Machine Quilting

Joni has asked me to post photo's of how I machine quilt as she's not familiar with it. She also suggested photo's of my sewing room....ha...not at the moment, I've made another mess in there....lol.. So as I spent yesterday quilting the County Life quilt I was also taking photo's. Do you know how tricky it is to take a photo with one hand?....lol.. I can tell you if you're like me, a real leftie it's almost impossible. The quilting on this quilt is by no means perfect. I try to do the best I can, but like life, nothing is perfect and that's how I like my quilts.
There is always alot of chatter about machine quilting on a hand embroidered quilt. Whether to quilt up to the embroidery or whether to stitch through it.
This is my personal opinion and the way that I prefer to quilt. It is not a set in stone rule by any means. You all need to find what works best for you.
My thought is that if I've spent hours, (for instance this quilt was approx 70 hours of embroidery) doing the embroidery I don't want the quilting to take away from it by stitching through it. I never stitch through any of my embroidery, but stitch right up to it. When it comes to my machine quilting I'm afraid I'm not very adventurous, usually sticking to grid work, or in the ditch.


This too will be solved soon, as I'm waiting for a new book to become available.
I'm not blessed with a long arm quilting system or a home quilting system, all my quilting is done on my faithful "Jenny".
So I'll try to give you as much detail as I can Joni.
As you can see from all the pins, this is what I consider important prep work before quilting. If your quilt isn't well pinned, you're more than likely going to end up with tucks and wrinkles on the back. When I'm working in a grid, or cross hatch I mark the lines with a blue water erasable pen, my eye is not good enough to stitch a straight line from one side of a quilt to the other.



As I said before this is my way of doing it, the way I was taught and I know many will probably be surprised to see those sewing pins in the quilt.I choose the line I'm going to start on and pin on my blue line up to my stopping point. Stitch along the line, and yes I do stitch over those pins. The purpose of the sewing pins is to help prevent tucks on the back, plus it hold the top nice and firm. I try to stitch up to but not over my embroidery stitches. Cut the threads leaving a good length to pull through to the wrong side. I don't reverse and I don't have a machine that does that lovely tie off stitch. Flip the quilt over to the back and pull your top stitches through to the wrong side, tie a double knot with both the top and bottom threads, pulling close to the quilt backing.
Now thread a needle with the two strand of thread and put it back into the seam line and run the needle down the side of the seam, making sure not to go through to the front.

Travel along the seam line approx 3 - 4 inches and bring your needle back up, pull firmly and snip the threads close to the backing.

If you click on this photo you'll be able to see what I'm talking about.

Hope that helps Joni.

Happy Stitching.