Metal-to-Metal Hand Quilting with Sharlene Jorgenson & Jean Brown

hi I'm Sharlene Jorgenson and welcome to quilting from the Heartland today we have a special guest that's going to show us some new hand quilting techniques never before in quilting from the heartland have we ever shown hand quilting so this is really going to be a fun experience for me and I would like to welcome gene Brown who is an expert in this field Thank You Charlene nice to be here with you I first met gene a couple years ago in Bend Oregon and she was a teacher there at the same conference that I was at and I had a half a day off so I was able to sit in on her class and I was really impressed with her different techniques the way I was taught Jean was that you work on a large floor frame which took up the whole living room right and the men just hated it when they come home in the evening because their living room was gone and you just use a small you use your chair and what's sitting in your lap and that's all you all the space you have to take up which was so amazing to me and she does queen-size quotes this way so Jeanne I would like you to explain how you prepare your quilt top before you actually start to quilt okay Charlene going back to the basting I like to use a basting technique that allows us to radiate the basting stitches from the center to all four corners and from the center to all four sides and once around the edge of the quilt no matter what size it is whether it's queen or king for 28 years I've used this little frame and every stitch I put on has been done on this frame you know I always did the cross hatching method in fact I still do what is wrong what is your opinion on that on cross hatching those stitches are going north south east and west and we're working on a curve and so when we move the curve around the quilt it's beginning to bunch up around the edges okay and so that defeats the purpose well there's always more than one way to do everything and I think next time I baste a quilt I'm going to try it that way and see if if you are actually right good good it works for me what kind of batting do you like to use I like a polyester low loft my quilts are decorative they're not utilitarian so I like a little puffiness and I certainly like small stitches and so with the like polyester batting I can get really nice small stitches I agree with you on the batting what about fabric content in your quilts do you use all cotton I try to use very good fabric we put too much of our time and effort in this so we do need to use the very best fabrics would would you say hundred percent cotton man absolutely okay and you wash okay okay wash everything right um do you want to explain to the viewers the tools that you're using for your technique yes these are a little unusual but they've certainly been popular and they've certainly worked well for me I've been able to speed my hand quilting technique up doing my queen and king size quilts and anything about 35 to 45 days and so that's a big help I can just do a lot of quilts in a very short time and they can be hand quilted I'm going to use the deep recess thimble I do like the thimble for the reason that it is deeply recessed probably the deepest recess on the market today I not only put my needle in this deep recess I also want to put my thumb in the recess as I work along that controls my needle during during the quilting now Aunt Becky she is a real super little quilter for me I call her my little quilting machine I'm going to put Aunt Becky under the quilt and when she comes out of the package I kind of learned a long time ago to make it fit my finger remember little cricut toys we used to have when we were kids same idea I'm going to pop the little Aunt Becky symbol forward just enough to get that curve I'm going to bend the backside down just enough where it will stay on my fingers without falling off so now we're ready to go another thing I like to do with my quilts is in this frame I like to loosen my fabric very loose that's I couldn't get used to that I know as I thought oh man she doesn't have any tension no honest at all but you use that as your instead of rocking the needle like I was taught do you bounce your quilt up and down mm-hmm and Aunt Becky does it for me mm-hmm that's why I call her my little quilter I usually measure about 3 to 4 inches here in my little portable lap time it's portable it goes everywhere with me and so I take my quilting with me everywhere it gets done faster for that reason what about on your pointer finger you'll also that I have the little rubber finger like the secretaries filing finger it just speeds up the process by being able to pull that little short needle through very quickly and let's show them the frame that we're working on okay which is also different than what you normally see it is a Oh actually your husband has made yes yes this is the little lap bass and it doesn't slide off because we put felt on the bottom we use a larger lap base than some of these have in the past because with a heavy queen or king size quilt you need good stability on your lap and another composition yes we do we turn it on our lap the other positioning too is for the knees to be quite level so that it will hold it in a real good position for you so sometimes you lift your feet a little bit and my lazy boy chair though I'll just tuck the quilt right under the front here and it holds it in the right position for me it is important however to keep the knees at a level position yes so certainly do I want it slanting down Bry mm-hmm what about the needle well I use a small needle I know many people love the 12 size 12 quilting needle this happens