HQ Live - Beginning Quilting (February 2018)

[Music] [Music] hi I'm Vicky hoth from handi quilter we're in the handi quilter studio today in Salt Lake City Utah and we have some tips and tricks that we're going to talk to you about today some questions that we have had and we want to answer those questions and kind of help you with some tips and tricks on setting up your machine on using your machine the maintenance just some things that maybe some questions that you don't understand so I have my list this big list on my handi quilter pad and the first thing on my list is actually the machine itself [Music] when you setup your machine and you want to level it and you can send your husband out to the garage to get the level or if you don't have a level what do you do so your machine is your best level okay so if I press move this machine back here and it's in the center of this frame this is just an 8-foot frame but look this is not level that tells me that the front posts on my machine the feet are need to be adjusted so that it raises the front of this up because this is not level and this would be driving me crazy you do not want any resistance on your machine having to drag you one way or the other because it's pulling another way so that this is the first thing we're going to do is let's get it leveled okay now let's test it you can see that it's not moving we use this handy dandy tool it comes with your frame so that you can use it with your feet and adjust that so what happened is we adjusted the center first because it felt like it was just racing forward and it still was racing forward so we went to the outside and raised that front so we took the machine to the outside and check that then we went to the Senate we're still racing forward went to that side raised that up and it helped level out that front so all three now no matter where I put this machine on the frame it sits there and doesn't move and that is the best thing you want to do before you get started quilting because you don't want to have to fight the drag of the machine okay so use your tool and adjust those threads screw the the nut up or down so that you can make it work for you okay all right so the next thing I'm going to put that tool away the next thing I want to have you check or have us check today is the throat space as to what your where your pole is on the height sometimes we tend to set up our side arms too tall and we have too much space from this pole which is the idler pole to the throat of the machine and you only want to be able to put just your fingertips in that throw to you know just barely get those under there if that's too high your fabric is going to bounce as you're stitching and if it's too low it's gonna drag on the throat of the machine so make sure that everything is set up properly on both sides you want them even and so that you get that correct height so then you'll have success in that as well all right the next thing I want to talk to you about today is cleaning cleaning your table cleaning your wheels cleaning your track keeping everything clean your quilting there's lint there's dust you know you just know that and so you know after a quilt you might find if you've used chalk for marking your quilt you're going to have some chalk residue you're gonna have lint all those things need to be cleaned after the quilt or sometimes even but between the quilt because you'll find that lint will build up on your needle bar and on your presser bar and around so you just want to keep things clean so question how do I clean my wheels so I don't use any product I don't use water I use quilt batting so I take a piece of cool batting and the silver wheels that are on the carriage there's like eight on each saw or eight carriage wheels there's to here there's two here - on the back - there there are all those wheels need to be clean once a while because they get dirty and if it builds up lint it actually can cause kind of a bump and then that throws us okay so I take quilt batting and I just put my finger on the wheel and then I roll the machine so that wheel will roll and it will clean off now this one's not very dirty but it will get that way after many quilts so just roll each will that way so that it'll clean and the other thing is don't throw your thread down on your carriage or on on your machine you know the the frame because it's eventually going to get rolled up in those wheels and that hat causes a binding so then on the track of the carriage this can get dusty and there you can get dust accumulated in the wheel here so you want to just the same thing is just wipe that down with quilt batting I never use a razor any type of a product not even water because my quilt batting the scraps of it it works great and it'll clean things off clean off your machine keep it clean it's going to be running really good for you okay now the next area you're going to clean is your inside of the machine here which is your bobbin hook area and your bobbin case and I'm gonna have Kerry come in and we're going to talk about the maintenance she teaches that class all the time to begin our quilters and some of you out there are not beginner quilters but it's always a good reminder to know that you want to keep things clean clean that bobbin case especially when you're using a really linty thread every time you change your bobbin you want to change you know clean things out because lint can build up in the funniest areas so I'm going to bring Kerry in and we're going to talk about