Grunt Work: SID Quilting on Deco + Appliqué Prep for Stonefields

Welcome to today's boring blog post.  I'm bored already and I am the one writing it -- not a good sign, but let's begin.

😂.  Clearly I was not in a good mood when I started writing this blog post yesterday!  Good thing I left it in Draft mode or I might have driven all of you away for good!  The blog post begun with a bad attitude yesterday and revised with a better attitude today is about not-so-glamorous prep work at the front end of a project that lays the foundation for smooth sailing and a successful finish.  It's like stretching in the morning or flossing your teeth before you go to bed -- you can skip this stuff if you want to, but you'll probably pay for it later if you do!  I'll be talking about the foundational stitch-in-the-ditch quilting on my Deco quilt as well as getting my appliqué templates ready for my next Stonefields quilt blocks.  

Quilting Begins on My Deco Quilt

I Loathe the Drudgery of Stitching In the Ditch Quilting!

Stitching in the ditch -- quilting along patchwork seamlines -- is utter and abysmal drudgery.  If you do it really well, you can't see the quilting at all and sometimes that results in quilting over a line you already stitched because you couldn't see it.  But if you wobble or some speck of thread or bit of gook on your carriage wheels creates a hiccup in your straight line of quilting, it will stick out at you like Pinnochio's nose or a lump on the noggin of the Wylie Coyote.  And right now I DO have something somewhere that is giving me grief.  I wish I'd done a thorough cleaning of my carriage wheels before I loaded this quilt because it's really hard to get to all of them with a quilt on the frame.  It could also be that one of the machine's cables is catching on something at the back of the frame and needs adjusting, but I can't see what's going on back there when I'm quilting manually from the front of the frame and Bernie has been too busy lately to help me troubleshoot.  

Here's a block in the top row before the ditch quilting:

Not Quilted Yet

Below, I have outlined all of the green squares with stitching in the ditch.  Do you see those couple of wobble bumps?  Those are happening when I feel my machine catching on something ever so slightly.  I am stitching very slowly and using a straight edge quilting ruler as a guide, but then suddenly the machine gets knocked away from my ruler edge by some microscopic obstruction and Bad Words come out of my mouth.  For now I am just ignoring it and soldiering on.  Every imperfection is glaring when the quilt is on the frame under the bright lights and I am hyperfocused on every stitch.  Much of what looks like a catastrophe in the moment ends up not being a big deal in the end, and anything that is STILL a catastrophe at the end can be ripped out and restitched if it still drives me crazy.

I'm using Aurifil monofilament thread in color Smoke (this post contains affiliate links) with Fil-Tec MagnaGlide Classic 60 wt navy bobbin thread, in case anyone is interested.  If you can't find MagnaGlide Classic, it doesn't come in the color you need, or your machine can't accept prewound bobbins, Superior's 60 wt Bottom Line or Microquilter would be good alternatives.  You can even wind monofilament on your bobbin but beware -- it's prone to stretching so slow your bobbin winding speed way down, only wind your bobbin half full, and recognize that with invisible thread top and bottom it will be much more difficult to monitor your tension throughout the quilting process.  Those are the reasons I prefer not to use monofilament thread in my bobbin even though it works beautifully in my Berninas.  Oh, and I'm also using Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Black batting. I know that if/when I wash this quilt, the needle holes will close up and my imperfections will be less visible.  You don't see the monofilament thread against my green fabric, but you do see tiny specks of black batting in the needle holes if you put your nose right up to the quilt and you have your strongest reading glasses on your face.  Ask me how I know this.  👀

SID Finished (Sloppily) Around Green Squares

I deliberately did not SID the seams between navy patches within those blocks because I want to deemphasize those seams and do some other quilting in those areas to make the background recede and the green squares pop forward.  These are vague plans half formed in my mind; I won't decide for sure until after I see how my digital designs look stitched out.

