long arm quilting stitch in the ditch question

Thanks Jo. I'm almost fully recovered!! Yeah!

Pauline
Northern California

"Johanna Gibson" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:40:00 GMT, "Pauline"
wrote:

A woman in my quilting class sent her quilt to a "professional" long arm
quilter & wanted it SITD. When it came back, some of us were gasping at
how
poorly the quilt had been
SITD. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't the "professional" that was the
problem.
The woman who had pieced the top was not very accurate in her piecing, so
it
was very difficult for the long armer to SITD & the end result was not
very
pleasing. I would imagine if you are an accurate piecer, this would not
be
a problem - no doubt you are

Pauline
Northern California


Good to see you back on RCTQ Pauline!



-- Jo in Scotland

That could have been part of the problem too.

Pauline
Northern California

"Kathy Applebaum" wrote in message
...
FWIW, it's still quite possible to do SID with a longarm and bad piecing.
Bad PRESSING is another matter entirely.

--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
Queen of Fabric Tramps

remove the obvious to reply


"Pauline" wrote in message
. ..
A woman in my quilting class sent her quilt to a "professional" long arm
quilter & wanted it SITD. When it came back, some of us were gasping at
how poorly the quilt had been
SITD. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't the "professional" that was the
problem.
The woman who had pieced the top was not very accurate in her piecing, so
it was very difficult for the long armer to SITD & the end result was not
very pleasing. I would imagine if you are an accurate piecer, this would
not be a problem - no doubt you are

Pauline
Northern California

"Kate G." wrote in message
. ..
You are JUST LIKE ME! I love the piecing... but send out almost
everything bigger than a baby quilt! I can't speak for all long arm
quilters... but mine often does stitch-in-the-ditch as part of the
other quilting she does. I'm sure she would do only that if that is what
I asked. As for rates -- that would vary greatly based upon the
design -- but I would think that it would be far less than custom
quilting. Again -- depending on your pattern -- SITD could be an "easy"
way to do it - - or time consuming if you have to do a lot of "jumping"
from space to space.

We'll see what some of our long arm quilters have to say!

--
Kate in MI
http://community.webshots.com/user/K_Groves


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"claudia" wrote in message
...
Good morning everyone

I am curious. I have no experience with long arm quilting. Personally
I like my quilts quilted as simply as possible; I prefer stitch in the
ditch 99% of the time. Usually I do this by fighting my sewing machine
for power over the project, a major wrestling match. I was wondering
if long arm quilt machines can be used for this, and if so, if there
are any long arm (or short arm or medium arm if such things exist)
quilters out there who do this. And if they will do it for a price.
And of course, what the price and turn around time would be. Any info
is greatly appreciated.

I have finally come to the conclusion that I love piecing a top, and I
love the finished quilt, but I really REALLY don't like the actual
quilting part (making the sandwich, basting, and quilting).

Thanks

Claudia

And if you wonder why SITD takes practice on a longarm, try doing
free-motion SITD on your own machine. Remember, on a long arm or using a
frame, you don't have the feed dogs to help you guide the fabric. It's
all basically free motion.

Julia in MN

Kathy Applebaum wrote:
"claudia" wrote in message
...
Good morning everyone

I am curious. I have no experience with long arm quilting. Personally
I like my quilts quilted as simply as possible; I prefer stitch in the
ditch 99% of the time. Usually I do this by fighting my sewing machine
for power over the project, a major wrestling match. I was wondering
if long arm quilt machines can be used for this,

Yes, but it takes a lot of practice.

are any long arm (or short arm or medium arm if such things exist)
quilters out there who do this. And if they will do it for a price.
And of course, what the price and turn around time would be. Any info
is greatly appreciated.

Most longarmers who do custom work (as opposed to allover quilting only)
will do it. It will be pricey, because doing a good job at SID on a longarm
takes time.

Ask around at your guild and local quilt shops for names, and call them to
see samples of their SID work. Make sure you like the quality, and then ask
about price and turn around time. A low price or fast turn around won't do
you a lick of good if you aren't happy with the results.


--
-----------
This message has been scanned for viruses by Norton Anti-Virus
http://webpages.charter.net/jaccola/
-----------

Kathy: If you have a few minutes, I hope you will give us some tips on how
to press WELL. It would be helpful for work we quilt at home, as well as
tops we send to other quilters. Thanks so much.

--
Pat
"Kathy Applebaum" wrote in message
...
FWIW, it's still quite possible to do SID with a longarm and bad piecing.
Bad PRESSING is another matter entirely.

