Originally Posted by Sew Lovins
How do you like the 730 for piecing? My other post was related to asking how ladies like the 9mm feed dogs when piecing...does it create a problem for you or do you get very accurate 1/4 inch seams easily? Thanks and love all the replies!!!
Originally Posted by Gabrielle's Mimi
I love my Bernina 730 for piecing and FM quilting. It does everything I need it to do without any trouble. However, if I won the lottery, I have to say that the huge width of the Bernina 830 looks amazing...bet I could push a king sized quilt through that baby!!!
With a 9mm throat plate what you want to do is purchase a single-hole throat plate (aka straight stitch throat plate), and switch them out for piecing. This is really important both for accuracy in seam allowances and to prevent fabric (especially points and corners) from getting caught down in the feed dogs. I also recommend either the #37 or #57 foot. They are the same but the 57 has a blade edge which allows you to butt the fabric to it and get a perfect 1/4" seam. The other thing I'd recommend is moving the needle 1 tick to the right or left to get an accurate seam. I find using a thinner thread like Superior's Bottom Line quite helpful, too, as it lessens bulk in the seam.
I recently took a 2-day class with Harriet Hargrave, the queen mother of accurate piecing. She gave some interesting advice: The goal is not necessarily to have perfect 1/4" seam allowances; after all, no one will ever see them but you! What IS important is getting your BLOCK to the correct size. In other words, you could have perfect 1/4" seams, but use a too-heavy thread, resulting in slightly too-small blocks. So aim for the perfect block, not necessrily the perfect seam allowance. This changed my way of thinking about accuracy in piecing. Harriet also stresses that you MUST starch, press and square-up after every seam, not just at the end of each block. This helps greatly, too.