My big, boring accomplishment for this week is that I have done this SID quilting to all of the green and navy blocks across the top row of the quilt.  I think I am going to rip off my ruler base tomorrow and start stitching the digital designs in the setting triangles between these blocks, because I am hoping that will cheer me up and distract me from my wobbly SID quilting.  Imaginary Judge's comments: "Straight lines should be straight."  Duh.  My dog thinks it looks awesome, so there!  ;-)

More Christmas In July: Sharon's Flannel Snowflake Quilt + Jingle Progress

Since my last post was all about boring invisible ditch quilting, I feel like I invited you all to a parade to see the Emperor's (imaginary) New Clothes!  So today I am sharing another Christmas quilt, but with this quilt you can actually see the quilting.  I quilted this one a few months ago and I've been waiting for July to share it with you.

My mom pieced this quilt using the Snowflake pattern from Modern Handcraft and a kit of flannel fabrics from Keepsake Quilting.  She chose Minky dot fabric for the backing, and the finished quilt is soft, snuggly, and weighty -- perfect for curling up with a good book or a Hallmark Christmas movie in the month of December.

Sharon's 60 x 72 Flannel Snowflake Quilt

This is only my mom's second quilt ever -- didn't she do a great job?  We went with Quilters Dream 80/20 batting and Glide thread in White.  The edge-to-edge quilting design is called Snowflake E2E 2 and it took forever to stitch out.  

It's Christmas In July! 9 Years In the Making, My Jingle Quilt is Finally On the Frame

You guys -- NINE years after starting my very first appliqué project, and THREE years after completing the quilt top, Jingle is FINALLY on my frame for custom quilting!  WOO-HOO!!!

Jingle Is On the Frame!  This Is Happening!!!

I had admired appliqué quilts in the pages of Quilters Newsletter Magazine and at quilt shows for years before attempting one, thinking that appliqué was a really advanced skill that would be way out of my reach as a novice quilter.  And then one day I stumbled across Erin Russek's quilting blog, One Piece At a Time, and saw that she was doing a free pattern called Jingle as a Block of the Month combining pieced blocks with prepared edge, hand stitched applique.  Her applique tutorials were outstanding and her voice was so encouraging that I decided to give it a try.  Erin's pattern for this quilt is no longer offered for free because it was published in book form in 2021.  You can purchase the Jingle pattern here on Amazon, or directly from the publisher here (This post contains affiliate links).  

Loaded Up and Ready to Go

I've scheduled a couple of weeks at the beginning of July for custom quilting Jingle, but if I'm not finished by the time I need to start on my next client's quilt I can just zip it off my frame and set it aside.  I am hoping to either completely finish the quilting or at least get it to where I'd just need to come back and finish background fills.  Fingers crossed -- this is my One Monthly Goal for July.

Behind the Scenes: Digital Custom Long Arm Quilting With Q-Matic on a Judy Niemeyer Quilt

Good Morning, Happy Friday, Happy Labor Day Weekend, and Happy September!  It was in the fifties this morning in Charlotte, which felt GLORIOUS after the sweltering hot Armpit-of-the-South weather we've had for the past few months.  Fall is my favorite time of year and it can't get here soon enough!

Custom Digital Quilting Fit for a Prismatic Star Queen

Sneak Peek of the Custom Feather Quilting Under My Needle

I've spent more time quilting in the studio than sitting at the computer lately, so I have lots of things I could be sharing with you.  Today, I thought folks might like to see a custom quilting project that I'm working on for a client right now and learn a little bit about what goes on behind the scenes when custom quilting with digital designs.  Spoiler alert: the process is not as automated as you might expect!  Here's my client's quilt top, prior to being loaded onto my frame;

Auditioning Threads for Mildred's 91 x 91 Prismatic Star Queen Quilt Top

My client Mildred pieced this gorgeous Prismatic Star Queen quilt top using one of Judy Niemeyer's Quiltworx foundation paper piecing patterns.  

LAL#10: Creating a Manual "No Sew Zone" for Appliqué in a Hand-Guided Pantograph Design

 Good morning, my lovelies!  Welcome to another episode of Long Arm Learning, where the focus is on honing our machine quilting skills, regardless of what kind of machine you're using.

As for myself, although I spent much of the week mired in English paper piecing of another baby quilt top, I did finally get around the impasse of procrastination and got about 2/3 of my Modern Baby Clam Shells quilted yesterday.  The hardest part was starting; I really did not want to mess it up after spending so much time on the curved piecing and the appliqué.  I know a lot of quilters feel that way -- worried that they will "ruin" the quilt tops they worked so hard to piece, so they just never quilt them at all.  That's where the adage "finished is better than perfect" comes in handy.

