Long Arm Quilting: Glenda B. #10, #11, #12, #13

Four quilts at one time?  Yup… that’s what I did.

Sometimes I have the opportunity to do more than one quilt at the same time, and although it takes a little bit more coordination up front, the end result is a faster quilting process.  Well, it’s supposed to be, unless the machine refuses to cooperate.  I’ll get to that in a minute.

Working on multiple quilts at once is called railroading.  It requires that all the projects to be railroaded have the same backing fabric, thread, batting, and are approximately the same size.  The quilting design doesn’t have to be the same, but it does need to be approximately the same size so that as the quilts advance, they are at the same point in the quilting.  Usually when I railroad, I’ll do a pattern like Reverse Loops, because it is super-fast and I can work on both quilts at once.

These four quilts are charity quilts for little kids.  Here are the first two:

You can see that the quilts are approximately the same size, and I used the same thread (Superior So Fine #422 Out of the Blue) and pattern on them.  While I was quilting though, I had to keep stopping for broken and tangled thread.  Each time I stopped, I encountered this in the bobbin case:

Notice how the thread is not seated in the bobbin case, it’s supposed to be hooked into the little notch on the side.  Whenever I would pull out the bobbin from the machine, it would come out with this tangle of threads.  It was so frustrating!

I didn’t understand what was going wrong, so I called Darcy’s parents (Handi Quilter) to ask what might be the issue, and it turns out I had my first encounter with bobbin backlash.  If you look closely at the photo, you’ll see how the bobbin itself is sitting about 1/16″ below the edge of the bobbin case, and it’s actually supposed to be flush.  The technician walked me through how to adjust the spring that’s on the inside, by turning a screw on the back of the case that lifts the spring, until one side of the bobbin is flush with the case.  Ever since that adjustment, Darcy’s been behaving himself and I haven’t had anymore backlash issues.

I think it’s important for me to tell that story, because no matter how long you’ve been quilting, or how perfect a machine performs in a store, eventually YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE PROBLEMS.  Machines fail, people do silly things (like the time I didn’t insert the needle all the way in and Darcy was skipping stitches), and screws work themselves loose.  Proper machine maintenance will help with some, getting into a routine when loading a quilt will help with others, and also having a good technician or dealer on speed dial can usually work you through 99% of your problems.  True, there are lemon machines out there… but Darcy is not one of them.  Whenever you have a problem with a machine, usually it’s a simple solution that we overlook because we don’t know (like the bobbin case spring screw), or because we know too much (like how to insert a needle properly.)  If you have a problem, take a step back, take a break, come back to it with fresh eyes, and call someone if you need help.

Another thing I learned when railroading, is that Darcy does NOT like Quilter’s Dream Poly batting.  Oh, he’ll quilt it alright, but it’s a little too “sticky”, making it nearly impossible to make adjustments to it to smooth wrinkles or get it situated properly.  After rolling the first two quilts, here’s how the batting looked:

It’s probably a fine batting for home quilting when you’ve basted all the layers at once and it doesn’t shift or need adjustments, but on the long arm, it’s just a little too dainty for Darcy’s tastes.  He’s a Legacy batting fanatic, and I don’t think I’ll ever cure him of it.  I do like the feel of Quilter’s Dream, it’s pretty soft for poly, so don’t let Darcy’s long arm tastes color your batting preferences on a home machine.

For the next two quilts, I changed thread to a green (Superior So Fine #483 Wild Grass) and changed the pattern to a medium stipple.  Yes, stippling is pretty basic, but even with the basics you still should practice to make sure you haven’t lost your chops.

It’s really interesting to find that I have my own sort of “signature” stipple.  Everyone does I suppose!  When I look at mine, I can easily recognize the three “humps” I will usually do before changing directions.  It’s actually kind of funny to see how even “random” is subject to certain patterns that we prefer.  I don’t know what the significance is of the number 3 for me, but as soon as I figure it out I will let you know.

I also learned that I naturally work on the smallish side of quilting.  I actually find it quite difficult to do large patterns unless I have a pantograph or stencil.  In fact, for a large stipple, I really need a panto otherwise it will gradually get smaller and smaller.  That will be really obvious when you see some of my later quilts.

Railroading these quilts produced a very dense, king-sized piece:

When I get done with a quilt, I never, ever trim it unless the customer has requested it, and whenever I do any trimming (even to square up a backing) those trimmings go back with the quilt. I don’t trim quilts by default, because you never really know what the person’s intentions are for binding, and while for my own quilts I might trim exactly to the edge, I do know other people who leave an extra margin of batting to help with fullness in the binding.

The reason I send all trimmings back is because scraps cost just as much as the fabric does, and I did not pay for them.  Another reason is just for practicality; when I provide the batting, I sell it by the yard, and if I were to keep the batting trimmings, I’d have to store them someplace, and subtract them out from the price I charged the customer.  Maybe that sounds like splitting hairs, but it would feel like stealing to me if I trimmed something off someone’s quilt that they paid for & kept it for myself (even if “keeping” it lands it in the dog bed scrap bin.)  So if you’re wondering why your quilts come back with everything intact, it’s not laziness that keeps a quilter from trimming it, it’s because you didn’t ask.  (Also… if you do send your quilts out to someone & they come back trimmed without the scraps… speak up!)

So, the quilts all stayed attached to one another, but I still managed to fold it up small enough to fit it into one of my studio bags.  Whether Glenda will be able to get them out without destroying the bag is another story…