SM stitches per inch?

There was a charm pack here of Michael Miller's Fairy Frost in 50 colors.
I've made twelve Dutchman's Puzzle (flying geese) blocks from Nickel Quilts
by Pat Speth. That went well.
They will be used to frame an appliqué named Silly Goose. ( Geese -
goose. Are you with me so far?) I remember the pattern is in a magazine
that has a pull-out set of patterns so it should be easy enough to find.
We have most thoroughly discussed the pitfalls of using silk thread for
appliqué and agree that the reading of laundry labels by new daddies is too
much to hope for.
Moving forward, as we must : it crosses my mind that setting the
stitch length to more stitches per inch might make the flying geese
sturdier. It also might make the seams have more thread and therefore not
as nicely behaved.
Do you accept whatever your SM chooses for quilt piecing? Do you adjust
it to more stitches per inch in the hope (real or imagined of longevity)? or
have you thought about it? Polly

I most often leave the automatic setting on my Bernina. It seems to be a
bit smaller than other machines. But if I know something needs some extra
security, I shorten the stitch length just a titch under "2".

--
Kathyl (KJ)
remove "nospam" before mchsi
http://community.webshots.com/user/kathylquiltz
"Polly Esther" wrote in message
...
There was a charm pack here of Michael Miller's Fairy Frost in 50 colors.
I've made twelve Dutchman's Puzzle (flying geese) blocks from Nickel
Quilts by Pat Speth. That went well.
They will be used to frame an appliqué named Silly Goose. ( Geese -
goose. Are you with me so far?) I remember the pattern is in a magazine
that has a pull-out set of patterns so it should be easy enough to find.
We have most thoroughly discussed the pitfalls of using silk thread for
appliqué and agree that the reading of laundry labels by new daddies is
too much to hope for.
Moving forward, as we must : it crosses my mind that setting the
stitch length to more stitches per inch might make the flying geese
sturdier. It also might make the seams have more thread and therefore not
as nicely behaved.
Do you accept whatever your SM chooses for quilt piecing? Do you adjust
it to more stitches per inch in the hope (real or imagined of longevity)?
or have you thought about it? Polly

Well . . . why I was wondering ... I usually set the stitches per inch a
little shorter than default in the hope that the seams would be stronger.
With the flying geese, I didn't. It seemed to me that there wasn't a lot of
stress on those seams. Every one of them pressed nice and flat. Just
beautifully. It caused me to wonder if it had to do with more thread in the
seams. Maybe so. Maybe not? Polly


"KJ" wroteI most often leave the automatic setting on my Bernina. It
seems to be a
bit smaller than other machines. But if I know something needs some extra
security, I shorten the stitch length just a titch under "2".

"Polly Esther" wrote There was a charm pack here of Michael Miller's
Fairy Frost in 50 colors.
I've made twelve Dutchman's Puzzle (flying geese) blocks from Nickel
Quilts by Pat Speth. That went well.
They will be used to frame an appliqué named Silly Goose. ( Geese -
goose. Are you with me so far?) I remember the pattern is in a magazine
that has a pull-out set of patterns so it should be easy enough to find.
We have most thoroughly discussed the pitfalls of using silk thread
for appliqué and agree that the reading of laundry labels by new daddies
is too much to hope for.
Moving forward, as we must : it crosses my mind that setting the
stitch length to more stitches per inch might make the flying geese
sturdier. It also might make the seams have more thread and therefore
not as nicely behaved.
Do you accept whatever your SM chooses for quilt piecing? Do you
adjust it to more stitches per inch in the hope (real or imagined of
longevity)? or have you thought about it? Polly

No clue. Maybe our Pati would know. I think the longer stitch length is a
bit more relaxed, so maybe that's why it pressed well. Or it could be your
fabrics. Or whatever house the current moon is in.

--
Kathyl (KJ)
remove "nospam" before mchsi
http://community.webshots.com/user/kathylquiltz
"Polly Esther" wrote in message
...
Well . . . why I was wondering ... I usually set the stitches per inch a
little shorter than default in the hope that the seams would be stronger.
With the flying geese, I didn't. It seemed to me that there wasn't a lot
of stress on those seams. Every one of them pressed nice and flat. Just
beautifully. It caused me to wonder if it had to do with more thread in
the seams. Maybe so. Maybe not? Polly


"KJ" wroteI most often leave the automatic setting on my Bernina. It
seems to be a
bit smaller than other machines. But if I know something needs some
extra security, I shorten the stitch length just a titch under "2".

