the list of things to worry about. So, free motion quilt something, and then something else, and something else… until you start to feel like you aren’t so bad at this anymore, and one day you might feel like you’re actually sort of good at this. Eventually, just decide to delcare yourself competent enough, whether you are or not, and have fun with it instead of worrying. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again here; confidence makes for smoother quilting. If you fret, beat yourself up, and stop over every stitch that’s not exactly the right length, every curve that isn’t perfectly curvey, every loop that’s the wrong size compared to the others, every spiral that isn’t perfectly round… well, you’ll NEVER finish that quilt. The way you get some of that confidence is to practice, and giving up every time something’s not perfect is pretty much the opposite of practice.

It’s worth noting that there is an exception to the just get in there and try it strategy, T-Shirt Quilts. You should wait until your skills are solid, reliable, and consistent before you try to make a quilt from someone else’s T-Shirt/memories. Regular quilting cotton is usually replaceable if you make a mistake, but someone’s T-Shirts with all the memories they hold are NOT replaceable. That jersey with the client’s school/team, jersey number, and name on it may actually be the only one exactly like it in the world. T-Shirts are a completely different beast, and they definitely don’t cooperate like quilting cotton would. You need to be confident in your skills with piecing and quliting regular quilts before you try to work with T-Shirts. Even then, I wouldn’t recommend making your first T-Shirt quilt out of someone else’s T-Shirts. Use some of your own old shirts first or buy some cotton jersey knits from the fabric store to practice with first so you can get a feel for working with T-Shirts.

Ok now that our pep talk is over, here are some actual tips for you with a little disclaimer first. I am absolutely NOT going to tell you that my way of doing anything quilty is the one RIGHT way to do something. This is just not my style. One, I firmly believe that different methods work better for different people, and everyone should do what works best for themselves. Two, I have other things to worry about besides how someone who isn’t me makes a quilt that isn’t even FOR me. So for all this stuff on free motion quilting, I’m going to tell you some things that helped me and work for me. Who knows, maybe some of it will help you too.

Use a Free Motion Quilting Foot

You’ll need a special foot to free motion quilt. The pressor foot that you’d use for straight-line sewing won’t allow you to move your quilt around in any direction other than forward and reverse. You need to be able to move it in all directions so that you can free motion quilt. So, you’ll need a special foot that allows this movement.

The picture aboves shows two common free motion quilting feet that you might see. These are probably the two most common types. They are often called a “hopper foot” because they hop up and down with each stitch. When the needle goes down the foot will be down, and when the needle is up, they foot hops up with it allowing you to move your quilt around while you quilt. The one on the left is the closed toe foot. The one on the right is the open toe foot.

Whether you choose the open or closed toe foot is all personal preference. Some quilters prefer the increased visibility from the open toe foot. On the other hand, some quilters feel like the open toe foot gets caught when going over seams, so they prefer the closed toe foot. I’d suggest just starting with whichever comes with your machine. This is usually going to be the closed toe foot. If you don’t like it, you can get another foot, but be sure you get one that is compatible with your machine. What you want to look for here is to find out if your machine is high shank or low shank and get a foot that is made for that. Most domestic machines are low shank, but I actually have a domestic machine that’s high shank. So, you should check before you buy a foot.

Balancing your Thread Tension

Your sewing machine works by interlocking the upper thread and the bobbin thread. This is a lot easiar to see on thick yarn compared to thread. You can see in the picture below how the two pieces of yarn are looped together. This is how the stitches stay in your fabric.

When your thread tension is balanced, there should be equal pull from both the top and bobbin thread so that the part where the threads interlock is in the middle of the layers of fabric.

So how do you get that tension balanced? Here are a few things to consider.

Adjusting your tension is something you’ll have to learn to do. This is going to be different on different machines. Most machines have a tension control dial with numbers on it. These dials adjust the tension on the top thread. A lot of sewing machines have the bobbin tension pre-set from the factory and recommend you not even touch that. I’d be lying if I said I’ve never messed with the tension on the bobbin, but I can’t tell you to mess with something your manual may tell you to leave alone. So, for this post, we’ll talk about balancing the tension just by adjusting the tension on top. If your machine is more computerized, you may not have a tension dial. So, in that case you’d use the computer screen to adjust the tension. Either way, check your manual for how to adjust your tension.

