Feathers should ALWAYS stitch "clockwise" direction, if making waves of feathers
or circles of feathers or feathers following around the border, have them
flowing clockwise. And ALWAYS give your feathers a border, draw a line away
from your stem line, and run your loops out to that line to create your feather.
Also, leave a little border between the feather and the 'ditch' of the pieced
block, this allows the feather to pop/stand out. When creating feathers use 3
sizes in the loops, this is called Frackle/a repeated pattern. When doing
circles, the largest circle divided by 1/3s this is the sizes of the 3 circles
you should use for fill space (which is stipple). Circles always go to the
left, never back and forth like a figure 8. And if your circle isn't perfect,
do NOT restitch it 2-3 times trying to make it a round circle, just move on.
ALWAYS stop at a beginning point, never the middle of a circle or feather loop.
And always work back to the beginning before the next loop.

When using a contrasting thread or varigated thread, you must be more accurate.
Blended threads are more forgiving.

Judges will notice the border/binding and backing even more than your piece
work. Break up one large border feathering with caviots (diamonds or swirls) to
make it interesting.

When stitching "rays" always stitch the center, then the outer two, then the
inner lines.

Decide the width of your "echo" stitching, by using the foot, either inner or
outer circle width from the needle.

Never mark a quilt with chalk, these new Frixion pens work beautifully,
disappear completely with the iron. The pens are from 'Pilot', found at Office
Depot or Office Max or Staples.

When quilting, do your "free motion" stitching FIRST, then do your ditch work
frame stitching... this is opposite of what most have been taught, but keeps
quilt from puckering.
Stitch from the center out on blocks, and always one continuous line following
back to the beginning over stitches, why using an embroidery ball needle is
important, it won't cut threads like quilting sharp needles do.

I had learned before to do ditch stitching first...but what she taught made sense, and hey, she's the one winning awards, I paid to learn, right.

There is a "slider" plastic with a needle hole, put this on your machine,
eliminates static, and she uses 100wt Silk thread (22-25 stitch/inch) to quilt.
3 strands of thread should float through the eye of your needle.
5 strands of thread lined up next to each other is the shortest stitch you
should use, and never more than 8 threads wide.
***If your using a long arm machine, even the smaller short arms, you can control
bounce with bags filled with rice, she uses a hand towel stitched shut down
center & both ends, filled with rice, and sometimes she'll use 1-2-3 bags, to
eliminate bounce of the quilt and keep it taught. If you have any hand tremour,
even just from being tired or nervous or a little weak/illness, use weighted
gloves. They were on sale at JoAnns (bright green items) that help your 'body'
for sewing, these avg. $20-25 on sale for $3-5.

She also sewn her own leaders, the width of the area you can stitch on your long
arm, with a 1"PVC pipe sewn into a sleeve at one end where your long arm table
clamps will hold onto. Then she uses 'T' pins to pin the leader to the
bottom/back of your quilt, this gives a more even tension than clamps alone.

Sharon Shamber always floats her tops. She will load the back fabric, & roll
all to the back, alwys first. She never presses, she uses Starch, spray the
fabric, and wait a minute and wrinkles magically disappear. Sew velgro to both
leaders & use water soluble thread to the other velcro to your backing so you
can remove the quilt...or best is to finish one quilt first. When you load it,
measure with tape measure around the leader poles at both ends and middle to
make sure your poles have not warped or bend, this will distort your quilt...if
you have flimsy poles, put a thick dowel or PVC through center of your poles, to
stabilize & strengthen them, or replace with thicker stronger polls.
Baste the 3 layers (top, batting, backing) to the north pole/top roller. Baste
at sashing or grid lines you've folded in, horizontally using your long arm to
baste across. Baste as you go, not the whole quilt, but as you roll it forward
to each new section.

Well, I hope all my notes have helped. LOTS of things to think of.
Deb D

Deb D
Thank you thank you thank you for all of the notes! Wow! I have never seen anything so thoroughly explained. Thank you for finding all of that info for me. I bet that was just an awesome class to take. I really appreciate the tips. Definitely something I will be referencing back on. You should start a new thread a repost everything you just shared with me. So much useful info to share. Thank you so much.

Drats! I went out to Walmart tonight for two things. A promised gift for my 4 year old (he was a really big and brave boy at the ER last night) and to see if they had the pen. They ended up not having the toy so I had to go to a couple different stores to find it. With the mad hunt looking for the toy I completely spaced the pen! Ahhh guess I will be checking staples tomorrow.

I have a silver pencil and a yellow pencil. Both are for fabric marking. Not only do you need to worry about how to REMOVE the line, but you also need to check which type of marker shows up well and lasts on your fabric.

I would suggest that you test on a piece of scrap to see how to remove <whatever> method you use. There are fabric erasers and there are washcloths and a bit of soap.

:shock: Did she really say that?

Our WM doesn't carry them. Walgreens does. Good luck. I am sure you will find them at Staples, I did.

I was wondering that too! Made me laugh :P

I meant a quilt you don't put a lot of expensive fabric into or extreme detail...to me, those are my crap quilts, simple patterns & JoAnn fabrics. Not that the quality of the quilt is crap, or I'm making crap to donate. I really should have used a different word..."more simple" quilts. I'm sorry... over medicated cold here, not thinking.

I got ya :) Just totally made me laugh!

you should test what ever you want to try to use. just because it came out of my quilt does not mean it will come out of yours! i have had good luck with chalk and with just a pencil, but i always test to see if it will show-up enough and wash out. i ruined a quilt by using a (disappearing-ink) pen a quilt shop owner insisted was what i should be using. now i test everything, and i use what ever can be the lightest and least amount of marking as possible.

Best tip here. I always test mine on a scrap of fabric first also...

Thanks ladies! I DID test the disappearing pen with a few scrap pieces that I am using. It came out of everything. So far so good

I sure liked it. So far so good...

I loved this thread... I, too, had concerns as to marking a quilt for "quilting". A very dear and a quilter since I think she was 2 yrs old had told me to use the disppearing ink pen. WEll I did pick up a blue one and proceeded happily along and drew out the entire pattern over the entire quilt top. The next day all I had to was set it on the machine and go for it. I have to tell you from personal experience that in doing that, by the next morning everything had already disappeared. DUH... but a learning experience is always a good experience as a bad experience is one that you will never made again. Still giggling over that wonderful job I had done.. undone.

I know that is wasn't funny at the time. But, I have done the exact thing. Now I think it is hillarious!!

At least you knew it worked :mrgreen: bummer though :?

I use and have very good luck with the childrens washable Crayola markers. I like using the thin ones vs the wide. Make sure they say washable on the marker. I have used them many times and have not had a problem with them washing out. They come in a package of many colors.

Judy in Michigan

That is a great idea....I use the Golden Threads paper and hate picking it out!!! Never gave your idea a thought and sounds really easy to do....

Sharon Schamber won Best of Show in Houston - $10,000. The quilt was unbelievable. The picture of it here on the board does not do it justice. You need to see it in person.

great tip, thanks for sharing with us