"Polly Esther" wrote There was a charm pack here of Michael Miller's
Fairy Frost in 50 colors.
I've made twelve Dutchman's Puzzle (flying geese) blocks from Nickel
Quilts by Pat Speth. That went well.
They will be used to frame an appliqué named Silly Goose. ( Geese -
goose. Are you with me so far?) I remember the pattern is in a
magazine that has a pull-out set of patterns so it should be easy enough
to find.
We have most thoroughly discussed the pitfalls of using silk thread
for appliqué and agree that the reading of laundry labels by new daddies
is too much to hope for.
Moving forward, as we must : it crosses my mind that setting the
stitch length to more stitches per inch might make the flying geese
sturdier. It also might make the seams have more thread and therefore
not as nicely behaved.
Do you accept whatever your SM chooses for quilt piecing? Do you
adjust it to more stitches per inch in the hope (real or imagined of
longevity)? or have you thought about it? Polly

Depends. Sometimes it comes down to how likely I'll be to need to frog-
stitch it g. It's probably the only thing I'm not thrilled with my
Viking about. Often '2' seems a little long, but '1.5' seems a little
short, and I don't think there's any way to go in between.

--Heidi

http://community.webshots.com/user/rabbit2b

Polly when I'm doing piecing like flying geese or half square
triangles or any really small piecing, I make my stitch length much
shorter. Don't know if it's right or not, I just know it makes sense
to me. The more stitches, the stronger the seam will be -- I think. I
also lengthen the stitch for straight (or almost straight) quilting. I
like the look of a 4.0 or even 6.0 stitch on top of a quilt.

Ok, that's all I know.

Sunny
past my bedtime

I change my stitch length all the time, depending on what I am doing.
I hadn't specifically thought of longevity; but, for instance, if I am
going through more layers than usual, I will lengthen my stitch length
slightly; and for the corners on mitred binding I will shorten them a
lot.
Shortening the stitches as you propose, Polly, should make no difference
to seam folding and 'pressability'; it does (for me) make an improvement
on visibility of stitches on the outside i.e. they are *not* so visible!
..
In message , Polly Esther
writes
There was a charm pack here of Michael Miller's Fairy Frost in 50 colors.
I've made twelve Dutchman's Puzzle (flying geese) blocks from Nickel Quilts
by Pat Speth. That went well.
They will be used to frame an appliqué named Silly Goose. ( Geese -
goose. Are you with me so far?) I remember the pattern is in a magazine
that has a pull-out set of patterns so it should be easy enough to find.
We have most thoroughly discussed the pitfalls of using silk thread for
appliqué and agree that the reading of laundry labels by new daddies is too
much to hope for.
Moving forward, as we must : it crosses my mind that setting the
stitch length to more stitches per inch might make the flying geese
sturdier. It also might make the seams have more thread and therefore not
as nicely behaved.
Do you accept whatever your SM chooses for quilt piecing? Do you adjust
it to more stitches per inch in the hope (real or imagined of longevity)? or
have you thought about it? Polly



--
Best Regards
pat on the hill

The Pfaff's default is "2.5", whatever that means. I'm assuming
stitches that are 2.5mm long. Seems a bit too long to me, so I always
reduce to "2" for piecing. Partly because I piece a lot of small
blocks. IMO it doesn't make the seams noticeably bulkier.
Roberta in D

On Thu, 2 Apr 2009 22:03:16 -0500, "Polly Esther"
wrote:

There was a charm pack here of Michael Miller's Fairy Frost in 50 colors.
I've made twelve Dutchman's Puzzle (flying geese) blocks from Nickel Quilts
by Pat Speth. That went well.
They will be used to frame an appliqué named Silly Goose. ( Geese -
goose. Are you with me so far?) I remember the pattern is in a magazine
that has a pull-out set of patterns so it should be easy enough to find.
We have most thoroughly discussed the pitfalls of using silk thread for
appliqué and agree that the reading of laundry labels by new daddies is too
much to hope for.
Moving forward, as we must : it crosses my mind that setting the
stitch length to more stitches per inch might make the flying geese
sturdier. It also might make the seams have more thread and therefore not
as nicely behaved.
Do you accept whatever your SM chooses for quilt piecing? Do you adjust
it to more stitches per inch in the hope (real or imagined of longevity)? or
have you thought about it? Polly

In article ,
"Polly Esther" wrote:

There was a charm pack here of Michael Miller's Fairy Frost in 50 colors.
I've made twelve Dutchman's Puzzle (flying geese) blocks from Nickel Quilts
by Pat Speth. That went well.
They will be used to frame an appliqué named Silly Goose. ( Geese -
goose. Are you with me so far?) I remember the pattern is in a magazine
that has a pull-out set of patterns so it should be easy enough to find.
We have most thoroughly discussed the pitfalls of using silk thread for
appliqué and agree that the reading of laundry labels by new daddies is too
much to hope for.
Moving forward, as we must : it crosses my mind that setting the
stitch length to more stitches per inch might make the flying geese
sturdier. It also might make the seams have more thread and therefore not
as nicely behaved.
Do you accept whatever your SM chooses for quilt piecing? Do you adjust
it to more stitches per inch in the hope (real or imagined of longevity)? or
have you thought about it? Polly