--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
Queen of Fabric Tramps

remove the obvious to reply

Julia:
Yep! I find SITD on my SM very challenging, to say the least. I've not been
happy with my results. I will add that I do not have any guidance from the
feed dogs with home SM free motion, because one has to drop the dogs to free
motion. (You might be talking about something else though.)
--
Pat

"Julia in MN" wrote in message
...
And if you wonder why SITD takes practice on a longarm, try doing
free-motion SITD on your own machine. Remember, on a long arm or using a
frame, you don't have the feed dogs to help you guide the fabric. It's all
basically free motion.

Julia in MN

Dear Claudia, do I remember correctly that you were asking about a thick
batt not too long ago? Maybe that's why you don't like machine quilting. I
would hate dealing with anything more than a single layer of Hobbs Heirloom!
But you are right, piecing is more fun :-)
No info for you about where to get quilting done, sorry.
Roberta in D

"claudia" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Good morning everyone

I am curious. I have no experience with long arm quilting. Personally
I like my quilts quilted as simply as possible; I prefer stitch in the
ditch 99% of the time. Usually I do this by fighting my sewing machine
for power over the project, a major wrestling match. I was wondering
if long arm quilt machines can be used for this, and if so, if there
are any long arm (or short arm or medium arm if such things exist)
quilters out there who do this. And if they will do it for a price.
And of course, what the price and turn around time would be. Any info
is greatly appreciated.

I have finally come to the conclusion that I love piecing a top, and I
love the finished quilt, but I really REALLY don't like the actual
quilting part (making the sandwich, basting, and quilting).

Thanks

Claudia

Well, Pat, if you insist on dragging out a soap box for me, I guess I have
to climb up on it! *grin*

First off, you need a HOT iron. Unless you have a really old iron made
before "they" decided to protect us from ourselves, turn it all the way up.
Doesn't matter where they claim the cotton setting is, turn it up. Unless
you're scorching the fabric within 30 seconds, it's okay.

Second, I always use steam. Yes, I know quilt teachers sing the praises of a
dry iron. IM(NS)HO, that's because newbies can use steam to really stretch
that block WAY out of shape. But none of us here would abuse our fabric like
that, so use that steam. If your iron doesn't give off a healthy amount of
steam (or if the fabric is really stubborn), have a spray bottle next to the
iron to give the fabric a quick squirt. Make steam your friend. (FWIW, if
any of you are worried about stretching the block, the ironing board police
will NOT arrest you if you take a *permanent* fine tip marker and your
rulers and draw a couple of straight lines at right angles on your board.
Now that I have the lines on my board, I never use starch anymore because I
just don't need it.)

Setting the seam (do we all know what I mean by this? If not, please ask!)
really is important. I'm all for skipping unneeded steps, but this does make
a difference. Not sure why, but my pressing is always better when I've set
that seam first.

Whether you press open as I do, or press to one side, make sure the seam is
all the way open. At classes I often see people plonk their iron straight
down, no doubt as they were taught in a beginners class, again to avoid
stretching. Unfortunately, that sets any little folds into the seam. If you
use your iron to *gently* move the excess fabric away from the seam as you
press, the pressing will look better and your pieces will end up the size
they are supposed to be. As you get more comfortable with this technique,
you can press just about as fast as the plonkers.

Lastly, pressing is not something to rush though to get back to piecing. I
used to be guilty of that, and the results showed it. Now I have a more Zen
approach. I move the iron as slowly as it takes to get a good press. You can
have the hottest iron in the world and the best technique, but if you try to
press that seam in 1/10th of a second, the fabric just can't get hot enough
for the iron to have a bit of effect on it. Moving just a bit slower doesn't
take much longer, but makes the end result so much better that it's worth
it.

--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
Queen of Fabric Tramps

remove the obvious to reply

"Pat in Virginia" wrote in message
...
Kathy: If you have a few minutes, I hope you will give us some tips on how
to press WELL. It would be helpful for work we quilt at home, as well as
tops we send to other quilters. Thanks so much.

--
Pat
"Kathy Applebaum" wrote in message
...
FWIW, it's still quite possible to do SID with a longarm and bad piecing.
Bad PRESSING is another matter entirely.

Most people do SID on their home machines with a walking foot and the feed
dogs. Even though you have to turn the quilt a lot, it winds up being easier
than trying to free motion the SID.