to be a size 10 quilt I was going to say this is not a toy it's got a red 10 ten it seems makes it just a little easier to wind are quickly winder knots on do you want to show us how you prepare your thread before you start quilting yes I will she gets very serious about when I pull my thread off of the spool of course we always use it in one direction only I think most quilters know that and that prevents a lot of knots and kinks in the thread and so I will thread the eye of the needle and I make the quilters knot which is the circle and then I take both ends the needle and lay the end of the thread on the needle now I'm going to take the loose thread here in the circle and wrap it three times or four depending on the fabric and I'm going to hold the little wrap and push the needle through clear to the bottom and there I have a little heart-shaped knot and it makes it hard to pull through but it stays in better that is the same knot that I learned without one thing and good and show them how many needles you have ready to go okay before I start a quilt the evening before while watching television but I will thread up maybe 30 or 40 needles in my little container here and there will be a lot of threads there and I put the quilters knot in and I'm ready to go and this keeps my momentum going I don't run out of thread and have to stop and thread up again now when I put my knot inside the the quilt we always bury or not so I'm going to run the knot inside and I want to retain that tail I don't cut it off I find many of my students want to grab their scissors and chop it off but what I like to do is just put my needle right in here and just swivel the needle real gently around and it will come around and it just disappears I do that little swivel on the beginning as well as at the end of my quilting as we move the quilt around the tail will become entangled with the batting and helps hold them on because you do move this quilt around a lot absolutely what this is portable work and no you are a judge and one of the things that you look for is whether they have knots on the top or the bottom of the oil would you bet a bad score absolutely okay now show the viewers and me how you're going to do this I've had five minutes of practice so I want to warn you that I'm not going to be an expert at this but by me doing things wrong they will get some very good tips I hope yes and I think one of the problems may be for you Charlene is that you have quilted before in the traditional rocking method I thought I was pretty good at you were very good your kitchens are very good um I want to learn this method because it's going to be a lot faster it is faster yes and it's comfortable I don't want to move too much of me as we get older sometimes we get some aches and pains and we don't want to move too much of us I don't move wrists either below the quilt or above I no longer come out here and use my thumb to move the sand that's what I did I run you know all the both of my grandmother's quilted that way Aunt Becky under the quilt here is just going to do everything for me okay so I'm very pleased we have a motion of your finger underneath of the Aunt Becky okay there is Aunt Becky now a very unusual thing is I do loosen these to raise a lot of eyebrows because usually we work with very tight fabric but I'm going to lift the fabric up here and when I put it on the frame I usually measure a distance of about three to four inches right here in the center that's just about the correct amount Aunt Becky is going to come right up here now most quilters pick their needle up on the side and start to work but as I said I don't want to move anything so I'd have to move my whole arm and shoulder to be able to get my needle straight in for that first stitch so instead of that and this is not my invention I've seen many many old-time quilters tripod the needle bringing these three fingers the thumb and these two fingers on top of the needle at this point I take my thumb and shove it over to the side in this wonderful thimble now I'm going to reach down with that one other hand thing and I'm going to bring that needle over and look the needle is in perfect condition for that first stitch if any new quilter needs to know we need to put that needle in each first stitch straight Amity that's a tongue twister for me but another little thing I will mention right here too we get a gap in our stitching sometimes and I have learned that we can eliminate that gap if we only consider a half a stitch with each versus stitch okay that's a good so I'm going to measure a half a stitch in front of the thread that is showing in my fabric and Becky is going to lift and give me the tension okay that I would not otherwise have and then I'm going to lay the needle down as flat as I can I'm going to push until the point of the needle shows remember where I said I'd put my thumb right on top of that needle as I shoved it over there excellent control and what a time-saver I have great control of that needle with that thumb if I get a big stitch I don't like my thumb can bring it back and give me the stitch I want now first I'm going to show you very slowly slow motion here Aunt Becky moves back way back for my students I ask them to take it way back do you see the needle and drum down all by itself with the fabric now when I bring Aunt Becky forward right here it's lifting the needle for me and so that's when I'm going to catch another stitch and Aunt Becky moves you notice the thimble is not moving except to go forward and your hands not rocking and my hand is not moving either I don't move anything my hair moving parts wear out too fast okay that's the slow motion