that [Music] Carrie welcome this hi Carrie Rollins she's one of my studio educators Carrie's the one that teaches all of our beginners and everybody how to do the maintenance but one thing I forgot to tell you before we get into what you do there's a couple of things that still cleaning things that we need to worry about you want to clean the actual track this white track here or though that's not white that's black you want to clean the black track it gets dusty and I can peel dust off of that the other thing that I have learned is that when I use a pounce powder pounce chalk I actually sometimes we'll get chalk on the encoder now that was when I had a machine that had the encoder along the front which would be in HQ 16 so those carriages that have the encoder along the front here and if you're using chalk that chalk builds up on the encoder and then it stops working that was a lesson hard learned so every once in a while I will check my encoder wheel and make sure it's where it should be and that it's clean so that it's rolling properly as well okay all right Kari yes let's talk about cleaning the bobbin case to begin with okay and the one that one thing you want to remember to do is every time you change your bobbin you should clean your bobbin case now you should also oil every time you change your bobbin to so we used to say every other bobbin change and our faster running like the infinity we say every bobbin changed you really should see a difference with that so we've kind of gone to the better to oil than an on not oiler so oil put a drop of oil if it's too much if you squeeze it and it just runs all down use some of that leftover quilt batting you know wipe it out around there so that but you want to have that oil that hook oiled which is a nice thing that that's all you have to worry about it's that painting it's just easier to remember every time you take you to your replace your bobbin just go ahead and oil it and then you clean out limb and or yes right and I will show you here we'll put that down err all right Kari we have to bobbin cases one with a kind of a black looking spring and the other one with a fixed spring right this one has a screw that holds it in this one this can actually pop out and this little one here the spring has little prongs so that it'll go in in the right position so right if by chance it does pop out you can put it right back in and be good and so this is called the there's a couple of different names for it the brake spring which stops the bobbin from spinning when you turn off the machine or the backlash spring right that's two different names for it that and that but it's important to have that in there so that when you stop the machine it's actually going to stop the unwinding of the bobbin right so show us how you clean I'm gonna have that alright you're just gonna use the brush right in here and really try to get everything out and then another good thing to do is to get a little business card or a piece of paper or a corner piece of paper anything that has a sharp corner to it okay and you're going to actually sorry you're gonna hold that up here let me hold it for you okay you're going to actually go underneath it oh my gosh see you would never know that that was there if you didn't put something under there to check get it check it out and why is that so important because that can really affect your tension you know if you've got more if you got stuff up it's under there and the threads going through it it's going to make a difference it really builds up and does yeah so so a question why should I test my tension when I put a new bobbin in I've wound the same thread why should I test it it's all the same thread what's the deal that is the deal right there is that that with that tension changing you wouldn't have known that it's the same thread put it in then the back of the quilt looks horrible because it just brightly stems and you would never know it was in there unless you get under there and really get a shock that trip so now can I see that I want to see if we got it all I just want to test sometimes people use a pin but sometimes if you use a pin you pull it out so do you know what I have I see it sounds more lint I actually have a pad of post-it notes and I just peel off a post-it note and that corner is just papers yeah Karl's dog and that it just pulls it right out its act so I don't I've quit using a pen you can use a pen but I just used the post-it notes it's right and it works fine right yes okay so now you the next cleaning air you want to do is make sure underneath them in your machine where your bobbin goes in and then I use canned air with the Amaro this is what we're quilting on today is our Amara 20 can I use canned air with it we suggest that you don't write because it could the lint could go back into the machine to the workings right right and so you don't want to do that you just want to take your brush and really give it a good clean out okay and sometimes you may find that you need to take off your needle plate and clean the top of that and clean out just to make sure especially if you get some thread locks inside it there yeah things aren't working so every once in a while you might find you need to do that you just don't lose your screws because you want to be able to find those okay right alright so the canned air on our infinity it has some a bomb another and different wires there so we recommend that you use the candy are for the infinity but not for the Amara or the syringe right