Carla P

Lots of very good questions!! First of all, always start a new technique on a practice square. This is where you will train your brain and hands to work as a team without much effort. Before sitting down to your practice square, doodle out your designs on paper, a chalk board, a dry erase board (this is my favorite... plenty of room, erase and start over, and lay it down on the table so it is in the same position as your quilt), or a magna-doodle type toy. This trains your hands to move in different directions & helps your brain to begin memorizing the patterns. This is an invaluable warming up part of the process, but it is also a way to get into the habbit of sketching out designs that catch your eye during the course of each day for later use. (Trust me, you will forget them by the time you return home, and you'll drive yourself nuts trying to remember.)

Second, I have machine quilted on a domestic home machine for many years. I did recently purchase a long-arm, but I sat in front of my home machine enough years to learn to overcome every obstacle that came my way, or give up quilting, which wasn't an option. I'm not very good at explaining things sometimes, but I'll do my best to tell you what works for me. First of all, I turned my machine sideways with the sewing head facing me. You can see what is going on much better this way. The next thing I did was cut the front out of my presser foot, so it is shaped like a "C". This too will allow for better visability. If this step makes you a bit too nervous, you can use a clear foot or purchase a foot for your machine either made in the "C" shape or with the front already cut out; there are some on Ebay I believe. Make sure thet you have plenty of level space to both the left and right of the needle (with the machine turned sideways) by using books on each side of the machine, making a "table" like some of the ones posted on this site, or purchasing one. Either way will be effective since it is not so much for your hands, but to allow you access to your immediate quilting area. As always, support the bulk of your quilt so as to avoid drag. For large quilts, and yes I'm including King size in this and yes I've done them on the home machine, get a rod/pole like a 1/2 inch dowell, about 12 to 18 inches long to roll your quilt onto. (You could even roll a papertowel tube really tight & wrap it with masking or DUCT tape... in case you're curious Tim.)I have tried the bike clips, accordion folding, bunching, and many other methods and found this to be the best for me. The object is to get a tight roll that is easy to continue rolling in the neck area of your machine. Since it is not beside you, it is out of your way. You should never be worried about trying to actually quilt an area bigger than the space under your hands. Keep the quilt around your machine loose enough to move easily under your hands, and you'll be just as successful with a king size as you are on a baby quilt.
Practice moving your hands in every direction. You will naturally be more comfortable pushing the quilt away from you, but you will be doing yourself a favor to become comfortable sewing in all directions.
The ruler she (Karen McTavish) was using is for quilting straight lines with a long-arm. These machines do not have feed dogs, and you can not use a walking foot on them. Most people are incapable of sewing a straight line without a guide of some sort, and believe it or not, it is much more difficult to master the control over the machine than to master the control over the quilt, since the machine moves and not the quilt. Don't get me wrong, there are some advantages of the long-arm, but the home machine is capable of all of the same functions once you master the quilt. I have never taken any classes to learn quilting, because I don't have time, but Amazon loves me!! I read, a lot, and watch the DVDs available on the market. I have learned from some of the best teachers in the world, all from the comfort of my home. Best of all, I can pause, rewind, practice, cuss, watch again, and again & cook dinner all at the same time. My point is, do what works for you, which is, after all, the way many new best methods are born... because someone did what worked for them.
Lastly, I am sorry, but I can not answer the question about adding a sashing after quilting, because I have limited experience (none) with quilt as you go type methods, which this might be a version of, or could be if you wanted to. I hope someone else can answer this for you.

Sorry if I went on too long, and I hope something I've written here will be of some use to someone.
Take care,
Carla P

jbsstrawberry

lin!!! LOL angel wings darlin, angel wings!!!

lin

The point that Carla made about doodling on paper first is an excellent one. I forgot to even mention that! When I teach machine quilting, I always make sure they practice drawing freehand designs all over large pieces of freezer paper to get the feeling of moving around without lifting their pencils off the paper. And it gets the concept of that type of movement from the brain into the hands and fingers which makes it easier to do after time. I doodled McTing on paper first before I ever got to the machine.

Carla, I never even considered turning my machine around. What an interesting concept. I'm going to have to try that now. Oddly enough, I'm more comfortable moving the quilt toward me or side to side than I am moving it away from me. Maybe that's because I'm a lefty. :lol:

Suz

Lin,

WOW!!!!!!! I am impressed!!! All three of your examples look as though you had been doing this technique forever. Please share the name of Karen's book/video.

And thank you for your explanation of how to proceed. Never thought of starting in the right corner but it makes sense as it compacts the right side of the quilt as you roll it for under the arm.
Question: do you quilt the entire right side row first and then start with the second row or sort of work diagonally working toward and ending at the center before turning the entire quilt around to work on the left side?

