Tips for Quilting Large Quilts on a Small Machine

[Music] hi everyone its Helen gotten here and I'm all the way from Australia and I'm working on my handy quarter sweet 16 and today I'd like to show you how to manage a big quilt even on a domestic machine first of all I like to play a little psychological game with myself if I've got a 60 inch quilt just remember the middle of that quilt is only 30 inches away it's never 60 inches away so it's only ever half as bad as you think it's going to be so I've got my 60 inch quilt here just to show you how I manipulate and move this quilt even on a domestic machine one of the first things is obviously you quilt the middle and that is the hardest part so if I was to move this to the middle of my quilt with the excess fabric there I'm going to just flop it or gently roll it so that it's free to move in that space I'm going to make sure that the sides are flipped up doesn't even have to be neat and tidy but just lift it up so that it's not dragging on to the off the side of the table so if you're on a domestic machine and you've got that set up on a big table try and sit with the machine to the right of the table so you've got the bulk of that space out in front of you so when you're working on your big quilt you're working in the middle first and then as you gradually move away from the middle it all gets easier and you want the bulk of that quilt always up there supported on the table so as I'm working I'm not going to bring that quilt down into my lap I don't want it getting stuck down here on my tummy I want it always to have the bulk of the quilt away from me up here so even if that means stopping and rotating the quilt so that it's facing a different direction so I can still have the bulk of the quilt up there I always wanted up there being supported and not dragging anywhere so if your machine is set up on a table at home it might even be an idea to move that table into the corner of your room by having that quilt bunched up onto the corner up against the wall of the room actually helps because anything that's bunched up is not dragging and giving that weight to the quilt so even a corner of the room is a better option other things you can use to help you when you're quilting our little grips of some description there's a lot of different ones out there in the marketplace but they just give you a bit more control on that quilt it stops you from being tempted to grab onto the sides of the quilt as soon as you're grabbing that's a lot of tension through your hands up into your shoulders and you will only be stitching for five minutes before you're you know needing that massage or something like that so these grips are really good they've got some sort of a suede II fabric that hangs on and it just means your hands aren't so flat on the quilt and enables that easy movement the other good thing to use of course is a pair of gloves gloves make a big difference to your sense of control of that quilt and that's a big part of managing the quilt is having that sense of control so on my sweet 16 there's a few attributes of this machine that certainly make it easier for me to manage that big quilt the first one of course is that 16 inch throat by 8 inches through here it means even a big quilt is never jammed in that small space if the court can still move easily it makes my job a lot easier here when I'm trying to quilt on the sweet 16 we have the option of adding table extensions on either side they are 18 inches wide so we have them both flipped up you've got a 72 inch table to support that quilt so if it's supported and not jammed in the middle throat here it is easy to work a big quilt as it is a small quilt if you haven't got those extensions for your table you can always go with your ironing board or a couple of those big plastic tubs and stack them up to give that extra support for that quilt we always want support to avoid the whole drag situation the other beautiful attributes of this machine is how clear the vision is for me sitting here at this side of the machine I've got all that clear vision of the quilt in front of me I can see where I'm heading what new colors I'm going to be using where my coatings you know going towards the next block I've also got a full ring of light here so I get virtually no shadows on my work which is quite a problem on a domestic machine this is very high cut compared to domestic machine so I've got a full vision down here these are also as minimal as possible the needle shank and the foot bar is as minimal as possible without any extra mechanical gadget rehanging out the back all these things are designed purposefully so I can see where I'm going and be able to manage that whole quilt visually as well as physically one of the saddest things for some people to realize is that when I got my domestic machine and I put it on my table on my sweet 16 it actually fits virtually in this throat space which is a bit sad when you're thinking about how big those quilts are and how we're trying to manage them so I hope that's helped you with some ideas on how to manage a larger quilt whether it be on the domestic or in your sweet 16 happy quilting and I'll see you soon

Channel: American Patchwork & Quilting

Views: 37,667

Rating: 4.7399101 out of 5

Keywords: American Patchwork & Quilting, sewing, quilting, handi quilter, machine quilting, quilting on a domestic sewing machine

Id: Wktzw6wRMFI

Length: 5min 29sec (329 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 03 2020