Q for longarm quilters
 

Sooo, how do you SITD on a longarm: block by block, Couple of blocks at a
time, or do you stitch and then roll quilt to finish?

--
Niasha
"What doesn't kill you, defines you."


"Kathy Applebaum" wrote in message
news:1fxm52m.1pnc2bgxuuy24N%Kathy_A@KayneyNOSPAMqu ilting.com...
rjwhite6 wrote:

I guess that real longarmers don't stitch in the ditch much because
a.) you don't need to stabilize the quilt as much since it is nice and
tight on the frame
and

b.) It's soooo hard to hit the ditch at longarm speeds.

Is this true?

Well, I'm a real longarmer, and I SID *all* the time!

But the majority of longarmers don't like SID because of reason #2. Me,
I didn't know it was supposed to be hard when I started, so I just
learned how to do it. The key is to have an extended base with a ruler
and take your time. There's no law that says you can't turn the speed
down! LOL

The quilt still needs stabilization on the frame if you're doing
anything except an overall pattern. The reason is that as you quilt it
pulls in the fabric, and things can get out of square. (We will NOT talk
about how I know that! LOL) So it needs some kind of stabilization. My
preference is SID (defines the block well, looks good, etc.), but
because it's slower, it's more expensive, and not everyone wants to pay
for it. So I've also got a lot of "faux" SID variations, and have even
been known to stick in pins to stabilize.

--
Kathy Applebaum (Woodland, CA)
Longarm Machine Quilting, Queen of Fabric Tramps

(remove the obvious to reply)

niasha wrote:

Sooo, how do you SITD on a longarm: block by block, Couple of blocks at a
time, or do you stitch and then roll quilt to finish?

Everyone does it differently, and every quilt is different. I have about
20" of working space by the width of the quilt before I have to advance.
I like to do as much of the SID in that area as I can before advancing,
but I also want as few stops and starts as possible, so I try to do
entire blocks, too. (In other words, if they are 12" blocks, I'll only
do one row before advancing.)

I do all my ruler work before doing anything else, partly because it
stabilizes the quilt, and partly because I have to put a special base on
the machine, so I'd rather do everything that requires the base at once,
rather than taking it on and off all the time. That includes SID,
crosshatching, circle templates, etc.

Hope that answered your question!
--
Kathy Applebaum (Woodland, CA)
Longarm Machine Quilting, Queen of Fabric Tramps

(remove the obvious to reply)

niasha wrote:

Do you follow the "rule" about stitching on the other side (less bulky)
of the seam or just sitch away?

The machine naturally wants to go to the less bulky side, so it's not a
problem to "switch" sides.

--
Kathy Applebaum (Woodland, CA)
Longarm Machine Quilting, Queen of Fabric Tramps

(remove the obvious to reply)