Custom Digital Quilting with Q-Matic: The 1984 Sampler Quilt Continues

 Happy Easter and Passover to all those celebrating this weekend!  I quilted this block over a week ago and wanted to jot down what I learned before I completely forget what I did.  Doesn’t the green airplane look great with the swirly computerized quilting design in the background, but not crossing over the airplane itself?

Q-Matic Masking Tool for Airplane Block

Of course there are quilters out there who could freehand quilt those swirls and spirals just as beautifully as the computer, but sadly I am not one of them.  ;-)  Since a computerized long arm machine is like a talented but blind quilting assistant, it’s necessary to precisely program and “mask out” the areas where you do and do not want the design to be stitched by physically moving the machine along the patchwork seams and clicking at the points to map out boundaries that the computer can follow.  This is a slow process, as I learned when I did it on this earlier block in the same quilt:

Also Done Using Q-Matic Masking Tool

Looks great, but I learned a lot about what NOT to do with that block!  I set up that circles and spirals as a repeating design right across the block as though it was an edge to edge design going across a whole quilt, mapped out the tumbling blocks appliqué, and told the computer to just stitch it all at once.  Then I watched in horror as the many many stitches went in to create beautifully round circles and spirals balls, but every time the machine encountered a seam line it stitched back and forth multiple times to travel to the next stitching line.  There were jump stitches all over the place that I had to go back and trim and way too many places where the design stitched securing stitches.  Not only is this a less tidy look than I hoped for on the back, but it took me a good hour after I’d finished stitching to clean it all up and trim all those jump stitches from both sides of the quilt.  Very discouraging!

So with the airplane block, I was more thoughtful about choosing my quilting design and what would happen when I masked out the airplane and all those segments of the quilting design were left behind.  I ungrouped the designs to get individual segments and then manually reconnected them in groups for stitching that would have the fewest possible jump stitches and traveling stitches.

In the photo below, every green circle represents the start of stitching and every red circle is where stitching will stop.  In the bottom left area I’ve programmed the stitch path the way I want it and it’s ready to sew out that way, but in the top of the block it’s all individual line segments that need to be reconnected:

Re-Mapping the Stitching Path to Reduce Jump Stitching and Overstitching

Instead of trying to quilt the whole background area at once, I programmed and quilted one block quadrant at a time.  That was a lot more manageable, but please don’t think this was an instant process.  The programming for custom quilting takes a lot of time, and quilting the swirls freehand would absolutely without a doubt be faster for a long arm quilter who had taken the time to develop that skill.  I say that because so many people think computerized quilting is just waving a magic wand and having every quilt come out perfectly every time.  Not so at all.

I used the Masking Tool for this sailboat block below and I thought I was keeping things simple for myself with the rolling waves design that stitches in rows across the block.  However, masking a block like this with a “hole” in the middle was more challenging than I’d expected.  I tried masking it a couple different ways with the goal of subtracting out the green fabric but still having the design stitch in that yellow triangle between the sails.  It kept subtracting the design from the yellow inner triangle as well.  

More Challenging to Mask Sailboat Than I Expected

I ended up having to mask and stitch just one or two rows of that design at a time and I still got a little bit of waves over stitched onto the boat fabric because of the masking challenge.  Makes me wish I’d just quilted the waves at the bottom of the block and done some other quilting in the “sky” area.  

Block designs are easier to program than background fill designs.  Using the Markers tool, you move the long arm machine physically across the surface of the quilt like you do to create masking regions, clicking to mark the corners and then connecting the dots on the computer screen to create a closed shape representing that area on the quilt.  Then you place your digital design on top of the shape you drew with markers and resize, stretch, and distort the design as needed to fit inside those seam lines.  This type of design will also stitch cleanly without having to do any editing since we’re not doing anything to the design (like chopping sections out) that would interrupt the stitch path and create jump stitches or thready buildup from excessive traveling.

Using Q-Matic Markers Tool to Place and Resize Card Trick Block Designs

So each of the four motifs in this card trick block below was positioned, resized and adjusted individually prior to stitching instead of plopping one design on the block to stitch in a single pass.

Card Trick Block Stitched

Didn’t that turn out nicely?  I added some straight line ruler quilting afterwards in the red outer triangles after taking this photo.

This quilt is nearly finished!  I have all of the blocks and sashings quilted now as well as the top and bottom borders.  I took it off the frame so I can reload it sideways and quilt those final left and right quilt borders in one unbroken pass, but first I have a couple edge to edge quilts to squeeze in and a trip up to Charlotte to help move my mom to Austin to be near my sister.  I’m afraid I wasn’t organized enough to bring any hand stitching with me so there will be ZIPPO sewing to report next week.

I'm linking up today's post with the following favorite linky parties:

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

FRIDAY

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework