quiltingbee59

Why do I have sooo many problems when trying to SID my quilts? My stitches get really small, and the squares get all crooked. I end up ripping out the rows and just tacking the quilt. Perhaps my quilts are too large for my Elna sewing machine??? I tried it both on a 100% cotton quilt (Thimbleberries fabric) and a Flannel quilt.

dunster

If your stitches are getting small (and I'm assuming that you're not trying to free motion quilt) then your quilt is probably getting hung up on something, or the weight of the quilt is keeping it from moving smoothly. Use a walking foot or SID foot, keep the feed dogs up, and be sure to support your quilt all around. Before I got a longarm, I quilted most of my big quilts in sections (using Marti Michell's book as a guide). Good luck!

mermaid

Do you have a walking foot --even feed foot? This makes your top & bottom layers feed thru the needle evenly. It really makes a difference. And maybe you can loosen the pressure on your presser foot? I line up some reference point on my foot with a like point on the quilt and just try to keep my needle in the seam ditch..and go a little slower than usual. Work a few inches at a time so you can keep the excess quilt sandwich under control. Personaly, I'd rather just do the random quilting and not have to worry about my lines being perfect.

quiltingbee59

I do have a walking foot! I am guessing my quilt is too heavy and is dragging the quilt and I am not sure how to fix that. I do quilt VERY slow so I can watch where I'm sewing. I've tried starting in the middle and at the top and still no luck

quiltingbee59

I haven't been brave enough yet to try FMQ....if I can't even SID! Is it the length of my stitch? My machine is pre-set at 2.5

QuiltE

Set some other tables up against your sewing machine to give you a larger space to hold the quilt behind the sewing machine and to the left of it. The more support for the quilt the better.

For SITD that;s not in the ditch ... a finer thread can help keep it less noticeable

Lynnie25

Do you roll your quilt up so it doesn't drag as you are quilting. I do a lot of SID quilting and have got lots better with practise. I usually use a stitch length of 3 - 3.5 when I am quilting, just my preference though. I have an Elna Quilters Pro and just love it for machine quilting. Keep practising and you will get better

quiltingbee59

I tried rolling my quilt but I still had the problem with the tiny stitching and the pulling and the crooked rows. It sounds like I don't have my quilt supported enough. I would love to finish my quilts on my own without sending them to be professionally quilted or just tacking them.

Bataplai

I generally SID with a stitch length of 3-3.5 also.
What size is your quilt? The largest I have done SID on is 50x75

Holice

I beieve it important to increase the stitch length. The 2.5 is set for sewing two single pieces of fabric together. Increasing the stitch length will accommodate the extra bulk or layers the batting has added.