Quilting Stitches are Still Off
 

This may be my first and last quilt to be quilted on my Juki TL2010q. I have had a terrible time getting the settings adjusted correctly, and there is no Juki dealer in my vicinity to help me.

I had the quilt based by a long arm quilter. These are the red stitches in the pictures. I am doing 1" channel quilting using the Juki and its walking foot. (The blue lines in the pictures).

In the first photo, I just quilted using the long arm basting only. In the second photo, I quilted using the long arm basting along with heavy pinning using the Clover flower head pins and Pinmoors.

What is making the fabric top so pinched and wavy? My practice quilt sandwich looks fine!


Attachment 621829

Attachment 621830

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions!

I don't see anything wrong with it. As you stitch, it will naturally pull the fabric in towards the stitches, but yours doesn't look excessive to me. It is a good idea when stitching long lines to stitch in both directions..stitch one row from one end, then the next row from the opposite end.
If you look at pics of quilting, I think you'll see that yours is about right..keep going, you'll be happier with it as you quilt more of it and see the overall look.

I don't see any problems either and agree with donna.

i see the problems you are asking about.
the good news is that most people won't see them as problems.
just accept the praise graciously, cut yourself a break, and see how much you can learn from it for your next project.

which sort of batting are you using?
that can make a huge difference.

if it's cotton or a cotton/poly blend it will shrink, so some of the puckering will look "natural."
if it's 100% poly, then what you see now is what you will see always.

how snugly did the long-armer baste the top to the batting/backing layers?
if she didn't make sure it was kept flat and smooth, then the stitching you add will cause the slack she [might have] left to pucker, scrunch and/or tuck.
most long-armers float the tops now. easier for them, but it's all a bit looser than it would be if done the old fashioned way.

do you press as you go?
when i run into the problem you're having i will lay it out, starch and press the next 6" or so of the area i plan to quilt next.
that doesn't guarantee i'll get what i want but it nearly always gets me closer.

is it puckered on the back, too?
that might indicate a need to fiddle a bit more with the tension, but i'm fairly certain it isn't your settings.
maybe a longer stitch length would help. go up one "notch" to see. it won't hurt the look of the quilt or quilting because your top thread is going to virtually disappear into the top anyway. only huge differences would be noticeable.

are you making sure to keep the weight and bulk up off the machine bed as it passes under the presser foot.
weight and drag are the two worst enemies of straight line quilting.
hold the sandwich up about 6" away from the foot.
using both hands, positioned across from each other, about 4-6" apart, gently flatten the bit that's about to go under the foot.
take care to not stretch it.
keep everything to the right of the foot as squooshed or rolled as tightly as possible to avoid crowding or cramming it through the throat/harp.
take care to not push the sandwich under the foot.
let the machine do the work.
make sure you have plenty of space behind the machine and table so the quilt can drape over and not bunch up behind as you go.

finally, take our word for it.
after it's washed it won't look as awful to you as it does now,
i promise ... you will be pleasantly surprised.
you might even love it as much as everybody else does. :-)

Like the others here I don't see any problematic areas. It is natural for the fabrics to pull in this way. I can't wait to see the finished quilt. From what I am seeing it is going to be one beautiful quilt.

Looks good to me, just keep going. Washing and drying it when totally finished will make it look good.

Thanks so much for your replies! I have seen so many pictures of quilts that are perfectly flat with nary a crimp/gather/wave in sight that I thought something must be horribly wrong with what I was doing.

I have learned so much already, and so much more with your kind encouragement!

Your batting choice will have a lot to do with the look you get. If you want the very flat look, go for a very thin batting. If you want more definition, or even a trapunto look, go for a loftier batting, or even 2 layers of batting.

How old is your Juki? My TL2010Q is about 3 or 4 years old and the walking foot it came with was woeful...if you check the fb group for JukiTL2010Q owners you will find a lot of helpful information as many people have had similar frustrations with their walking foot and had them replaced for no cost. Having said that, it could be a combination of things as already discussed in previous posts. But above all...don't be so critical of your work....LOL, I never like any of my quilts while I am quilting them...it's not till they're finished and washed that I start to like them! Pop over to the fb group and have a read about.