I can't see that it would take much, if any, more thread to use a
smaller stitch, Polly -- after all, the seam is the same length, and you
need that much thread to get from one end to the other. The only
difference might be in how many "knots" are in between the layers where
the top and bobbin threads meet. At any rate, I really do believe that
smaller stitches are stronger -- I'm not sure why, but that's MHO. g

--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
sw.foster1 (at) gmail (dot) com (remove/change the obvious)
http://www.sandymike.net

hunh??? what??? someone mentioned my name??? VBG

Basic answer is "It depends." On a lot of stuff. Bulk from thread is
there, finer thread=less bulk resulting in flatter seams. Finer
thread may be made with fewer fibers or may be more tightly twisted/
spun. A high quality fine thread is tightly spun, and small in
diameter. A lesser quality may be the same "thickness" but have less
fiber in it and be more loosely spun. (More than you wanted to know,
right?)
you will use more thread with smaller stitches, because there is a bit
that goes "down/up" between the layers of fabric. So you essentially
have the thread traveling over small "hills", and like a hilly road
there is more mileage than is indicated by the distance "as the crow
flies". G And the "thicker" your fabric the higher the hills.
Next is the fabric you are using. If your fabric is very tightly
woven, adding more thread to the thread count/more stitches per inch
can actually cause some problems. It may cause the fabric to "buckle"
a bit because you are forcing the threads more tightly together. Too
much of that and you actually start weakening the fabric. Think of a
container of pencils/chalk/etc. The pencils are standing up with the
eraser ends up. When there are enough pencils for them to stand fairly
straight there is not much room to add more pencils, and there comes a
time when trying to add another just won't happen. Now imagine that
the container you have holding the pencils has some "give" to it. You
can force more pencils into the container, but the shape of the
container starts to distort/stretch out of its original shape. The
same sort of thing can happen with stitches in fabric. And is why we
have to use stabilizer for stuff like machine embroidery. (And you
still often see some distortion at the edges of very dense embroidery
designs.)

Another factor is the type of needle you use. G A sharp needle can
penetrate the individual threads of the fabric. this can cause some
weakening, and if there is too much of it, it can really damage the
fabric. Usually we don't notice the individually damaged threads in a
woven fabric, because they are made to "hide" this. But when you have
broken threads in a knit fabric it can really show because of the
fabric construction.......thus the development of "ball point"
needles, which will not penetrate the individual threads but slide
beside them. (Which also causes some less than really straight
seaming.)

You may also have differences in seaming depending on the grain line
of the seam. Sewing bias seams can give very different results from
sewing on the straight grain. (and there may be some difference
between a cross grain and a lengthwise grain seam.)

And then there is the consideration of tension........ both top and
bobbin. You can easily have a "balanced" tension, when top and bobbin
thread interlock exactly in the middle of the fabric sandwich, and
still have the tension "wrong'. I have seen cases where the actual
mechanical set up produces that "perfect" stitch, but both bobbin and
top tension were way too tight. It pulled the seam line something
terrible, and any stress would pop stitches, in any direction.
So you need to have a correctly balanced tension. (And it may change
with different thread/needle/fabric.)

In other words, you need to consider a lot of different things.
Fabric, thread, needle, grain, tensions,(And even pressure foot
pressure... which is another subject I can get on a soapbox
about.......) and more all come into play. VVBG
Most of the time we just do it, and don't really think about all these
things because it becomes automatic.

IF all the mechanicals are set up "right" and you get a good seam, I
wouldn't worry too much about stitch length. As long as it is short
enough to hold every thing together, and long enough to not bunch the
fabric it works. G
For what it is worth, on my Viking the default length for "medium"
fabric weight is 2.5. And that is generally what I use. I do shorten
it for some things, lengthen it for others, but most of the time I
just go with it. G

Have fun,
Pati, in Phx

On Apr 2, 8:50*pm, "KJ" wrote:
No clue. *Maybe our Pati would know. *I think the longer stitch length is a
bit more relaxed, so maybe that's why it pressed well. *Or it could be your
fabrics. Or whatever house the current moon is in.

--
Kathyl (KJ)
remove "nospam" before mchsihttp://community.webshots.com/user/kathylquiltz"Polly Esther" wrote in message

...

Well . . . why I was wondering ... I usually set the stitches per inch a
little shorter than default in the hope that the seams would be stronger.