Teen

Congratulations on reaching halfway, Donna!! Woohoo! Your blocks are wonderful. F2 looks good and glad it wasn't a nightmare block for you like it was for me. I'm good with curves but These were just too tiny for me. You've tackled a lot of the more complicated blocks so hopefully this last half will be a breeze.

Gorgeous day out today....need to clip my roses but sewing is on the agenda, too! Have a wonderful day, ladies!

Anael

I've been watching two Craftsy classes yesterday and now I would like to FMQ but temps are too high. So instead I worked in the garden today and watched some more video's on youtube. Now I'm trying to decide whether I'll purchase one of the Craftsy classes or not.

Macybaby

Yea Donna! Now it's all downhill!

I have backs ready for all my floppies including the SBS, so now it's out in the LA shed to wait it's turn. I have also been watching some craftsy classes and am itching to try some FMQ on my Juki2010. I've done just a bit of it on some other machines (vintage ones) so it's not totally new to me. I think it would be fun for smaller projects, I'll stick with the LA for the big ones.

Teen

Youtubes are great, aren't they? I pick up so much from watching them. I've watched a few of the Craftsy classes on FMQ and learned a lot. Some are worth the money and some, sadly, are not. My favorite class is the pieced borders class. Easy math tricks to help measure appropriately.

I stayed outside side longer than planned...then cleaned bathrooms...ugh! I'm off to sew. Good job, Cathy! What a relief to know you are ready to go when ready to tackle LA, I'm sure. Preparing backing and batting is my least favorite about quilting. I'd rather bind.

Anael

The one class I regret having purchased is the Dot to Dot quilting with Angela Walters. I learned a few things but not enough to justify the money spent. I'm not a fan of Angela Walters!

The only pieced border I ever made was a braided one. I never piece a border, I cut a few strips and sew them on the quilttop The first time I ever made a flange was the last quilt I finished. It was a faux flange though...hahaha. Easy peasy!

I don't like the sandwiching part of the quilting process. Once that's done I'm fine

Teen

I'm not a fan of Angela Walters, either, as a teacher. She quilts amazingly, though. I think that faux flange is a cool trick and I don't do it any other way now. Same result with less hassle is my motto. I'll be doing that on my SBS...

speaking of.....the inner border is on!! Decided to do just one....this thing is big already before the applique border so re-evaluated. I'm working on applique border now...it's turning out better than I visualized...

Macybaby

the fear of sandwiching is the main reason I bought a LA. I can have a quilt loaded on the frame and ready to start stitching in about 30 mn.

I have never tried the flange binding, have never even looked fully at the tutorial. I do mine by machine and the narrow foot on my juki is perfect for getting a nice even topstitch just along the edge. It's one of the things that sold me on buying that machine. I took a bunch of test sewing with me, and one was a bit of binding on a potholder size sandwich.

Teen

I'm gonna research the Juki. I've heard many positive comments about it.

Anael

Teen, you're right about Angela's quilting, except when she teaches. Maybe she's just better on a LA?

How long before we can see your finished SB top? Can't wait to see it!!

Mace, I do my binding by machine also but the faux flange....haha! I loved it! I use the walking foot for attaching the second part of the binding. I tried the narrow foot once but I like the walking foot better.

Macybaby

I've never used a walking foot, though I have them for most of my machines (including the "penguin" for the FW). I even have a Pfaff with the built in one.

I can get a king size quilt fully bound in about an hour. And once I sit down at the machine, I do not get up again until it's done. I've seen so many tutorials about joining the binding, and most make it so much more work than it needs to be. It's actually really simple, and the key is to press over the diagonal on the leading edge (I match the direction of the other seams).

However since I seem to let my quilts build up and then do 4-5 bindings at a time, that repetition helps to hard code how to do it in my brain. Its like most things, if you do just a little bit (like one quilt) and then don't get back to it for a long time, you forget a lot. However if you do a lot at one time, then you get the muscle memory and the next time (even if it's been 6 months or more) your body remembers quicker how to do the motions.

I'm watching one of Angela's craftsy classes right now, and not has encouraged by it as some of the other instructors. It is getting me more enthusiastic about doing more FM with my quilting. I started out with a machine without robotics, and even had the HQ for a year before adding them. But now that I have them, I'm more tempted to use them. Was not what I intended, and in truth they can take more time than doing FMQ if you want a more free flowing pattern. Much easier to plan your starts and stops, and make things fit without a lot of resizing and adjusting the design. Though your arms get much more tired doing FM than watching the machine move itself!