or Avante okay so you're going to clean out that area then you're gonna put that drop and we've got that drop of oil yes right there on that race if you squeeze out the bottle and there's too much oil it comes on there use some cotton some batting and just absorb the batting or the oil that it may drip down in here and just absorb it so there's only about a drop on there okay now when you put your bobbin case back into the hook area it's really important that you don't pull this out that little latch if you pull that out while you're putting your bobbin in it is not going to catch like it needs to click in yes please I'm gonna click in so I that's you know all my life on my other machine yeah I've always used that but now I know that you have to you know just hold it so the opening is up and push it in and push it in and this helps click into place so that locks it right this is for bringing it out yeah you pull it and then that it has a little lever there that grabs the bobbin and pulls it out with you yeah so that's it out so okay all right can you put that in that hook I know this is kind of weird that we have this it's awesome actually that we have a hook here and we can actually show where you would oil yeah right along this little line so right along that ledge is your oiling spot and then we need to put in our bobbin so to put it in and you'd have a bobbin in there of course but place that in there and then listen to it and it clicked into place and that's in there properly then you can let lift that and it pulls out with your bobbin absolutely okay now the next big thing is tension [Music] that is the biggest question but it is not for the easy thing it is so I've got a bobbin and I've got it full and it's got some omni thread so it's a about a 40 50 weight thread and that's the same thread that I have ready to thread the machine with because we've got this fun quilt to put on and it's wound so this full mm-hmm so how are we going to do we're going to make sure that the bobbin goes clockwise into your into your bobbin case so make sure it's kind of showing you a nine right there and then you're going to bring it up through the slot there under the spring and there's more than one way to check this some people just like to put it there and see if it will see it's that is way too tight because you should you shouldn't be able to lift it up like that right it should just stand up firm in your hand and then just kind of glide through okay oh you need a screwdriver and I'm gonna hold this so that everyone can see I'm gonna hold this and you're gonna take the screwdriver in which screw you're going to use we are going to use the top screw which is the big one with the circle around so this screw the little one that's the screw that holds the tension spring on this one is your tension adjuster screw okay so only use the tension adjuster screw so are you going to turn this like horley times around or what I am going to turn it like a second hand on a clock just barely a little tick at a time okay all right so we're too tight so I want to loosen it so I'm going to go to the left and I'm just probably gonna go like that okay I am still too tight still too tight oh I just have to let it go okay so it's it's raising up okay standing up good firm in my hand yes there you go wow that was a great adjustment now what's good now try and do the spider web now some people like to do that I actually like it to just sit there but it's got a stand right and so I let it sit there and that is good tension that is very perfect okay if you wanted a little tighter you could just barely barely kick but if you've got a very delicate thread such as a silk thread that's a hundred weight eighty weight glitter thread right there threads that are really lightweight threads you want to make sure this has less tension so that you can put less tension on your top thread right so then they bow they balance each other so perfect all right so then I'm going to take that long tail off and you're going to place that in the machine okay and you're just going to grab under here and listen for the clerk there you want to hear that know that there you don't hold that latch you hold the bobbin and put it in I use my finger I actually put my finger right here uh-huh and then when I feel that post that's in the bobbin yeah hook area then I just dropped down and put in it works really well okay so that's we're good to go they are now we can't stitch because we don't have our quilt on but a really good tip for you today is to test your tension on a side quilt I want to show you how to do a side tilt okay [Music] okay now I have Murray with me Murray Eldridge she's one of our studio educators as well and the questions that we get on tension are there's not a day that goes by that somebody doesn't call about tension right about testing their tension figuring out why it's working the way or not working the way it should summary I want you to show us how you test tension because sometimes quilters don't give you enough fabric or you don't provide enough fabric to quilt to test the tension on the side of your quilt show us a really good tip all right this is a great way to check your tension and I just have a strip of fabric and batting I'm using the same batting that I would use in my quilt as well as really similar fabric if I can you want to really have it as realistic as what you're doing on your quilt so it matches so I'm just going to put this around that pole and I'm going to bring it well I can