--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
Queen of Fabric Tramps

remove the obvious to reply


"Pat in Virginia" wrote in message
...
Julia:
Yep! I find SITD on my SM very challenging, to say the least. I've not
been happy with my results. I will add that I do not have any guidance
from the feed dogs with home SM free motion, because one has to drop the
dogs to free motion. (You might be talking about something else though.)
--
Pat

"Julia in MN" wrote in message
...
And if you wonder why SITD takes practice on a longarm, try doing
free-motion SITD on your own machine. Remember, on a long arm or using a
frame, you don't have the feed dogs to help you guide the fabric. It's
all basically free motion.

Julia in MN

Wow, Pat! I would never try to do SITD with the feed dogs down. Eek!
Following on from Kathy's great post, I'd like to add that I have just
done quite a bit of SITD on my current piece, to stabilise the blocks.
I have fairly recently taken to pressing my seams open. This makes SITD
*much* easier, because you are not having to sew alongside a lump, or on
top of a lump. Mind you, it couldn't be the only form of quilting,
because (if you do it properly in the ditch!) you are only sewing across
existing stitches into the batting and backing, rather than through
fabric.
..
In message , Pat in Virginia
writes
Julia:
Yep! I find SITD on my SM very challenging, to say the least. I've not been
happy with my results. I will add that I do not have any guidance from the
feed dogs with home SM free motion, because one has to drop the dogs to free
motion. (You might be talking about something else though.)

--
Best Regards
pat on the hill

AMEN!!! Thanks, Kathy, for spelling it out..... however, I think you might
want to add another lesson in how to set the seam. Not sure there are many
who know about that part.........

I am a firm believer that pressing is just as important (if not MORE) than
precise piecing. I love hot irons and I love steam! Makes Stitching in that
ditch SOoooooo much easier!

~~~~~~~
Laurie G. in CA
http://www.finishingtouchesquilts.com
http://community.webshots.com/user/lagrant7
~~~~~~~



"Kathy Applebaum" wrote in message
. ..
Well, Pat, if you insist on dragging out a soap box for me, I guess I have
to climb up on it! *grin*

First off, you need a HOT iron. Unless you have a really old iron made
before "they" decided to protect us from ourselves, turn it all the way
up. Doesn't matter where they claim the cotton setting is, turn it up.
Unless you're scorching the fabric within 30 seconds, it's okay.

Second, I always use steam. Yes, I know quilt teachers sing the praises of
a dry iron. IM(NS)HO, that's because newbies can use steam to really
stretch that block WAY out of shape. But none of us here would abuse our
fabric like that, so use that steam. If your iron doesn't give off a
healthy amount of steam (or if the fabric is really stubborn), have a
spray bottle next to the iron to give the fabric a quick squirt. Make
steam your friend. (FWIW, if any of you are worried about stretching the
block, the ironing board police will NOT arrest you if you take a
*permanent* fine tip marker and your rulers and draw a couple of straight
lines at right angles on your board. Now that I have the lines on my
board, I never use starch anymore because I just don't need it.)

Setting the seam (do we all know what I mean by this? If not, please ask!)
really is important. I'm all for skipping unneeded steps, but this does
make a difference. Not sure why, but my pressing is always better when
I've set that seam first.

Whether you press open as I do, or press to one side, make sure the seam
is all the way open. At classes I often see people plonk their iron
straight down, no doubt as they were taught in a beginners class, again to
avoid stretching. Unfortunately, that sets any little folds into the seam.
If you use your iron to *gently* move the excess fabric away from the seam
as you press, the pressing will look better and your pieces will end up
the size they are supposed to be. As you get more comfortable with this
technique, you can press just about as fast as the plonkers.

Lastly, pressing is not something to rush though to get back to piecing. I
used to be guilty of that, and the results showed it. Now I have a more
Zen approach. I move the iron as slowly as it takes to get a good press.
You can have the hottest iron in the world and the best technique, but if
you try to press that seam in 1/10th of a second, the fabric just can't
get hot enough for the iron to have a bit of effect on it. Moving just a
bit slower doesn't take much longer, but makes the end result so much
better that it's worth it.

--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
Queen of Fabric Tramps

remove the obvious to reply

"Pat in Virginia" wrote in message
...
Kathy: If you have a few minutes, I hope you will give us some tips on
how to press WELL. It would be helpful for work we quilt at home, as well
as tops we send to other quilters. Thanks so much.

--
Pat
"Kathy Applebaum" wrote in message
...
FWIW, it's still quite possible to do SID with a longarm and bad
piecing. Bad PRESSING is another matter entirely.