Quilting

[Inthehighcastle]

What do I need to buy in terms of specialist equipment for the sewing machine to do this? I have all the materials but not sure my machine will go through all the layers. Any tips welcome!

[WinterFloral]

With such a memorable project I would hand finish the binding. To do that you first sew it on with a machine and then flip it over and hand sew down. There are great blogs and tutorials out there. I've always been a fan of Elizabeth Harman's books, her blog is called 'oh fransson' I think.

I'm self taught too and best advice I ever got is to take all the steps slowly

[Inthehighcastle]

I've ordered a walking foot. Will baste tonight if my safety pins arrive today. I've read loads of sites online so I think I know what I'm doing now with the quilting bit, finishing off the edges looks the most tricky - do you machine sew your binding or do it by hand? There's so much conflicting advice out there! I should have done something simple for my first project, this is a quilt made out of DS baby clothes so can't really just start again if I mess it up.

[WinterFloral]

You don't need a walking foot but it is helpful. I did without in my first few quilts. Take it slow and make sure to baste with lots of safety pins!

[Inthehighcastle]

Thanks. It's not very thick but there's still three layers to stitch through. I'll try and get a walking foot tonight. It's a patchwork quilt so I'll only be doing straight lines but it's taken ages to get to this point so I'm scared of messing it up!

[RatherBeIndoors]

Depends how thick your wadding is! I have made quilts using a basic sewing machine and no fancy bits (!) but it can be slow going. A walking foot makes life considerably easier... Putting the section you're working on into an embroidery hoop can work too, to hold it evenly.