just put it that far and I have an easy grasp clamp and I'm just snapping that on there and then I can bring this one over I can use another easy grass Ernie oh I see what you're doing there a mine but you do it okay I'm just gonna clamp that on there so I have similar tension as what I would have on my quilt okay and then I can just come over here and just test test so I have a couple of other tools these are our super clamps that work the same way that if you actually want to throw your a small quilt on you could do that as well so this is your backing would you hold on would you hold us let me help this would you bring this under here because that is more flat more flat we could do that I just wondered because it kind of raised it up a little bit so probably clamp it there there we go and if you want to release some tension just swivel that down and it releases okay so now that you've got this tensioned up I can take these away from you you're worried I'm gonna use it on yes maybe well one for each of us but I would like you to actually do some tensioning okay so you're gonna stitch and then we because you've got those clamps on rather than crawling under the machine or under the fatter that quill can release that look at it all right ease away so you can't Club me all right it looks like they threaded it right so they didn't try and sabotage me yeah I've threaded it for you so it's okay I'm going to show you how to bring up the bobbin thread I have the thread in my left hand I'm going to put the needle down and bring the needle up and then just move the Machine a little ways away and as that pulls you can see I'm bringing up the bobbin thread there so now I have both threads in my hand and then I love this machine I can just touch that and just a little wiggle and I have a tie off all right I am going to actually do just a little circle to kind of check that so I move out of the way and you actually have it in regular or in not in stitch regulator so let's put it so they did sabotage me a little bit okay so so I can actually feel on the bottom there a lot of thread look at the advantage of this for testing let's turn it over oh all right in this situation the top thread is being lazy really lazy yeah BK you set your bobbin or Kari and I set the bobbin so that's right so I need to tighten the top to pull that so that stitch forms right in the center yeah that that top thread is lazy all right put this out when I look at that it looks to me like I need at least a couple of turns over on our tension knob so there put you back to business that was easy wasn't it alright so I'm going to turn that I'm going to tighten it I'm turning away from me if I was on the side of the machine that would be to the right so so you turned it a half a turn I saw one of your thumb you went around okay so I'm gonna turn it another half a turn based all right I'm going to hold on to that and I'm just gonna lock that a little bit all right here we go what stitches oh we got we're down to 12 stitches per inch but let's move this over here the best way they're pretty stitches really pretty should we look underneath well let's just take a peek what we can pull this off yes we can learn it's looking better Hays get a little back into that and you see that you can totally feel that with your fingernail yeah you wouldn't feel that top thread is just laying down there so maybe another five I can get another full turn so one two okay all right to half turns make full at least it was and when I took when you did fracture that's what they said alright let's see if they were telling the truth so you kinda need to stabilize this fabric a little and then over yeah let's do two loops do some more loops over here right in here I'm gonna stabilizer alright here we go [Applause] pretty alright let's see if we're getting there it's oh look at this still there it's still coming so I think and I'm going to show you something I think that there's something going on because that's too tight in the bobbin as I pull that and just break that it feels ok here but is there by chance have I wound my and it feels good it springs down it it feels fine so the tension feels fine let's feel this one how does that feel and this is another really good tip is this draw test yeah that feels pretty good so do you draw a different than I do so on this is a heavy thread so you can really test by and I pull here you pull up here but it doesn't matter as long as you hold this thread and pull if it pulls so tight that you know that you're gonna break your thread you're gonna yeah I'm gonna have to loosen that back up ok so let's go ahead and put this back in retrieve my easy clamp like and I are actually gonna tension it some more to turn it and turn it okay one whole turn yeah okay there you go we got a lot of thread going on here that's what scissors are for alright so we'll just bring up that bobbin thread so we have all of that on this alright how you get it so important we just have to get you that so oh yes sure I'll be your helper [Applause] [Music] did you see that look at it look at the difference from where we started to see how those stitches sinking and that top thread has finally got his back into it he's working hard he's pulling the bobbin thread up beautiful on top and you can kind of see that little tuft you know so it pulls it down in wherever here it was kind of drawing in you could tell it was not so how many times did we turn it okay twofold or three I did one myself one full one you did it two three