and I'm going to pull that through now the first thing I would do would be just stab the needle close to my work again okay now I'm going to tripod right away and here we go right here and I'm going to push the needle over to that side again pick it up now I'm going to show you just a little faster if this works for me half a stitch for each first stitch and needle going straight in right now people say I like my finger under there so I can tell where the point of the needle is I don't want my finger under there it would stick it so here is Aunt Becky and metal is touching metal and I know right where it is down again for that first stitch now Aunt Becky can come up here and work real close to the point of the needle for me and I get beautiful even stitches very quickly the other thing that you do that I wasn't taught was you load your needle completely to the end I know that's bad isn't it no actually it's very smart even with using my rubber finger here ready to pull that little short needle through I can't get a hold of it and so I'm going to dip the needle down and back in just with a fingernail or my finger underneath the quill I gather the fabric on just enough to be able to pull it right on through okay and stab near our work now by taking that half a stitch back there where I needed to there's more pull put on the back stitch because it's straightening out and putting a pull there now how tight do you pull your thread I don't pull it tight I don't like it just to lay in the fabric so you don't snug it up so enamel ripples no we get beautiful little shadowed quilting by not pulling it tight now I notice on the quilt that you're working on you have absolutely no marks to follow at all do you want to explain what you're doing okay with Hawaiian quilts it's wonderful because the Hawaiian people just do it very freeform and I've been working with some Hawaiian quilts the last few years and I learned that in Hawaii when I did a study on the Hawaiian quilt so I would know more about the Hawaiian quilts they always used a finger the width of one of their fingers or their thumb if they wanted a nice wide row mm-hmm and so it made it just real easy and we don't have to mark it now she has done I don't know how many blocks that you've got here but I think it's absolutely beautiful there's four large blocks in this one and of course there were nine of the same size and which made a huge king size well hey well we won't get into the Hawaiian quilting but I wanted to show them how you do this without any marks now I have marks on mine okay and I'm going to try what you just showed us how to do okay I'd like to see you triumph okay no like I said I'm used to rocking the needle so I know I am going to stab my needle I've done that part right Rick and I have the tripod perfect position okay uh-huh maybe I can do this remember to keep Aunt Becky very busy and straight up and down dry and I'm going to tip it to the side right and push forward and and let it make it go to work right there very good look at that I am rocking my hand a little bit I feel yes you can work on that and practice it my stitches aren't even you'll work on that too I tell my students not to worry about I don't this out looks too good any bars even stitches but I did get the method down that's right you sure did and you will practice and learn not to move your hand at all where you stabbed every time you start a news every time so away from your work a little bit yes and then do the tripod uh-huh and then come back and a half a stitch that's correct lay it down mm-hmm now let me tell you not to move this hand at all I'll just let Aunt Becky go to work for you she'll do all your work for you oh that's looking a lot better now it looks good now I have a long stitch so I can come back you can because that thumb is right there ready to control your needle doesn't that make it convenient yeah I like that I think with a little bit of practice maybe an hour or so I'd be ready to run maybe less yeah it's very comfortable but I think your point about keeping your knees flat that was a very good yes and I learned something from a very famous quilting teacher many years ago if we keep our shoulders level and totally relaxed at all times we're very comfortable because even sewing at your sewing machine you know you can get some pinches and tightness in your neck and for the same reason this works so well keeps you very comfortable now if you were invited to a quilting bee and they had a big quilt on a floor frame like I was taught to quilt on would you be able to use this technique with that yes you can and you can use the Aunt Becky the thing is that the Aunt Becky will turn in the direction your needle needs it okay and work on a large stationary quilt that way okay well Jean I'm going to ask you to quilt one of the quilts that we had earlier in our series with the appliquéd roses and I want you to turn and look at the quilt and tell me what you plan to do with this okay first thing I would say was what would you plan to do with it because we always like to do it the way we would like to see it I can make suggestions and then if you liked it then we would work with that well I thought in the beginning I'd like to see the petals of the flowers outlined beautiful yeah right in the ditch oh you're right yes okay and what would you do along the vine along the outside edge we might bring in another pattern that will connect with the border itself underneath the vine not it be feathers or cross hatching or what would be any of those it could be simple lines it could be diagonal lines it could be a pattern that we'd like to work on I used a template on another