For some sewing machines, you will need set your tension higher for free motion quilting than for straight-line sewing. Some machines have auto tension. I’ve personally never liked using auto tension for free motion quilting and get better results with setting the tension myself. You can use a practice sandwich to figure out your tension. Be sure you’re using your free motion quilting foot on the practice sandwiches since some machines will need you to adjust your tension for free motion quilting. Also, use fabrics and batting that are similar to the quilt you are going to be quilting. You’ll want to be sure that the top and bottom threads are interlocking in the middle of your fabric layers, so you’ll need similar fabrics and thicknesses to be sure that the stitches look the same as they will look in the actual quilt.

When you stitch on your practice sandwich, look at the stitches. Your stitches should look like distinct, separate stitches. They should look the same on the front and back. If the stitches are looking tighter on one side and more like a straight line of thread that isn’t being pulled into the center of the layers, then the tension on that side is too tight. Here’s what to do to loosen that tension:
– Top stitches too tight = lower the top tension
– Bobbin stitches too tight = top tension is too low, increase the top tension
The side that is too loose may look like the thread isn’t laying flat on the fabric. How to tighten those up:
– Top stitches too loose = increase the top tension
-Bobbin stitches too loose = top tension is too high, lower the top tension
When you adjust the tension, you’ll want to adjust it in small increments until you get it balanced.

If you see big caterpillar loops on the bottom of the quilt, you probably didn’t thread your needle correctly. Rethreading your needle and taking out and rethreading the bobbin is always a good idea and fixes a lot of problems you may run into. For most machines, you’ll want to have your presser foot up and your needle in the up position when you thread the needle. Some computerized machines have a lockout button that you need to push to get everything into the correct position for threading the needle. So, it never hurts to get your manual back out and be sure you’re threading everything correctly.

Some things that might help if you’re having trouble getting the tension balanced:
-Use a thread stand. If your machine doesn’t have a built in thread stand a stand alone thread stand works great too. Thread cones usually unwind better when you have them on a thread stand, but I’ve found that regular spools do fine on a thread stand too.
-If you’re having a lot of trouble with tension control with your feed dogs lowered, just leave them up. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t drop my feed dogs. Feed dogs are designed to help pull the fabric forward for you, or backwards if you need to go in reverse. If the pulling from the feed dogs bothers you, you can set your stitch length to 0. With the stitch length at 0 your feed dogs won’t be pulling, just bobbing up and down. You can also cover them with a darning plate, a slider, or even just a piece of cardstock. I personally don’t find any of these things to be necessary, but do whatever works for you. The feed dogs pulling a little actually provides a little bit of control that some quilters like while free motion quilting. Leaving the feed dogs up was actually a game changer for me. So, if you’re having trouble try it and see if it helps you.

Speed Control

Speed control is how you get even stitches with free motion quilting. When you piece your quilts the combo of the pressor foot and the feed dogs will keep your stitch length to whatever length you set. BUT, even if you leave the feed dogs up, the extra mobility and the freedom to move the quilt in all directions makes the stitch length setting irrelevant while free motion quilting.

With free motion quilting, you control the stitch length with your hand speed to machine speed ratio. Hand speed too fast in relation to your machine speed equals bigger stitches. Hand speed too slow in relation to your machine speed equals smaller stitches. I know stitch regulators are a thing, but not everyone has a stitch regulator. I don’t use a stitch regulator, so I don’t feel qualified to talk about them in this post. Even a stitch regulator is not a substitute for practice.

Some people prefer to floor it with the pedal and just adjust the speed control to whatever speed they prefer. A lot of people find it a lot more comfortable to floor it, and it is a more ergonomic position for your foot. I prefer to floor it and have the machine set to top speed, fast feet/slow hands. This isn’t for everyone. You have to find your own rhythm, and nothing I say can find it for you. If your machine doesn’t have a speed control, you’ll have to practice using your foot pedal only for speed control. You can always floor it, and I did find this easier back when I was quilting on a machine that didn’t have speed control. If you don’t like quilting at top speed and don’t have speed control on your machine, some quilters find it helpful to quilt barefoot so it’s easier to gauge how much pressure you’re putting on the pedal. It’s all about practicing and finding your own rhythm. Singing or listening to music can be helpful because it gives you a rhythm to follow. I do actually sing or hum a lot while I’m quilting: sometimes in my head but mostly out loud =).