that's how loose now the key again is to feel this draw that's pretty tight but it's not so tight that it's flexing my needle and it's not so tight that it would break the thread and it's beautiful yep we got it just beautiful all right good good to go now that we know our tension is good it's time to load that quilt so Cheryl's going to come in and we're gonna load a quilt for you [Music] now you're ready to load and I've got Cheryl Duncan with me she's my other educator in the studio and we have such a good time the four of us and learning and teaching others but we learn from each other and so Cheryl is one of our meticulous quilters meticulous and everything she does and so even in loading her frame so we're gonna learn today how to load we have where on the gallery no we're on the studio to frame which is with the Amara and it has two different types of loading two different configurations as a standard load and the clear view and we are in the standard load which most of you are familiar with because that's the way your frame is so that you will load your backing onto the front pole next to your stomach the top and then bring it out go to the take-up and what's this pole called it's the idler pull I do Paul and we've got everything set up so tell let's talk about how to load I'm gonna hold these pins and me and what have you got here well we've got your three pieces of quilt here we've got your batting we've got your top so this is a 80/20 cotton-poly we've got your top nice and soft flannel and then we have kettle fabric for our backing cuddle so fine no it's just like put my face against it so cuddle scares people it doesn't I don't know why because it's wonderful to quilt with okay but there's a stretch there is a stretch and which way is the stretch the stretch goes across the fabric from Selfridge selvedge to selvedge okay and I hear a lot of people say well you're supposed to load the stretch this way so that when you're advancing it doesn't stretch but I do not like loading that edge that cut adds because a lot of times it curls well not only does it curl but a lot of times as fabric is so wide that it's really hard to get it really straight but you know that your selvages are gonna be straight okay and so I p.m. to the Salvi I pin to the selvage also and then when you do the advancing you use careful that I have don't stretch it right okay I'm ready I'm ready I don't look at these aside the first thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna start loading our backing and you want to make sure that you mark your fabric as to where your Center is so I'm just gonna take a pin and put it in my Center right there when you first get your you do it on both sides yes well not so much on the backing because I'm going to show you a little trick we can okay let's turn I'm going to show you a little trick that I always do because what if my leader had been moved hey man I wish you've marked your leader and you don't have the center there correct then you move it back but it doesn't always get moved what if somebody borrowed you your machine and or in the studio they get moved all the time because you're gonna show us a trick watch out for this trick so I've got my center's mark on both edges of my fabric and that's on the selvage yes so now I'm going to move our machine out of the way that's not rolling it is stable it is so level I know that nice so I like to just take my fabric and put it over cross these holes because that puts a little tension on it as we're rolling it well do you know what it does for me see how that keeps us great - it does but do you know what it does for me the most important thing it does for me is it I visualize a quilt a quilt has the backing fabric with the right side down to the finished quilt a finished quilt right and that gives me that visual in my mind that this is the way I'm loading the quilt so that this right beautiful fluffy side is down down just like it would on a red gonna quote wouldn't it be sad if you did it from the wrong side and quilted it you know now if you did it from the wrong side and didn't quilt it and figured it out you could actually unroll it and flip your leader and flip the fabric and just leader about pinup don't go back on what an advantage of the velcro leaders but rather than unpin that oh yeah okay so when you first get your pull first get your machine you want to mark the center of your leaders and the center of your pole okay that way you know where your Center is so we've got our Center marked here and I'm just gonna take our pin and line it up at the center and then I'm gonna pin just about a quarter of an inch away okay and you took a big bite I took a big bite and here's your PIN I'm sorry I mean I'm gonna just put my pins point to had no other I don't want to overlap it and I don't want to weave it because weaving it just takes time this is secure enough that it's gonna hold it but I don't want to leave big gaps because if I've got a big gap it's gonna pull and my quilts not gonna stay straight in tension all right okay so we're just gonna pin all the way across the quilt and once we've got it pinned then we're gonna roll it up okay all you pin your side and I'll pin mine that's why I have a pin cushion done first well yeah because you started first all right Cheryl I know you have a tip on this so I'm gonna hand you the pin and I didn't pin this last part so I know you have something you want to show okay so on the last pin is the only pin that I weave and it just makes