Daisies Galore Pantograph, Quilted Around Butterfly Appliques 

In this case, I was nervous about whether or not my bright idea for quilting an edge-to-edge pantograph design WITHOUT quilting on top of my butterfly appliqués was going to work out.  I got the idea from how, in a computerized long arm quilting setup, you can program No Sew Zones in embroidered or appliquéd areas and tell the computer to sew an allover design everywhere else EXCEPT the area you've masked off.  The computer robotics package I've ordered for my machine won't be shipping until the end of the month, and this quilt needed to get done YESTERDAY.  

When quilting an edge-to-edge pantograph design with a hand-guided long arm machine setup, the quilter is at the back of the table, guiding a laser light along a printed paper pattern on a table that sits just below the quilt surface.  To do this successfully, you have to keep your eyes on the paper pattern just ahead of your laser light, kind of like how you have to keep your eyes on the road while driving to avoid ending up in a ditch.  You can't actually look at your quilt at all while you're quilting -- which means I can't see when I'm coming up to one of my butterflies that I don't want to cross over with quilting stitches.

Extra Fabric Butterfly Taped In Position on Pantograph Plastic

My idea was to create my own equivalent of a No Sew Zone on the pantograph pattern so I could stop the machine, move around to the front of the frame, stitch in the ditch around the appliqué  and then resume quilting the pantograph design from the back.  I positioned the butterfly by moving my needle to points on the edges of the applique on the quilt surface and nudging the butterfly into position on the pantograph shelf so that the butterfly on top of my pantograph plastic was positioned as closely as possible to the butterfly on the actual quilt top.  Then I stuck a couple pieces of Scotch tape to the edges of my spare butterfly to ensure it stayed put while I quilted that row.

I altered the stitching path a little to go around one wing and marked where I wanted to stop when I was approaching the edge of the butterfly.  I knew that my positioning of the butterfly on the template plastic was as good as I could get it, but not as exact as it would be if I was marking its location with a computer from the front of the quilt frame.  I also knew that fabric shifts as it draws up during quilting, so I was nervous about whether the edges of my butterfly would be in the same place by the time I reached them in my stitching path.  The last thing I wanted to do was accidentally stitch up over the edge of the butterfly.  My palms were sweating quite a bit when I began quilting that first row!

One Butterfly Down, Two to Go!

It worked!  It really helps that this pantograph is such an easy pattern.  I was able to stop quilting from the back about a centimeter or so away from the butterfly and then scootch right up to the edge of it from the front without any noticeable deviation from the pattern.  Whew!

I am using a new hopping foot and a new ruler for the first time with this quilt, too:

APQS Clog Foot with White Arbor Lotus Ruler for Appliqué SID

This APQS "clog foot" is a true 1/4" ruler foot with an open toe for greater visibility.  That made it the perfect choice for quilting "in the ditch" around my applique, especially because I was able to use my Lotus Lines Appliqué Aid ruler from Bethanne Nemesh's Garden Lines collection.  This ruler has a hopping foot "entrapment" -- so I can slide the ruler on over the ankle of the hopping foot and it locks onto my hopping foot, allowing me to guide the needle very precisely with my left hand by dragging the ruler along the edge of the appliqué   It's like having the control of holding onto the hopping foot itself, but without risking the emergency room visit!  LOVED how this ruler worked and I'm looking forward to using it for the other appliqué WIPs in my to-be-quilted pipeline.

Using Bethanne Nemesh's Lotus Ruler to SID Applique

So...  The verdict?  This is definitely doable, but fussing around to position the spare butterfly just right on the pantograph and stopping to SID around the butterfly from the front definitely slowed down the process of pantograph quilting.  If I wasn't taking pains to quilt around the butterflies, I'd have finished the whole quilt today instead of getting 2/3 of the way through.  If you're quilting as a business and thinking about doing this on a customer's quilt, you'll want to factor in an upcharge for the extra time involved.

