Quilting advice needed please

[Ilovewaleswhenitrains]

I have made the front of a patchwork (soon to be quilt). I have a basic (£99) Janome sewing machine. I have curved safety pins to hold all the layers together, and an open quilting foot for my machine
Are there any good websites/YouTube clips I could watch to see what I actually have to do to quilt?
The top of the quilt is in long strips, I'm not sure to quilt it..

Any advice gratefully received.

[Itsjustafleshwound]

There are quilting shops that have special machines that quilt for you and are better able to manage the pile and size of the quilt. Or they can tack the layers together for you to make quilting easier.

[Ilovewaleswhenitrains]

Thanks Itsjust, I didn't know such places existed! I will see if I can find one in Cardiff or nearby.

[Greendove]

Have you tried a search on Youtube? I found this and there are lots more.
Professional quilting does look amazing but can be pricey. Any good patchwork shop should know someone in the area who does it. (the person local to me has a very, very expensive machine imported from America)

[LatteLady]

Look at any of the tutorials by the Missouri Star Quilt Company on Youtube, she is awesome or else Jennie Rayment on Quilt TV... she is brilliant and very funny and pragmatic. Actually her classes are brilliant too and not awfully expensive. Otherwise, take a look on Craftsy.com and buy a class from there, less than £20

If you are looking for a recommendation for long arm quilting then I suggest you try the QuiltingBoard.com, although US based, it has lots of UK contributors. Remember if you go down this path, you will need to send the quilt away for a couple of weeks to be finished, so UK location will not matter... I think that the Quilt Rooms in Kent have this service.

Hope that this has helped.

[Ilovewaleswhenitrains]

Latte- thanks for the information. I will be looking at those tutorials.

[Greendove]

You're welcome

[Pending]

The Quilt Room in Guildford are good. I know Pam and Nicky Lintott, and they are lovely and would be happy to offer advice if you want to get yours lprofessionally ong-arm quilted. Don't shy away from just doing it yourself though. Stick to something simple like quilting along the seams of your pieced quilt top (quilting 'in the ditch'). You just need a sewing machine that has a big enough 'neck', the gap between the bottom of machine and the top bit that reaches over to where the actual sewing happens, so that you can roll up the part of your quilt that yournot working on and still fit it through the machine. (I fear I have described that badly...). Anyway, good luck and enjoy!

[Pending]

Oops. Just remembered that The Quilt Room is in Dorking. And I second the recommendation of Missouri Star Quilt Company YouTube tutorials - outstandingly helpful stuff.

[LadyMedea]

If it's not too big you should be able to quilt it on any domestic machine - but I recommend kind of smooshing it not rolling as it's easier. I second the PP that for a first quilt stitching in the ditch is a good straightforward technique. Search for videos on YouTube. I'm entirely internet taught on quilting and couldn't love without YouTube.

[ILoveAFullFridge]

If you're going to machine quilt, it is apparently better to baste the quilt layers together, rather than pin them. But I would have thought that, if you're going to quilt in straight lines, you could pin on either side of the line and not need to see across any pins.

I've yet to do any machine quilting (only hand quilted so far) but the one I'm working on right now is in long strips and I plan to machine quilt it, too!

[ILoveAFullFridge]

not need to sew across any pins

[Ilovewaleswhenitrains]

My quilt top is in strips so I am going to look at the YouTube videos and try it myself..

[Smudge588]

Sounds lovely. Stitch in the ditch would work well for long strips, only things I would suggest is changing your foot if you want to quilt in straight lines. Ideally you would use a walking foot as it holds both the top and bottom layers and will help with the volume but you would need to buy this separately. The embroidery foot is also used for quilting but usually for free motion quilting which is beautiful but harder and you would also need to drop the feed dogs in the machine first. Google for 'stitch in the ditch' or 'free motion quilting' and you'll get images to help you choose and loads of wood you tube clips also come up. Enjoy making!

[Smudge588]

I meant loads of GOOD you tube clips not wooden ones!!!!

[Potterer]

The open quilting foot is for free motion quilting where you make patterns with the thread, a walking foot would help you "stitch in the ditch" which is where you sew along the seams.

I like Leah Day's demonstrations for free motion quilting. Always practice on a small sample first. Leah also helps with the rolling up and the size of your machine's "throat" ie the bit to the right of the needle where you have to squash the quilt.

There are demonstrations of long arm quilting on YouTube. I love Jenny from Missouri Quilt Company too.

but you will notice she has modified her open foot, she hates it jumping up and down.

[NeedsAGreenCardForFantasyLand]

Not sure if you're still looking for advice, but here goes... I've been quilting as time allows (I have 2 kids and a part-time job) since 2005. I hand-quilt stuff for family; non-family gets machine-quilted stuff.

Stitch-in-the-ditch (also known as SITD) is easier for beginners. An open quilting foot (or darning foot) is good if you're going to do free-motion quilting, which is like writing with thread, except you move the paper (quilt) and not the pencil (needle). Practice doing that first, and you'll have a lot more success doing FMQ.

If you are going to stick with your walking foot and work with straight lines, basting about every 4-6 inches is the way to go. Like FullFridge said, you don't want to have to sew over pins or worse, have to undo pins as you quilt.

As for deciding on a design this is a great resource. The author made a number of identical quilts and quilted them differently, often giving them a radically different look.