it a little more secure on the ends so I just weave that pin in so that it holds it securely and on the opposite end down here I actually weave the pin with the point going in towards the quilt so that as you're rolling you're not getting your hands caught on that sharp point I've done that yes I've done that yes okay so it's pinned and we're ready to roll so I like to get it nice and straight straighten out your leaders so everything has the right tension Oh see I just stuck myself so now I'm really glad that you helped me pin but I'm not gonna let you help me roll this because we're friends we are but you know you have that really strong hand and just kind of we've got different hand tension okay off inside so and but I'm not hearing something okay if you're not sure go ahead and put your ratchet down that way you can hear it so that your home will always roll the right direction okay so engage that ratchet now do you hear it and that's what you want to always hear is that ratchet moving because if you didn't and you rolled it the wrong way you roll it so as I'm rolling and I'm just gonna make sure that I'm keeping my quilt nice and smooth working from the center out so that it doesn't hourglass on the edges right so I'll roll three or four turns and then I'll just massage it out and it's kind of our glassing over here so I'll just move a little more over here but it's looking good here so we're fine here this is so important you know sometimes I think we hurry too fast to get it on and then at wonder why it doesn't come out square at the end and things look a little off this is this is an important part of preparing the quilt and getting it on so that everything wears up and one thing too is if you've got a seam you want to make sure that your seam if at all possible runs the length of the pole because then when you're rolling it up you've only got two layers of fabric here where if you're rolling it in the center every time a roll you're rolling up two layers of fabric then you get a big bulge there well and it also gives you a reference halfway through or wherever your seam is that you're getting it straight because sometimes like if I helped you roll and I have more tension I would have it tighter than maybe you would all right and the same thing with a pieced back or piece top use those seam lines to help you keep it okay so we're just gonna sew a little tip on using this beautiful cuddle is you can kind of see a lot of fluff a lot of fluff there when I cut cuddle I throw it in the dryer with just air fluff and it takes all those little pieces off because you should see what the floor looks like right here and if I pronounced yeah we got that too but yeah so that's a really good tip to just clean that up you don't wet it or anything just put it in an air fluff dryer and it takes all those little pieces away okay guys are we getting square as it comes up here that's pretty good I see it even antor looks like it's drawn in a little bit or maybe this site so look how she'll we're going I'm gonna wash this and make sure that it's nice and straight and then I also do that when I roll to I will massage it and make sure that it's straight okay all right okay so we're back is on now so now we're ready for our top we have this cute little flannel somebody's gonna give a little cute little baby quilt now did you measure this I thought you did I did so good folded uh-huh this has got to fold in it we're actually gonna put that fold that way okay and that's the half way and I noticed here that our leaders aren't marked so instead of worrying about the leader I'm going to look at where my quilt is and I'm gonna make sure that my top is centered I'll do that cover my snowshoe okay so there's my center but I I need to know that I have enough fabric on each side right that I can because if I had put this over here I would not like that no so I want to have a couple of inches on each side and in first to make sure that you've got three to four inches all the way around your quilt so that you've got at least an inch and a half to two inches on in right side top and bottom so a really good tip that I have found is it will find your Center measure and then pin that quilt out say this is 22 inches pin it out to 22 inches and then do the same thing over here and pin it out to 22 because if I found the center and that's the true Center and I pinned this and stretched it and got it out to 23 and only two twenty two or twenty one and a half I have just made my quilt not straight yep so measure from the center out so that you get that and you can place pins every once in a while to make sure it stays that way work that fullness in if it has to be worked in today we're just going to pin because this is such a small quilt now I I love to just lay it flat here with my hand and pin and it's amazing that I was probably taught by you because that's the same way that I do it because some people will pick it up and pin to the leader side you can do that it's fine but I really like being able to just use my finger my thumb to bring that those edges together so another way that I've seen people do this Vicki is I've actually seen them and I'll see if I can get this to do this to take their fabric and put it on the leader like this and try and pin that I have seen that to me doesn't work well I've seen it done the thing that I worry about which I would do is I would end up sewing over the top of the leader and so on those are me together so this way you know that there and then you can