If you wanted to use this technique on an area of machine embroidery or regular applique (not broderie perse like mine, where I was able to just cut out extra motifs from the applique fabric), I think the easiest method would be to photocopy the areas of the quilt top with the embroidery or applique designs (making sure your copier was set to Actual Size, 100%) and then cut out the photocopied motifs to position on your pantograph table.  I do like the effect for this quilt.  After I finish the pantograph quilting, I'm going to want to go back and add some very minimal quilting inside each butterfly appliqué as well, to prevent it from sagging.  Still mulling the possibilities for that "icing on the cake."

My weekly Tuesday To-Do list for Roseanne's linky party is to finish quilting this quilt, AND get it labeled and bound, AND get my Letter Home baby quilt top finished and ready to load on my frame.  Wish me luck!  I'm also linking up with:  Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication, Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, and  Free Motion Mavericks with Muv and Andree.

And now, without further ado -- it's time to link up YOUR latest adventures in machine quilting!  I can't wait to see what you've been up to.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Spirit Song Quilting Commences: Monofilament Invisible Stitching in the Ditch

Good morning and happy Tuesday!  My quilting goal for the past week was to complete all of the SID (Stitch in the Ditch) quilting along the seam lines of my Spirit Song quilt.  I'm about halfway there as of when I switched off the machine last night.

Invisible Monofilament SID Halfway Completed

For the SID work, I'm mostly using my 2 1/2" x 6" Quilter's Groove ProMini ruler, with Nexcare clear first aid tape on the backside of the ruler to reduce the slip-and-slide action without sacrificing visibility.  I also have the larger 10" version.

10 inch Pro and 6 inch ProMini Rulers from Quilter's Groove, Lisa Calle's Ruler Line

What I love most about Lisa Calle's Quilter's Groove line of rulers is that they all include helpful reference lines.  As I'm using this ruler for my SID work, I'm using those perpendicular straight lines and 45 degree angle lines on the ruler to line up with my piecing lines, helping me to keep the edge of the ruler nice and straight a quarter of an inch away from the stitching line.  I have a couple of other straight rulers without these reference lines that I bought before I took Lisa's ruler class, but this little ProMini has become my favorite.

How I Use the Ruler's Reference Lines for SID Quilting

You can see in the photo above how my palm, ring finger, and pinky are all resting on the surface of my quilt and acting as a "brake" in case that ruler decides to slide from the pressure of my hopping foot riding along the ruler's edge.  In the closeup below, you can see those etched lines on the ruler that I've aligned with my piecing seams to keep everything nice and straight as I'm stitching.

The Markings Are What Make These Rulers My Favorites!

And of course, when SID is done well and stitched in invisible monofilament thread, it truly disappears into the quilt, providing structure and support kind of like how a good foundation garment can make you look so much better in your dress!

Invisible Stitch In the Ditch: The Wonder Bra of Quilting!

...But from a distance, it looks like I haven't done any quilting yet at all:

Tedious, Invisible, But Crucial

SID takes a LONG TIME, and it doesn't give you that instant gratification of seeing your quilt transform before your eyes with beautiful designs and texture.  Done well, SID should be invisible -- we don't want to see those stitches at all, which is why I'm using Superior's Monopoly invisible monofilament thread in my needle.  By doing all the SID quilting first, I'm doing two things: First, I'm stabilizing my quilt and locking the three layers (quilt top, batting and backing) together with all of these seam lines as straight as possible and the edges of the quilt perfectly square.  That's going to drastically reduce the potential for things shifting and getting stretched out of whack during the fun quilting that comes later.  Also, SID along the seam lines gives more definition to the piecing lines, subtly accentuating those crisp points I worked so hard to create.  If I skipped the SID, the seam lines would actually puff UP after surrounding areas had been quilted down, which would have the opposite effect of obscuring or diminishing the piecing lines.  

Those Needle Holes Will Close Up When the Quilt is Washed

In the above photo, I've stitched on the low side of every one of those seams except the vertical seam between the yellow and hot pink fabrics at top right that extends down to the lower right corner between the mustard color print and the pink daisy print.  SID sinks the seam lines down into the quilt, but the only way to know the stitches are there are the needle holes (those will close up when the quilt gets washed).

Love Seeing the Backing Fabric Starting to Wrap Around the Pickup Roller!

I love seeing the backing fabric start to peek around the pickup roller at the back of my frame as the quilting progresses enough to advance the quilt!

