Using a double needle in quilting
 

I was watching It's Sew Easy and she was using a double needle for hemming napkins, and it occurred to me to ask if y'all have ever used one in quilting or if it is a good idea? I was thinking to use it to have equal stitching on each side of a "ditch", in particular.

Does this sound possible? Like a good or bad idea? I guess I could try it, but, sewing machines not set up for it right now.

My question regards how close together/far apart your needles are. The ones I had for my machine were only about 1/8" or maybe even 1/16" apart. To my thinking that would be too close together. If yours are farther apart I think it could effective.

The back side of my double needle shows a zig zag. If you like the look, go for it.

I use double needles but don't thread one of them for stitching in the ditch and also for straight even top stitching. I learned this trick at a quilt seminar.

very interesting concept :thumbup:

Exactly. I did it with a minky back so the zig zag wasn't quite as noticeable. I wanted double stitching on the front on both sides of the seam line because it was flannel and I wanted the seams 'stablized' with quilting. Here's a picture of the front and the back.

I will say one thing that I liked about it ... if you make a mistake, it's dead easy to rip the stitches out from the back. Just put your ripper in the middle of those zig zags and let er fly!

Thanks for asking your question. I have wondered what might happen if I used a double needle in quilting and now, thanks to DogHouseMom I know.

Same here. I use the 1/4" twin needle and sew with the unthreaded one in the ditch so I get a 1/4" outline stitch.

I saw a blue and white quilt John Flynn did. He said he used the closest twin needle sold. He put blue thread in 1needle and white in the other then did diagonol lines. Looked really neat. the white thread showed on the blue fabric and blue only showed on the white. Normally the backside doesnt look good with a double needle but with the tight one it looks just fine. Wont look too good on curved stitching