You’ll want to slow down even more on the curves. I nitpicked some of my quilts to find places where I had some speed control issues to show you. The blue one is the cover quilt for my “Almost Time” pattern that I have available for only $3.99 through Cut Loose Press. The gold one was the cover quilt for my Pinwheel Poppers pattern, a free pattern that I wrote for Southern Charm Quilts’ Resourse Library.

In both of these pictures, you see some longer stitches compared with the rest of the stitches. You should slow down a little bit on the curves, but ironically, it looks like I had good speed controll on the curves but sped back up a little too much when I was coming off the curves. This is something that just takes practice.

Even when you’re “good at it” things like this happen from time to time with free motion quilting. I was LOOKING for a speed control issue. When you look for mistakes, you tend to find them. If I picked out those stitches like that all the time I’d definitely have a lot fewer quilts in my house. It turns out, I love both of those quilts anyway. Here are a few pictures of these quilts that don’t focus on the “mistakes” just to remind you that quilts that aren’t perfect are still be beautiful quilts. If you’re trying to find something wrong with your quilt, you will. If you’re trying to find the things you did right, you will.

Stopping and Starting

Stopping and restarting smoothly can be tricky when you are first learning to free motion quilt. This is just another one of those things that takes practice, but there are a few things you can do to make it a little easier. We’ll use a few different quilting designs for examples. Take a look at the picture below. Those are stipples. Some quilters call it a basic meander. This is one of the easiest designs to learn and a great design for beginners to start with. If you need to stop to adjust your hand position, it’s easier to restart smoothly on the straight parts than it is on the curves. So, try to wait until you get to a straight part of the design to do this.

For designs that don’t really have straight parts, when is a a good time to stop and readjust your hands? Lets look at the spirals/swirls I did in the quilt below. This quilt is one that I did for a magazine, Quick + Easy Quilts. You can get the pattern for that quilt and lots of other great patterns in the magazine. A lot of people like to round out the center of the spiral instead of bringing it to a point. This is another one of those things that is definitely a personal prefernce/do what YOU want/your quilt = your rules kind of thing. But, if you struggle with stopping and restarting smoothly, bringing those spirals to a point in the center gives you a great place to stop and readjust your hand position whenever you need to. I ironically don’t actually stop and restart very often anymore, but I’ve kept that point in the center of the spirals because I like it.

Get Comfy and Settle in for your Quilting

If you aren’t comfortable, you won’t be able to quilt for very long and you won’t enjoy it. So, here are a few things that might help.

This little tip doesn’t really fit in with any of the sections, but it’s pretty important. So, I’ll just put it here. Before you start quilting, bring your bobbin thread to the top. If you don’t, it’ll get caught and make a bird’s nest on the back of your quilt. I have a demo for this on my instagram. You can watch that HERE.

Get something to help you support the weight of the quilt. If your quilt is hanging off the sewing table, the drag will make it hard to move the quilt smoothly for smooth quilting. Another table to the side of your sewing table or an ironing board will help a lot if you don’t have a table made specifically for this. You could also throw the part of the quilt you aren’t working on over your shoulder.

Good postures is also helpful. Sit up straight, keep your shoulders down, back, and relaxed. Try not to crunch your shoulders up towards your ears. This extra strain takes a toll on your body. Your optimal hand position is going to depend a little bit on your work station. If you have an extension table or a sewing cabinet that allows you to have the work surface of your machine level with the table you can put your hands farther apart. This makes it so that you can quilt for longer before you have to readjust your hand position. The drawback to having your hands farther apart would be that it technically gives you less control over moving the quilt. I actually kept my hands a little closer together and stopped pretty often to readjust my hands when I first started learning. As I got more comfortable with free motion quilting, my technique naturally evolved into my hands being farther apart and moving my hands while I was still moving the quilt instead of stopping to readjust as often. This is not for everyone. As you practice and try different things, you’ll be able to figure out what works best for you. You can watch a video of me quilting HERE.

Before you start quilting, take a deep breath to calm down and relax. If you’re still in the phase of feeling nervous about potentially messing up, this will help.

That’s all I’ve got for today

That’s all I have for you today. I hope this helps! As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment or email me. I’d love to hear from you!

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Happy quilting!