I probably would already be done with the SID if I hadn't had a tension snafu.  Despite having tested and adjusted tension off to the side of my quilt before starting, I noticed with the first advance of the quilt that I had some flatlining (top thread too loose or bobbin thread too tight, causing the bobbin thread to lay flat on the back of the quilt rather than meeting the top thread in the center of the quilt batting to form a balanced stitch) on the back.  

Poor Tension, Bobbin Thread "Flatlining"

In this case, I knew my bobbin case tension was already set very loose (TOWA 150-ish and bypassed the little pigtail guide on my bobbin case) for my Bottom Line bobbin thread, so the upper thread was definitely the culprit.  I'd loosened it so much that it was being pulled all the way through the batting and the backing fabric, creating little loops that suspended a straight line of bobbin thread along the surface of the backing fabric.  I think my monofilament was getting caught on the edge of my thread net at one point, creating resistance, and I loosened my top tension repeatedly to try to "solve" that before I realized that it was a thread path issue.  Whoops!

So anyway, these really lousy tension stitches are very easy to remove from the backing side, just snip at either end of the bad stitching line and pull; the thread comes right out in one piece.  However, after pulling out the bad stitches on backing side, I had a horrible time figuring out which of my invisible seams had been ripped out and needed restitching when I got back to the FRONT of the quilt!  Really all I could see were the needle holes to begin with, and the bad stitching left holes that looked exactly like the good stitching.  I had pulled out the bobbin thread from the bad stitching, but the top thread still needed to be pulled out and clipped away in some cases...  I had to check EVERY STINKING SEAM, and I accidentally requilted a few seam lines by accident because I thought I'd pulled out the stitching there even though it was perfectly fine -- just couldn't SEE it.  Major time suck!  

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3...

These string pieced scraps, above, were good for testing stitch tension as well as for a quick refresher on SID, since I haven't done anything with my quilting machine for a few months.  It's also a good way of previewing what my thread is going to look like on a variety of different fabric prints.  I'm using the clear monofilament thread rather than the smoke because most of my fabrics are light colors, but the clear monofilament is slightly visible on the darkest blue fabric strips.

Not Quite 6 Months Old, Already 70 lbs of Sweetness!

This post has been a particularly boring one, even for me, so I'm ending on a high note with a puppy picture of my little Samwise Puppy-Pants.  He'll be 6 months old in 10 days, and this morning he weighed in at a whopping 70 pounds of sweetness!  :-)

So, what are my sewing goals for the coming week?

Tuesday To-Do List:

• Finish SID quilting on Spirit Song
• Change needle from 3.5 (for monofilament thread) to either 4.0 (for Bottom Line 60 weight or So Fine 50 weight thread) or 4.5 (for King Tut or YLI 40 weight cotton quilting thread), rethread machine (thread path is different from monofilament), and adjust tension as needed
• Begin additional straight line ruler work quilting with thread that is meant to be seen!

Stay safe, everyone, and happy stitching!  I'm linking up today's post with:

·       To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

·       Let’s Do Some Ruler Work at The Quilt Yarn

·       Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

·       Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

·       Tips and Tutorials on the 22^nd at Kathleen McMusing

Adventures In Longarm Quilting Continue! Beginner Ruler Work, SID, Winding Bobbins, and Tips for Terrific Tension

Hello and Happy Easter!  Despite a busy weekend full of rehearsals and multiple Easter worship services, I did manage to snatch about an hour a day for working on my Tabby Mountain quilt.  I'm almost done with the ruler work, and it's SO MUCH FUN!!!

It's the Second to Last Row of Solid Triangles!  Yay!!

I am really happy with how the straight quilted lines are enhancing my solid triangles, and it's amazing how much better I'm getting at quilting the long diagonal lines without my ruler slipping.  Each time I advance the quilt, the next row of quilting comes out better than the last.  That is SO encouraging!

I had originally planned to quilt my solid triangle/diamond rows with more elaborate ruler work like this:

My Original Quilting Plan -- A Little Too Ambitious For a Beginner!