see your pins as well there are other loading methods that you can use that are in you know that are out there I have I just stick with pins because I like it did you leave your last pin I did not oh I didn't I'll weave my last pin thank you okay okay so now we're gonna roll up her top so again this was the same thing should have been done put this over the top so that you see visually you see that quilt that your quilt is going to be right sides facing the sky that's the way a quilt would be so that you know that that you're not getting that loaded wrong okay so put that out there put my ratchet down you hear that and we'll just go ahead and roll it I kind of like these smaller pulse cuz I can just roll here really quickly and easily my short the gallery pulls her a little thicker okay I'll keep this is hourglass scene a little bit so I'll keep that oh don't touch oh did you see that dirty look I got from her all right it's heart glassing I like you but there's some things I don't want you to help me well Kay I just saw your wine some thread up into it see there so it helps to have a second set of eyes okay so again as she winds this up it's winding so that it's just straight across there and I cut that so that it was good all right now okay now we're gonna load our back to our take-up leader hey so I need to release the ratchet yes but first we want to make sure that when we're doing this that our leader oh here let me release your ratchet that our leader goes behind the idler pulley but if you happen to load it this way and you realize too late don't unpin it just undo the velcro and put it back on and put it back under the idler pull and do it the correct way then the markings that you've marked right all right then we're gonna put it behind the idler pull okay very good now this has got the super leader on here so I'm telling you what if you have a studio to frame you should have just by a super leader look what this does to you even people with the old studio frame with because it brings it right up yeah look at that no bending over it's right there there's your markings okay okay now for me I like to actually make it a little bit shorter to start with cuz this is going to show us will you lift up my ratchet down here please it is it is thank you so sometimes when you get your quilt your leader might have been moved or for some reason it's not quite right and I can see right here that my center mark and my pin if I were to put my pin or my surrealist look at that twist did get moved so I like to just hold my fabric straight and I like to bring my ball and let it fall and make the leader straight that's awesome I see that my fabric is on the green and my leader is on the grain so then at this point I know that's where I want it and that's where I'm going to go ahead and pin it and you're pinning it to the fabrics I need it to the fabric side I like that because then I can see those pins when I'm stitching I'm going to help you again thank you okay so can you put the ratchet down there for me I sure will and I'm gonna roll this up just a little ways but I'm gonna leave just a little bit of slack in there so that we can get our batting through and even though we've got the slack we have the pull cradles and they are so nice so we can just take our poles out and set them up in the pull cradles and then we're gonna put our batting on did you measure your bedding yes I had an angel do it for me look so I'm gonna put it right up to the edge of my pins see your pan so I can still see my pins good tip and and I like to bring it up and tension it up but not too tight because remember we have stretch here that's right so now I'm gonna pair but wait I'm just gonna making I'm kind of OCD about this there we go okay ours back down Rock so now we're ready to baste or quilt a straight line so that we have something straight to pull our quilt up to so we want to keep a school we want to keep it square and then throw it so quilt out first equal a basting stitch or if you forget to put in basting it's okay and then bring that folder you're gonna bring that forward to that stitch line and I like to rather than just think you know it's going to stay there I actually like to take and pin my pins going this way but far enough away from the edge that I'm not gonna hit the pins with about every four inches every four to six inches okay across your quilt and I always start in the center and go both directions just to make sure that everything is the pinning part yep so when you then when you stitch do you stitch starting in the center and going both ways or do you start over I just start over here and go because you've stabilized it with brains you've got it all set then you can use and the glide foot works great as it does that to just flow across it doesn't push your fabric yep works great to do that basting stitch across and then down that side right so can I give you a tip ok bu we're gonna say it okay but when I when I baste the sides I start at the bottom because then I know that this is where my fabric is on the edge and then I channellock it and baste up so that I know that that's gonna stay square on that corner well it doesn't push fabric right you're gonna say that sorry so then the only other thing that we need to do once we've got it basted and ready to go as we need to put our side clamps on okay so let's do are you going to advance this forward are you gonna do free motion quilting what are you going to do here because if I were doing the prosthetic I would