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#1
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Kinds of quilting pins; how to pin; stitch in the ditch machine quilting; fancy designs
After many screams of pain, I realized I need to pin my quilt with
safety pins instead of straight quilting pins. (I'm quilting by machine, if that gives you any idea....."Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused"). Does anyone have any preferences as to size and/or type of safety pin, especially if you're using Thermore batting? Any ideas as to how many pins should be used for a sofa quilt, and how far apart should they be? I have some 2" safety pins, but their heaviness seems to make the fabric pucker. Is this because they might be too big for the amount of batting? Should the pins all go in a straight line across the entire quilt, staggering every row, or should they follow the stitching seams? I'm making a Kentucky Five Rail quilt, with five strips going in opposite angles to each other. And finally, I am quilting it by stitch-in-the-ditch. I felt this would be better because it would be easier to quilt in a straight line instead of try stippling or something fancy. I'm using a neutral thread color, which seems to be working well, but would I instead use a monofilament thread on the top? If so, wouldn't that melt in a dryer? I want to put some fancy designs in the corners using my embroidery machine, so would I stitch-in-the-ditch and then stitch the design on top of that? The design is 4x4, standard for the type of machine I have, and my block is about 10" square. Thanks for your help! |
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#2
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heehee - can you see through the holes in your hands yet?
When I machine quilt, I make straight rows of safety pins and it's best that you use a ton of them to prevent puckers and wrinklies. I use the gold colored medium sized ones you can get at Wal Mart. I pinned a baby quilt recently and it took 4 packages of pins. Pin where you aren't going to quilt, then you might get by with not having to stop and remove pins every 2 seconds! -- Cindy Bettinger http://photos.yahoo.com/cbet_99 http://www.one-eleven.net/~music/ http://simplymusic.net "Beth Pierce" wrote in message om... After many screams of pain, I realized I need to pin my quilt with safety pins instead of straight quilting pins. (I'm quilting by machine, if that gives you any idea....."Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused"). Does anyone have any preferences as to size and/or type of safety pin, especially if you're using Thermore batting? Any ideas as to how many pins should be used for a sofa quilt, and how far apart should they be? I have some 2" safety pins, but their heaviness seems to make the fabric pucker. Is this because they might be too big for the amount of batting? Should the pins all go in a straight line across the entire quilt, staggering every row, or should they follow the stitching seams? I'm making a Kentucky Five Rail quilt, with five strips going in opposite angles to each other. And finally, I am quilting it by stitch-in-the-ditch. I felt this would be better because it would be easier to quilt in a straight line instead of try stippling or something fancy. I'm using a neutral thread color, which seems to be working well, but would I instead use a monofilament thread on the top? If so, wouldn't that melt in a dryer? I want to put some fancy designs in the corners using my embroidery machine, so would I stitch-in-the-ditch and then stitch the design on top of that? The design is 4x4, standard for the type of machine I have, and my block is about 10" square. Thanks for your help! |
#3
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Beth I kinda did the same at first, then went to my safety pins after that,
but didn't have enough, but worked with what I had. Do SITD almost every time. Once I did a diagonal, had to mark the fabric first though with colored chalk, which it came of good before throwing in washer the 1st time. Well got frustrated with the pins, saw the quilting gun on some quilting show, probably Simply Quilts, and bought me one of those, plus the basting grate that went under the quilt so as to use the gun better. Well I do like the gun better, just I had a few of the plastic things that got stuck, and got mad at them, but got over it. I still use the gun to hold my quilting sandwich together so I can do my quilting. And I also learned to use the remover tool. I used scissors at first, and put a little snip in one of my quilts, well our bear quilt, so don't feel bad that it is ours, and not a gift for some1 else. So if you do get the gun, also good idea to get the basting grate, and the remover tool also. I have seen post that the red tacks were not the best, but haven't seen any other color, only have Wally World near by, and quilting stores are too far away from me. Here is a review on when a basting grate won't do - http://quiltersreview.com/article.as...g/020121_a.asp just do a search or a google for basting (or quilting) gun. Sure there are other pages on this product. here is a pic of the gun: http://www.ezquilt.com/products/basting/bastegun.htm. Just my opinion, Maine-iac Rose @--- remove the thorns so you don't get pricked, and add a hyphen between the 2 words to email me. "Beth Pierce" wrote in message After many screams of pain, I realized I need to pin my quilt with safety pins instead of straight quilting pins. (I'm quilting by machine, if that gives you any idea....."Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused"). Does anyone have any preferences as to size and/or type of safety pin, especially if you're using Thermore batting? Any ideas as to how many pins should be used for a sofa quilt, and how far apart should they be? I have some 2" safety pins, but their heaviness seems to make the fabric pucker. Is this because they might be too big for the amount of batting? Should the pins all go in a straight line across the entire quilt, staggering every row, or should they follow the stitching seams? I'm making a Kentucky Five Rail quilt, with five strips going in opposite angles to each other. And finally, I am quilting it by stitch-in-the-ditch. I felt this would be better because it would be easier to quilt in a straight line instead of try stippling or something fancy. I'm using a neutral thread color, which seems to be working well, but would I instead use a monofilament thread on the top? If so, wouldn't that melt in a dryer? I want to put some fancy designs in the corners using my embroidery machine, so would I stitch-in-the-ditch and then stitch the design on top of that? The design is 4x4, standard for the type of machine I have, and my block is about 10" square. Thanks for your help! |
#4
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I use 1" brass safety pins. Decide first where you want to quilt, then put
the pins on each side of the main lines, if that makes sense. Plus enough pins scattered all over so that you can't put your hand down anyplace without covering a pin. Comes to about 4" apart. But I'd put them even closer with anything but cotton batting. If the design is in blocks, perhaps with sashing in between, I quilt some kind of all-over grid to start. Maybe down each side of the sashes. Then I finish the border and bind the quilt. Then go back and do the fancy stuff in the blocks. Which ditches were you planning to stitch in? Along each rail? Maybe your stabilizing grid would be down and across all the 10" blocks to start. Not sure what you mean about the embroidery. Is that meant to go through the backing as well? Try a sample piece and see what it looks like! If you like it, then it's fine! There are no quilt police. Monofilament holds up well, no worries. (I like YLI or SewArt.) Use it with regular cotton in the bobbin. If you like the neutral thread you're already using, that's fine too. Roberta in D "Beth Pierce" wrote in message om... After many screams of pain, I realized I need to pin my quilt with safety pins instead of straight quilting pins. (I'm quilting by machine, if that gives you any idea....."Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused"). Does anyone have any preferences as to size and/or type of safety pin, especially if you're using Thermore batting? Any ideas as to how many pins should be used for a sofa quilt, and how far apart should they be? I have some 2" safety pins, but their heaviness seems to make the fabric pucker. Is this because they might be too big for the amount of batting? Should the pins all go in a straight line across the entire quilt, staggering every row, or should they follow the stitching seams? I'm making a Kentucky Five Rail quilt, with five strips going in opposite angles to each other. And finally, I am quilting it by stitch-in-the-ditch. I felt this would be better because it would be easier to quilt in a straight line instead of try stippling or something fancy. I'm using a neutral thread color, which seems to be working well, but would I instead use a monofilament thread on the top? If so, wouldn't that melt in a dryer? I want to put some fancy designs in the corners using my embroidery machine, so would I stitch-in-the-ditch and then stitch the design on top of that? The design is 4x4, standard for the type of machine I have, and my block is about 10" square. Thanks for your help! |
#5
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Ouch!
I recommend the basting spray...or better yet the fusible batt. But, if you must pin...the #1 brass pins are pretty nice. You want to make sure the pins you buy don't rust unless you always baste and then quilt in a timely manner. Otherwise, rust spots can happen. You want to make sure the pins are of pretty good quality as burrs or really thick metal can make basting no fun at all. If you stumble upon a wonky pin it's better to toss it in the trash than suffer through it. I have seen recommended here getting pins in bulk from drycleaners or other suppliers. I suspect if you go to google groups and search the database for pin basting, or something similar you will come up with several shopping suggestions. If Sarah were brave enough to venture back she would suggest that basting cannot be properly done without a beer. Others recommend wine or chocolate or marshmallow peeps. For me, the pattern on pinning is done in basically a "stay out of the way of the quilting lines" method. I do try to put them less than 4 fingers width apart. Hey, your hand is always attached and you aren't as likely to loose it in the piles of stuff in your sewing room ;-) But, honestly, I only pin baste when I am in classes where the teacher says to. I either use a fusible method for machine stuff or thread basting for handwork. But that's just me. Neutral thread will be just fine. If you really, really want to use the nylon, you can and what is in the stores now is nicer and won't melt in the dryer. Some quilters love it others don't. Use what you like and will be happy with; there are no iron clad rules for acceptable thread usage :-) Now, the final RULE is you must post back and tell us how it all goes and let us happy dance with you when you finish. Someone round here keeps saying that "finished is good". It's almost Martha Stewart like "it's a good thing" :-) But, now I'll probably be in trouble for comparing her to Martha. marcella In article , (Beth Pierce) wrote: After many screams of pain, I realized I need to pin my quilt with safety pins instead of straight quilting pins. (I'm quilting by machine, if that gives you any idea....."Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused"). Does anyone have any preferences as to size and/or type of safety pin, especially if you're using Thermore batting? Any ideas as to how many pins should be used for a sofa quilt, and how far apart should they be? I have some 2" safety pins, but their heaviness seems to make the fabric pucker. Is this because they might be too big for the amount of batting? Should the pins all go in a straight line across the entire quilt, staggering every row, or should they follow the stitching seams? I'm making a Kentucky Five Rail quilt, with five strips going in opposite angles to each other. And finally, I am quilting it by stitch-in-the-ditch. I felt this would be better because it would be easier to quilt in a straight line instead of try stippling or something fancy. I'm using a neutral thread color, which seems to be working well, but would I instead use a monofilament thread on the top? If so, wouldn't that melt in a dryer? I want to put some fancy designs in the corners using my embroidery machine, so would I stitch-in-the-ditch and then stitch the design on top of that? The design is 4x4, standard for the type of machine I have, and my block is about 10" square. Thanks for your help! |
#6
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I also used the big st pins at first--still do on some smaller things. Got
tired of the blood on my work though Now for the big stuff I bought the saftey pins at walmart in the quilting stuff. I bought 6 paks but that wasnt quite enough to do a whole queen quilt so go for 7 or 8 paks. I pin every few inches even if I might quilt there 'cause until I actually start quilting I have no idea how I am going to quilt it! I usually pin completely across the top and one side FIRST to get it even then work back and forth from the top down. -- Kathy in CA Quilting Stuff: http://community.webshots.com/user/kathys1068 "Beth Pierce" wrote in message om... After many screams of pain, I realized I need to pin my quilt with safety pins instead of straight quilting pins. (I'm quilting by machine, if that gives you any idea....."Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused"). Does anyone have any preferences as to size and/or type of safety pin, especially if you're using Thermore batting? Any ideas as to how many pins should be used for a sofa quilt, and how far apart should they be? I have some 2" safety pins, but their heaviness seems to make the fabric pucker. Is this because they might be too big for the amount of batting? Should the pins all go in a straight line across the entire quilt, staggering every row, or should they follow the stitching seams? I'm making a Kentucky Five Rail quilt, with five strips going in opposite angles to each other. And finally, I am quilting it by stitch-in-the-ditch. I felt this would be better because it would be easier to quilt in a straight line instead of try stippling or something fancy. I'm using a neutral thread color, which seems to be working well, but would I instead use a monofilament thread on the top? If so, wouldn't that melt in a dryer? I want to put some fancy designs in the corners using my embroidery machine, so would I stitch-in-the-ditch and then stitch the design on top of that? The design is 4x4, standard for the type of machine I have, and my block is about 10" square. Thanks for your help! |
#7
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"Roberta Zollner" wrote in message ...
I use 1" brass safety pins. Decide first where you want to quilt, then put the pins on each side of the main lines, if that makes sense. Any reason why you use brass over steel? Would it be because you can see them easier or do they go into fabrics, such as silk, much easier? Which ditches were you planning to stitch in? Along each rail? Yes, and it seems to be working fine. Not sure what you mean about the embroidery. Is that meant to go through the backing as well? Yes. I saw this technique somewhere and I want to try it. Thanks for reminding me there are no "quilt police". |
#8
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I have half of the steel pins and half of the brass--why? no steel ones when
I needed to buy more They both work the same that I could tell so maybe that happened to Beth too or maybe she just likes the color better. -- Kathy in CA Quilting Stuff: http://community.webshots.com/user/kathys1068 "Beth Pierce" wrote in message om... Any reason why you use brass over steel? Would it be because you can see them easier or do they go into fabrics, such as silk, much easier? |
#9
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Beth Pierce wrote:
Any reason why you use brass over steel? Would it be because you can see them easier or do they go into fabrics, such as silk, much easier? If for some reason brass pins are left in the quilt, they won't rust, unlike steel ones. lisae |
#10
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Brass pins mainly because that's what was there in that size! I bought them
in a box of 500 (don't ask the price, I don't remember and it wasn't dollars anyway). They've been though a Lot of quilts, never a hint of rust. A few get tossed now and then when they seem dull. Roberta in D "Beth Pierce" wrote in message om... Any reason why you use brass over steel? Would it be because you can see them easier or do they go into fabrics, such as silk, much easier? |
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