well...I decided that I had to learn to machine quilt - it is faster and easier (so I thought) than handquilting and more practical for donation quilts. I got my walking foot, asked a few questions from this group and even got some nice fabric sent to me . I watched the videos on sandwiching, got my clips and safety pins, my basting spray... had a little practice on another kids quilt - not too bad, but a little awkward - only one little pleat on the backside (excited and impatient so I didn't anchor the sandwich as well as I should have.)
..so...Got my top together, put the munchkin to bed, and thought " I think I will get this one quilted tonight so I can send it along this week to the charity"...
HA!
What a pain!!! i could not move that quilt through the walking foot without almost planting my foot on the machine and dragging the sandwich through the machine. I barely got through one time across the quilt. What am I doing wrong? And of course after all that dragging and misery, most of the stitches that I had to rip out were 'teeny tiny stitched too long in one place' stitches... I tried a sample before I started and it seemed to be ok then..but when I tried to actually do the quilt, it was awful.
IS there something I am missing? It is flannel on both sides, and I used a poly batting cause I wanted to keep it lightweight...do you think it is too thick? Wouldn't the walking foot take care of that to some degree? I was hoping to whip through a bunch of give-a-way quilts by machine quilting, but if it is that difficult, I won't be doing flannel again.
Unless someone has a solution, I will be checking out the 'how to tie your quilt' tutes instead of sleeping in this weekend.