Also, do you make a large grid "in the ditch" around all of the blocks before quilting within one individual block. Karen's examples shows her changing her design slightly within each individual block.

And one last question (for now), how do you baste your layers before proceeding?

Write another novella. And thanks, thanks, thanks.

Suzanne

Carla P

Ahh... See? What works best for some doesn't always work best for others. I am one of the mass-produced right handed people of the world, so thank you for mentioning the fact that lefties tend to have a different comfort zone than righties.

Your practice blocks are beautiful, by the way, Lin.

lin

Thank you Suz. What a nice thing to say! :)

You're picking a mighty small brain this morning, :lol: but let me see if I can answer your new questions...

If I'm doing an all-over pattern (at least in the main body of the quilt) I will always start in the upper right hand corner, (I usually do the borders first. That seems to keep my quilt squared nicely) and work my way across to the left for about 14" then down, and back again to the right until I've finished that whole section down to the bottom of the quilt. When I'm doing sitd, I prefer pulling the quilt towards my lap. For some reason I'm more comfortable that direction, but if I'm doing all over it doesn't seem to matter as much because I'm changing directions all the time. If I'm doing a pattern in each individual block, then I can start anywhere, but usually start from the block in the top right corner as well. I don't always stop half-way and then turn. It depends on the size of the quilt. If I'm still comfortable with the amount of quilt I'm stuffing into the throat area, I'll keep going. I stop and turn when it gets awkward.

Once again, it depends on the design of the quilt, but I often do sitd around individual blocks if I'm treating each block independently. I'll keep the background going if I'm not doing anything different from block to block. So far I've only used the McTavishing as an all-over design in the background areas around blocks that were treated separately. :) I think it's just up to the individual doing the quilting. No wrongs or rights, just what looks good to you. In that first "attempt" pic you'll notice a small area that was cross-hatched. That's because the quilt I was fixing to do had applique blocks that I was going to do the cross-hatching in, and I wanted to be sure that it would look good in the middle of all that intense McTing. I often will do a small sample of what I'm putting in the quilt to see if the designs are all going to play well together. :)

I always hand baste my quilts. I personally find it awkward to have to stop and remove pins when I'm on a roll! LOL With the thread basting, I can simply make a quick snip of the threads that are in that 14" area I'll be working on, and in one easy motion pull them all out at once. I hardly know I'm doing it anymore. It becomes automatic. If I DO happen to forget to pull a thread out, it doesn't hurt to cross over it and pull it out later. I've never had a problem with thread breaking when I cross over one except when I attempted to use dissolvable thread and didn't snip it as I went. That was a disaster!! That type of thread obviously doesn't split well and I had a real mess on my hands with thread breaking and shredding and yanking my needle and even breaking a few. It took me longer than it should have to realize I should quit doing that and snip the threads like I did on regular threads. I can be stubborn and dense sometimes!! :lol:

Was this little novella long enough for you? LOL Between Carla and myself, we're taking up a lot of space here! :mrgreen: Have you done much machine quilting? If not, I hope you'll give it a try. I love to hand quilt, but I'm also so glad I learned to do the m-quilting. It's lots faster!!! LOL

Suz

Carla and Lin,

Thank you so much. I have copied all of the comments to a folder although I haven't read all that you wrote as yet. I need to go to it, clean it up and print and then study and study. I'll let you know how I make out when I take needle to fabric.

Space!! Yes, but well worth the information provided. I'll try to keep my questions a little shorter. :wink:

Gals, this is why this forum is so valuable with "Valued" quilting sisters like you willing to share. We all appreciate your time in helping us.

Suzanne

lin

I forgot that you asked about the name of her book. I have it out on loan to a friend right now so I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's just McTavishing by Karen McTavish. I'm not sure how long the book has been on the market, but I don't think it's been too long.

I'm thrilled to be able to contribute something to this board Suz. Most of the time I'm perusing the threads for good info that I can apply to my own quilting. There are so many talented men and women on here that every single day I can find something to help me in this craft. :D

Never stop asking!! What works for one of us might not work for all, but if I see something that looks like it will make my life easier, or my quilts prettier, I sure am glad I have that info to at least try. I can't tell you how inspired I am by some of the newer quilters on this board! They amaze me, and certainly have many things of value to share. :D

patricej

her books are listed at the website. she offers stencils, too.

http://www.designerquilts.com/mctavish.html

Suz

The book and CD "Mastering the Art of McTavishing" is available on sale at Connecting Threads for $17.46 in case anyone is looking for it.

I will be ordering mine along with some thread they are offering: 1200 yards of 50/3 Egyptian cotton for $1.99 a spool or 8 spools for $15.90. The color selection is wonderful. I also noticed that they have the fork pin discussed in another subject.

Suzanne