After several years of self taught quilting, I decided to take an official how-to-quilt-class. I like the class and the teacher is careful to stress that there are many ways to do things and that she is teaching us her favorite way.
We are at the step of machine quilting the sandwich and I find I've got some issues.
Issue 1: she suggested we pin baste and leave the pins open. I have usually spray basted and I like it a lot or used a basting gun, which I also like. I find that I'm getting a rain of safety pins everywhere since I need to mark the quilt on the floor and she suggested using soap and marking only 3 or 4 lines at a time, which makes sense since moving the quilt removes the quilting lines pretty easily. We are doing a diagonal 3 1/2" quilting. I'm wondering if the rain of safety pins is because my quilt was the last of 3 that 3 of us did and at least one of us became more enchanted with playing with free motion quilting then helping me pin mine, or whether that might be standard. Has any one else tried this method and what is your experience? Also, I pretty much am removing the pins as I go figuring that the quilting lines will hold it enough for the rest of the quilting. I am leaving what I can tho because I don't want to get tucks on the back and haven't so far. So remove pins or leave?
2nd issue: I'm using my Bernina Virtuosa 153 which has a throat of 7" and we're using walking feet. I have checked the back of my quilt and there is a visible hitch (about 1/8 th ") in most of the longest diagonal lines just where the biggest part of the quilt kind of gets caught in the throat. Any suggestions for easier feeding? I am using a Dr. Sueuss panel for backing so the hitch is visible, but I'm not sure if I want to take out the whole line of quilting for that hitch. Is it possible to rip out a couple of inches and resew (and how to do that if so) or do you think that it will be more obvious then the hitch stitch?
3rd issue: I' not very happy with getting on the floor and marking the way I am. I once bought a plum bob kit from Home Depot that has chalk and a string. My idea was that I would be able to pluck the chalk coated string against the quilt and have a nice even long line with too much if any floor sitting or crawling. Has anyone tried this idea? Is it too messy to use inside? Does it clean off the quilt ok? I think the chalk is blue and maybe yellow. I'm reluctant to open the package and try it if it's a known failure, I think I can return it...but if it works, it seems it would be a great idea!
Thanks in advance for all your help.