Does your machine eat your project?

So you're all ready to start stitching, and you take those first few stitches or a few more and you realize you're fabric isn't going anywhere? Instead it looks like your machine got hungry and started eating your beautiful quilting fabric? I HATE that!! The machine I learned to sew on would do that, if I forgot to hold on to the thread tails. Guess What? I used to forget all the time~!

So here are a few tips to keep your machine from eating your quilt project.

@ A SHARP new needle on your machine. If you have a dull or burred needle it might be having a hard time getting through your fabric, and thus be pushing it into your machine. At which your machine is saying, "Yum, Yum more fabric!"

@ Leader and Enders - These are pieces of scrap fabric that you fold in half or thirds and stitch over it before your project, stitch off it a few stitches and then start your project under the presser foot. When you come to the end of stitching your project, stitch off a few stitches and then put another piece of folded scrap fabric under the presser foot. Stitch across the scrap, then clip the threads between your project and the Ender. It now becomes the Leader for your next stitching run. Why do these help? Well, you don't need to worry about the thread tails any more!! Also, they have raised the presser foot up off the feed dogs and make enough room for your project to slide nicely under the presser foot and the feed dogs can grab your project nicely and pull it through your machine.

From To be Filed

From To be Filed

From To be Filed

@ Change your Needle Plate. The needle plate is what covers the bobbin area under your project, it is around the feed dogs and has a hole in it where the needle goes through. On most machines that do zig-zag, the hole that the needle goes through is a horizontal slot. This slot allows the needle to go from side to side and create the zig-zag stitch and now days a thousand other fancy stitches. This slot creates space for your fabric to get sucked down into the bobbin area. To help prevent the needle from pushing your fabric down into the needle plate you can change the zig-zag needle plate to a straight-stitch needle plate. This needle plate has just a small round hole for the needle to go through and so there is less room for your fabric to get stuffed down into your machine in the beginning stitches. BEWARE!! Be sure to change back to your zig-zag plate before you try to do anything but a straight stitch! That's what the little red sticker is supposed to remind you of!

From 2008-10

From 2008-10

Now check out what Bonnie does with her Leaders and Enders!!!

Variety is the Spice of Life

When picking Fabric for your quilting project be sure and MIX IT UP! Don't use all the same scale prints. Throw in some straight lines with your florals. Have some small prints, fabrics that have a print, but "read" one color, fabrics that have several colors in them. Just don't use too much of a good thing. Have only one stripe, a couple fabrics with multiple colors, and just a "splash" of that zinger color.

I was just in my beginner phase as a quilter when my husband's Aunt bestowed upon me a pile of beautiful fabrics she had collected for a quilt she intended to make. She developed an eye problem and was no longer able to quilt. I went home with those fabrics and I played the Sesame Street Game, "Which of these Things is NOT like the Others" and picked out all the larger prints, stripes and whatever else I thought didn't "belong", and I made one SNOOZER of a quilt! Not the good kind of snoozer quilt that is comfy and you want to sleep under. It was BORING! I only used small prints and that quilt definitely has NO Zing!! See for yourself. I later used the leftover fabric and made the cutest rail fence quilt ever. It was way more interesting than this quilt because the different fabric types made it fun to look at. My MIL still has it, and if I ever get a picture of it, I will add it here.

100% Cotton

The basic fabric and thread for Quilting is 100% Cotton. Yes, if you become an art quilter, or one of those rule breakers you might eventually end up using everything under the rainbow.

However, for the beginner the basics are 100% Cotton Fabric because it is easy to work with, holds a nice crease when pressed, and is just what quilts have been made with for centuries. So if you want that down home, snuggly quilt look you'll want to be sure and use 100% Cotton.

Also, be sure that you buy quality fabric if you want your quilt to last longer than say 5 years. Yep, the saying "you get what you pay for" is true in fabric purchases also. The average price for a yard of good quality quilt fabric is around $9. If you are paying say $5 a yard and it's not on sale, then you're not getting the good stuff.

Here's how I learned. When I was a beginner I fell in love with Mary Engelbreit fabrics and I bought it where ever I could find it; My Local Quilt Store (LQS), JoAnn's, and the WalMart fabric section. I made a wonderful quilt and it's been on my bed for at least 4 years. Guess which black came from the LQS and which came from the Big Box store??

The Teapots came from the LQS and the cherries from WalMart. Yep the background on the cherries used to be black!

Because you are using 100% cotton in your fabric, the rule of thumb is to use 100% cotton in your thread. Yep, it's a bit more, but it's worth it. You also need to purchase quality in this area also. A quality cotton thread takes up less space when you press and your blocks will come out closer to the "true" finished size. Also, quality cotton thread will give off less fuzzies which will keep your sewing machine running smoother and you'll not have to clean out the lint as often. My favorite cotton thread is Master Piece from Superior Threads.

Choosing your Colors

Picking out Fabric for a project can be one of the biggest worries for new quilters and even some experienced quilters. You can learn all about the Color Wheel and complementary colors, split complementary, analogous and triadic color ways. Then add to that tints, shades, and values and you'll be totally confused. Some day you may want to know all this stuff, but if you're making a quilt for your next of kin and want to have a litte fun while you're at it, maybe it could be simpler.

Go to your quilt store. Pick out a fabulous Big Print with lots of colors (ones you love, or ones that you want to design your quilt around). Like this one I found.

Then you can pick out fabrics to coordinate with it that have those same colors, or you feel will coordinate well with the colors in that fabric. You don't even have to use the first fabric you pick out, you can just use it find fabrics that will go together.

Another cool thing that fabric companies do now is print color dots along the selvage of the fabric. It shows all the colors that were used in that particular print and you can use the dots to find coordinates.

Now wasn't that easy??