Stop, Drop and Roll Quilt Along, part 4.3

Welcome to step 4.3 of the Stop, Drop and Roll Quilt Along! I am hosting this for the Old Red Barn Co. Flickr group.

Week 1: We made our blocks.

Week 2: We assembled our quilt tops.

Week 3: We basted our quilts.

Finally, we quilt!

All of the quilt patterns this week are practicing this week are based on straight lines. I learned how to quilt on my home machine after I was a longarm quilting teacher. Weird, right? When I first tried to quilt, I felt like I was fighting the fabric. I could not get my stitches even. None of the designs I was so good at on my longarm machine would show up on the fabric! I started to train myself to work with the fabric. I started with straight lines. I told myself that maybe I could not make beautiful feathers, but that I could probably make a series of line segments.

The machine:

I used my Janome 6600 for this video. I used the darning foot on the machine and I dropped my feed dogs.

The thread:

For the top thread, I used Tutti from WonderFil, color TU01 Sunny.

For the bobbin thread, I used DecoBob. by WonderFil, color DB131 Dark Gold.

The video:

Today's pattern uses horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines. It makes a great overall design and I actually used just one line of this design as a border on a quilt for a customer on Monday.

Grab some scrap fabric sandwiches and practice this design:

The hints:

• When I retrace a line, I do not worry if I do not retrace it perfectly. I think a little daylight showing between lines adds some character to the design.
• I usually pause in the corners to allow the machine to take an extra stitch. This makes my corners nice and sharp.
• When I need to stop the machine, I stop in a corner. If I stop in the middle of a design, the stop/start will leave a visible jog.
• Even though my first machine quilting teacher told me to "quilt fast and don't stop," I quilt rather slowly. I set my machine to the speed I want to quilt, and then put my pedal to the floor. This helps keep my stitches a consistent length.
• I stop frequently while quilting. This keeps me from getting a sore neck, allows me to reposition my hands, and gives me time to figure out where to place the next design.

Check back tomorrow for another straight-line design.