advance it and give as much throat space right but if you're doing freehand you might want to start with just a small space like right where you're at because you're 12 inches is your best quilting area for your eyes okay and your arm and your arm Lee tonight okay so all right so side clamps why are they so important so it helps hold the quilt secure do you put it on your backing your batting or all three I usually put it just on the backing and the batting some people say just the backing but sometimes I'd like to be able to see where my clamp is and if it's under my batting I might not notice it completely so what happens and we'll do it on this side I'm gonna release this clamp and let's advance this a little for forward forward whoops didn't it didn't follow there that's that's good enough because I didn't release that tension there see how that stretch so that's when you have to be really careful with your cuddle fabric your stretch fabric so it doesn't stretch see how that's stretched there so that would have been stitched and then and as you advance that forward but the the clamps on the side what happens if you if you're quilting and you didn't have enough backing fabric to be able to clamp because if I clamp this give it a clamp and my fabric is clear over here it's gonna hit that clamp right so can you give us some an or if I'm using a ruler base the ruler bases have a good table base and it's gonna hit that clamp and then it's gonna throw you it is so I like to take just a piece of twill tape just plain old simple twill tape and I actually have taken mine at home and I have folded up my hands and I've stitched across the bottom of it so that I've got that little lip right there okay and that way my clamp actually fits on the side of that and it's not going to pull out because it's got that lip there okay so then I've got this edge of my twill tape that I actually will pin to my fabric for that extent of that and you don't have you're not gonna hit that with your ruler base you're not gonna hit that with your machine that is great yes and it is so important to put your clamps on when you start quilting to keep things so you don't get tough underneath with your backing fabric and if you're using pro stitcher or some type of computerized program - it's like a big embroidery hoop and embroidery hoops have tension on all four sides of the hoop this is a hoop this is just a great big hoop which is cool we have this great big hoop that we can quilt but give it the correct tension so that there's no surprises at the end but you don't want to pull it too tight because you can't actually distort your fabrics Rock could destroy your backing over your top especially in it like this what I can do here yeah oh that is really a good tip yes thank you for sharing that and if you loved your quilt square you're gonna have a square quilt the quilt right and keep it square and you know there's another tip that Murray uses is that sometimes you find you have fullness in the quilt and you kind of need to even that pull this out a little bit and she'll take a rotary cutter ruler or maybe one of her bigger long arm rulers and she'll use that to kind of sweep and kind of even out the tension using that ruler and sweep it and kind of smooth everything out so some good tips on helping get the quilt square keeping it square and being successful in your quilting okay one thing before we finish up today is you've got this quilt loaded and you just said to me I really like the height of this machine I didn't table I don't this is way too short for me because I'm what five eight happen you're maybe five three and a half okay so that were five inches difference and I feel it this would be really uncomfortable for me so quilters this is so important get that for your comfort to me this is too short and last I sat on a stool and and I wouldn't want to so I turn we kind of give a tip to turn and if there's like three inches from your elbow to this pole yours is about to which you like this I actually would maybe like it just a little bit higher would you uh-huh okay I do I like it a little bit higher than the three inches from now I would like it a lot higher this is way too short for me when I'd be quilting like this yes you would but that's the nice thing is these the legs are adjustable so that you'd a quilter you can get it at the height that you want that you need so that it's comfortable for you now we do have the high rise that they can add to any to our frames and you could adjust it so that you could quilt on it one day and I could curl on another that'd be great if you were sharing right if you're sharing with someone then you've got that option but get it if you're the one that are that's going to be doing that quilting get that for your height so that it's comfortable you are going to have so much fun quilting well I hope you've enjoyed our HQ live today we have had fun doing this and helping you helping answer a lot of those questions that that come because we get a lot of them and we want you to be successful in your quilting so have a good day happy quilting and we'll see you next month [Music] like all of it no what's wrong with my chin that camera okay now we are going to kick Murray out all right you you

Channel: Handi Quilter

Views: 33,110

Rating: 4.840456 out of 5

Keywords: Handi Quilter, Longarm, Sewing, Quilting, Quilts, Free-motion Quilting, Finishing Quilts

Id: 4fycFL1mAwA

Length: 54min 51sec (3291 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2018