Using my new Sweet 16
 

I went to the Chicago quilt show a few weeks ago and Handiquilter was selling their demo sweet 16s for under $4000 with free shipping so I whipped out my credit card. Three cones of Superior So Fine were also included. (That is some fuzzy thread.) I took a Leah Day and a Christina Cameli class on Craftsy and lots of practice. I'm ready to do a simple meander on a real quilt. Here's my question: where do I start the quilting? The middle row of the quilt? The upper left? Should I fill one block before moving on to the next? Does it matter? The instructional videos use fat-quarter size pieces or individual blocks, which is great for demonstrating a pattern, but not helpful for doing an actual quilt. I spray-baste if that matters.

Another question: the instruction manual says oil every other bobbin, which I took to mean every two bobbins. The DVD says every bobbin. I don't want to under-oil. Is it possible to "over oil"?

Any tips anyone would like to offer would be appreciated. Thanks!

I am assuming this is a sit down machine. If so, I think I would start in the middle and work my way out towards the edges. Kind of like a spiral. As long as the quilt is well basted (either with safety pins, glue, or spray baste) you shouldn't have issues. If you are planning on doing an all over meander I would not fill by block as I think it may appear obvious once the quilt is all done.

The few quilts I did on my domestic I never did an all over but I always started in the middle and worked my way out. Now I quilt on a longarm and my longarm is on a frame so I start at the top and work my way down and don't have to baste the sandwich.

I also quilt on a Sweet 16. Jamie Wallen, who does instructional videos, says you can't over oil.

I divide my quilts into quadrants, begin in the center of the quilt and quilt the lower right quadrant, working in a kind of diagonal back and forth. This keeps the bulk of the quilt to the top and left of me (I have a card table to the left of my machine). When I'm done with a quadrant, I rearrange the quilt, so I'm once again quilting the lower right quadrant in the same manner. Good luck with your new machine!!!

Thanks, Joe's mom. That makes perfect sense.

I use Sew Fine a lot and it's certainly not fuzzy. ?

Call it whatever you want, but when I can see short, fine fibers all along the length of the thread, I call it fuzzy.

Maybe that's why it was included at no charge? :D

In my experience, you can definitely over-oil. I over-oiled my Brother 1500 and figured it out when I opened the bobbin area and there was brown, gooey stuff on the floor of the machine's casing. You can start by oiling with every bobbin and if you have an excess, then you know to back off to every other bobbin. It doesn't hurt the machine, just makes a slight mess.

My sew fine isn't fuzzy either, maybe its a bad spool

I was wondering the same thing.

I find that I want to blow the lint out of the bobbin area, every time I change the bobbin. I mostly use Omni thread, but the lint is amazingly thick in there. I've been oiling with almost every bobbin change, but feel like I want to stitch a little on the batting so the initial oil doesn't get on my quilt.

I use a lot of SoFine #50 or higher and it's never been fuzzy--are you sure you didn't get a different Superior thread? The King Tut is very fuzzy .

It's definitely "the" Superior thread. It's number 401, 50 weight. I haven't used it enough to see if produces lint. It came with the machine along with a spool of Omni and King Tut and a book showing all their threads. Holding the spools of King Tut and the So fine side-by-side, the Tut is smooth, and the So-Fine is fuzzy.

I bought my sit down machine at the Chicago show a couple years ago. They had such fantastic deals. Anyway, I start along an edge usually. I don't do a lot of pinning. I get started and re-smooth and re-pin as needed. My machine instructions (Bernina sitdown) say to oil every bobbin.

Never have seen a fuzzy spool of so fine. It is great to use and produces very little lint.

For a meander I would not start in the center but rather just outside one of the edges in the middle. Then roam around until everything is filled and end just outside the border again. When you over-oil, there is a chance that you transfer oil to the thread which will come through the quilt. Not pretty. I have done that once - fortunately, it was on a practice piece and didn't matter. Enjoy your new machine.

I have a 22 inch sit down Gammill Charm.. I spray baste and almost always start at the bottom right corner. and work diagonally back and forth until I reach the upper left corner. This seems to work best for me, but I'm sure you'll find your rhythm soon enough.

Looks like you've gotten plenty of suggestions, I just want to say congratulations on your new HQ16 and I'm sure you'll have hours of fun.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I finished my first quilt yesterday doing a simple meander. Fortunately it's a very busy scrappy quilt so all my mistakes won't show. I quilted in quadrants as suggested by Joe's mom and started and ended just off the outside edges as recommended by MadQuilter - no threads to bury!!!

I have a HQ but not a sitdown model. Please don't blow away the lint at the bobbin area. Use a brush and vacuum. Much safer.