quilt that I did and and we did a feather pattern that lay right in under the vine and it worked very well so feathers would work in this quilt if we let the Ivy go would you actually quilt over the ivy or we know skip under it where the feathers went you want to make the vine and the leaves look like they're laying on the top so we'll go in under what about thread color colored how do you feel about that now in past I've used contrasting thread how do you feel about that I like to use a single color thread and I always look at the back of the quilt before I make that decision because that's where it's going to look different and unusual so a beautiful off-white would be a natural color so you don't switch thread color throughout your project no because of what it looks like on the back see that's where we are a little bit different but the neat thing is that there's room for all of the different idea everybody's ideas that's right you also mentioned in the beginning that you put your binding on the top layer of your quilt before you ever start basting it yes if you send this home with me and I'm going to quilt it for you I will ask you to let me put the binding on first or if you want to put it on first I do that for several different reasons because we are working portably it allows the protection of the edge of the quilt there's no stretching or fraying or little seams popping loose if it has the binding already sewn on it definitely protects the end yes absolutely as we move it around now this is a very wide and unusual a binding because it is a different style being the Hawaiian quilt but you see I do put the binding right on the quilt top first so when I finish my quilt top it is stitched right on I'll make a binding and put it on now I always use a two inch binding yes be trimmed down well know most of my bindings are two and a half or three inches really and of course ironed in half to give it the double well lit he'll tell you what happened to me I did a wider binding and sent it off to be judged and everything was fine in my quilt until they came to the binding and they said you did very well in all scores except your binding is too wide oh my goodness so I just maybe that varies with the judge then I think so that also brings out one other point that when we have the binding on it is cross brain right because we do it on a bias it's also doubled iron it in half and it also catches right here in the edge of my frame okay allowing me to work on my board and it really holds very well right there and then we always work borders from the center of the border and quilt toward that explainer and then back to the center and that helps to keep the quilt moving in the right direction Jean I want to thank you so much for all of your tips that you shared with us today I know that the viewers are going to be very happy with this program stay with us because Linda Taylor has more machine quilting tips to share with us at the end of the program today Linda Taylor is going to show us how to make feathers on the Gamo quilting machine the feathers are done freehand Sharlene and they are simpler than they look let's start by just making one here I'm going to go down and get my thread using the security stitch here that does a complete stitch I'm going to take two or three little stitches and the first thing I'm going to do with the feather is make a stamp so that I know where the feather is supposed to be and this you could be border or along the edge of wherever you wanted to put it well here's my stamp and at the end of the stem I'm going to put almost a teardrop looking okay figure there and now if you think it's half hearts as you're coming down half heart half heart you see how easy that is you have to make them round at the top and then you follow the scam by following the scam is that you actually pour it the next feather we get down here to the bottom I'm going to go back up that stem and again notice that I have a very loose grip on the machine I'm not dripping it tightly I'm coming down making the half-heart shape again on the white day Wow I thought maybe you had a pattern or something that you follow you can certainly follow a template but this many many times you want to put a feather in a place that you would you would have the right size for the template or it's just much easier and faster it's certainly more artistic to do it yourself now what you call this design so as I just sort of made the end of the feather just so it look like it was round like that and then if I wanted to continue I could continue by doing some echoing on this feather and now we just kind of complete the feather and make it look even prettier all the way around a lot that pretty so that's how you do that's how you do your basic feathering design and so many of our quilts need this on the outside edge and they're so beautiful their skin again if you did this on a whole cloth a variegated thread would be perfect perfect yes thank you so much Linda for sharing this today with us and join us next week when we show you how to do the apple core quilt to receive charge book of quilting ideas and tips from this series call you can visit us on the internet at the address shown on your screen thanks for joining us and please join char next week for more quilting from the hi plan

Channel: Quilting From The Heartland

Views: 139,219

Keywords: hand quilting, Aunt Becky, Portable lap frame, quilting thread, quilting needles, sharlene jorgenson, jean brown, shar jorgenson, quilting from the heartland, metal to metal hand quilting, quilt with shar, inspired by shar

Id: 0DHEDYeIWz4

Length: 25min 42sec (1542 seconds)

Published: Wed May 07 2014