What am I doing wrong?
05-09-2011, 02:35 PM
#21
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Canada
Posts: 90
All right, so I'll absolutely admit that I was thinking of a soap and water type washer for the bobbin as well. I'll have to try and figure out if they have to be ordered online or if there is somewhere that I can get them here. I'm willing to give anything a try.
I am also working on quilting a baby quilt UFO that is just a cotton backing and I get the same problem.
I'll just be sewing along just fine and all of a sudden I get a nest. No rhyme or reason for when they occur as far as I can tell except that it seems to happen in the last third to quarter of the bobbin.
Oh, and as to what stage of trimming my current UFOs are in... well...ummmm.... in my defense I only found out recently that at least the QP say you shouldn't do this and I still have no idea why it matters if you are doing the quilting yourself but...
Okay, I'll admit it. All four of my UFOs ONLY need to be quilted. Literally. All four have the binding already sewn on. One of them only needs the FMQ on the border. I only learned to FMQ about a year ago and only actually did any FMQ on a "real quilt" versus just a practice sandwich a few months ago. I have this twin that I am working on right now, two cribs and one a bit smaller to get done and I am pushing myself to do a bit every day so that I can get them off my plate and away to their homes. The twin is for mysix year old son's bed and he really wants it.
Tara
I am also working on quilting a baby quilt UFO that is just a cotton backing and I get the same problem.
I'll just be sewing along just fine and all of a sudden I get a nest. No rhyme or reason for when they occur as far as I can tell except that it seems to happen in the last third to quarter of the bobbin.
Oh, and as to what stage of trimming my current UFOs are in... well...ummmm.... in my defense I only found out recently that at least the QP say you shouldn't do this and I still have no idea why it matters if you are doing the quilting yourself but...
Okay, I'll admit it. All four of my UFOs ONLY need to be quilted. Literally. All four have the binding already sewn on. One of them only needs the FMQ on the border. I only learned to FMQ about a year ago and only actually did any FMQ on a "real quilt" versus just a practice sandwich a few months ago. I have this twin that I am working on right now, two cribs and one a bit smaller to get done and I am pushing myself to do a bit every day so that I can get them off my plate and away to their homes. The twin is for mysix year old son's bed and he really wants it.
Tara
05-09-2011, 03:08 PM
#23
Super Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 1,658
Tara, I'm not the quilt police for sure! usually quilts are quilted first, then trimmed and then bound. The reason being that quilting draws up the quilt, sometimes not in a uniform way. Trimming after quilting gives you a nice edge to bind. That being said, NO ONE will come to your house to see what YOU are doing...so carry on! Minkee can be tricky. Maybe you can try another kind of thread, just for kicks. I have never used Gutterman to quilt with...used star, some kind of coats and clark machine quilting thread. Now I use Aurifil, SO Fine and Permacore pretty exclusively.
05-09-2011, 04:42 PM
#24
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Canada
Posts: 90
Sorry, didn't mean to insinuate that anyone here was QP, just meant to indicate that other than QP, I wasn't aware of why the binding was supposed to be last.
I am in a fairly northern and yet largish western Canada city and the only place anywhere near me at all that carries most quilting supplies is my LQS which only carries Guttermann for solid colour thread. Many of the supplies that I read about on here just aren't available that I know of here. We fairly recently got a SuperWalmart fairly close to me but they do not carry any type of sewing supplies at all. We do not have places like Hobby Lobby or Joannes I think they are called.
Heck, the supplies I CAN get are so much more expensive up here than you guys pay that it just makes me sick. I have averaged one quilt a year since I started seven years ago including my four UFOs what with two pregnancies in there and therefore also the years of young babies but I likely wouldn't have been able to afford to do too many more quilts than that due to the simple costs involved. I don't have a stash at all, just scraps from the quilts I have completed. I could never afford to make anywhere near the kind of numbers of quilts that I see people on here make!
Tara
I am in a fairly northern and yet largish western Canada city and the only place anywhere near me at all that carries most quilting supplies is my LQS which only carries Guttermann for solid colour thread. Many of the supplies that I read about on here just aren't available that I know of here. We fairly recently got a SuperWalmart fairly close to me but they do not carry any type of sewing supplies at all. We do not have places like Hobby Lobby or Joannes I think they are called.
Heck, the supplies I CAN get are so much more expensive up here than you guys pay that it just makes me sick. I have averaged one quilt a year since I started seven years ago including my four UFOs what with two pregnancies in there and therefore also the years of young babies but I likely wouldn't have been able to afford to do too many more quilts than that due to the simple costs involved. I don't have a stash at all, just scraps from the quilts I have completed. I could never afford to make anywhere near the kind of numbers of quilts that I see people on here make!
Tara
05-10-2011, 03:27 AM
#27
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Southwest Kansas
Posts: 4,820
The rule is, if the problem is on the bottom of the fabric, the solution lies in the top thread path. If the problem is on top of the fabric, the solution lies in the bottom thread path. Whatever is wrong is somewhere in the top thread path.
05-10-2011, 03:35 AM
#28
Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 83
Nesting is always a top tension problem. Check how the machine is threaded.
Then when you start to stitch, pull the bobbin thread to the top. This will avoid knots on the back. Do this by taking one stitch and pulling the top thread until the bobbin thread comes to the surface.
You can tie off the tails, or later come back and thread them on a needle and hide them between the quilt layers.
Then when you start to stitch, pull the bobbin thread to the top. This will avoid knots on the back. Do this by taking one stitch and pulling the top thread until the bobbin thread comes to the surface.
You can tie off the tails, or later come back and thread them on a needle and hide them between the quilt layers.
05-10-2011, 03:39 AM
#29
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: CA and MN
Posts: 378
Tara - Baste some wide muslin strips to your backings on your trimmed quilts and the longarmer should be willing to do it then. Good luck. And one other thing that wasn't mentioned with your thread nests is not having door of bobin compartment closed......ask me how I know this....lol.
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