But just because I can DRAW that doesn't mean I can QUILT it -- at least not yet!  I was inspired to accentuate the diamonds with these angled straight lines by a photo of a Dear Jane quilt that was custom quilted by the amazing Judi Madsen of Green Fairy Quilting:

"Dear Jane" Pieced by Gwen, Quilted by Judi Madsen in 2011, photo by Judi Madsen

Please visit Judi's blog here to see even more photos of this stunning quilt.  Judi mentioned in her post that these large border triangles measure 5" across their bases, just like the triangles in my Tabby Mountain quilt.  Doodling quilting designs on the iPad is only so useful because you can't see the three-dimensional textural effects created by quilting in a drawing.  Straight lines like these would be super boring in a flat drawing, but they look anything but boring when they are quilted into fabric!  I just had to show you Judi's quilt -- I wanted to give her the credit she deserves for the design inspiration.

So...  because these triangles are so big, it was not possible to quilt the lines straight down from the tip of one triangle all the way down to the tip of the triangle below, even on my APQS Millenium that has a pretty deep throat and a larger quilting workspace than many machines.  I would need the Millie 30 to do that all in one pass.  So with the first row of triangle diamonds, I stitching that horizontal seam between rows in the ditch first, and then I traveled over that seam line as I stitched the "rays" of all the top triangles, then advanced the quilt, and stitched the rays of all the bottom triangles, again traveling in the ditch from one ray to the next.  This worked fine on the front of the quilt, but it resulted in a lot of ugly thread buildup on the backing side:

Too Much Traveling Over Previously Stitched SID Lines

Yes, I know that will look a lot better when the quilt is finished and washed for the first time, but I wanted to see if I could do better.  For the next row of diamond triangles, I did NOT SID all the way across that horizontal seam first.  Instead, I planned my quilting path so that I would SID between every other pair of rays when I quilted the top row of triangles, and I filled in the remaining SID between those lines as I quilted the bottom row of triangles: 

Horizontal Seam From Front, SID Done In Segments Between Diagonal Rays

This saved time and was just as easy to quilt, but it resulted in a much neater appearance on the backing side of the quilt with only ONE line of stitching in the ditch between rays:

Much Better, Right?

Figuring out something like that is SUCH A RUSH!  I love learning!!  And do you see how pretty those stitches look on the back of the quilt?  It's Glide thread, top and bobbin, with bobbins I wound all by myself on the not-so-scary-after-all APQS Turbo Winder.  Since I'm changing colors with every row, I'm getting lots of practice using the bobbin winder and I'm completely comfortable with it now.  Really, I feel silly for being afraid to use it for so long!

APQS Turbo Bobbin Winder Plugged Into Power Strip with On/Off Switch

The scariest thing about the industrial bobbin winder is that it is REALLY powerful and it goes REALLY fast.  It will auto shut-off when the bobbin is full, but if you want to wind a partial bobbin you have to pull that metal piece on the right away from the fast spinning bobbin in order to shut it off and risk losing a fingertip!  An easy solution to that came to me from other APQS owners on the APQS Facebook group.  Just plug the bobbin winder into a power strip that has an on/off switch, like you see in the photo above, and use the switch on the power strip to turn the bobbin winder on and off.  This works perfectly and takes all of the danger out of the equation!

While I'm on the subject of the bobbin winder, I have just a few more photos to post as reminders to myself if I spend too much time away from it and ever need my memory jogged:

Bobbin Winder Thread Path Through Tension Discs

The factory-set tension on my bobbin winder is actually fairly snug, so I have to give the thread a little tug to get it seated properly between the tension discs.

Thread Net and Batting Scrap Ensure Smooth, Even Thread Delivery

Other bobbin winding tips gleaned from the Internet were to use the thread net that came with my bobbin winder and to put a little scrap of batting in the guide above the thread cone.  That ensures that even slippery threads come off the cone smoothly, without tangling all over the place when the machine takes off and starts winding.

Since my APQS Millenium has the "L" style Smart Bobbin, additional lightweight aluminum bobbins for my machine are less than a dollar apiece.  (The larger capacity "M" style bobbins cost $3 each, and the large capacity ceramic bobbins for my Bernina 7 Series sewing machine cost so much that I've blocked it from my memory, like the pains of childbirth!).  But at ninety cents per bobbin, now that I know how easy it is to wind my own and get stitches that are just as beautiful as the stitches I got from prewound bobbins, there is no reason why I can't stock up on a bazillion empty bobbins and wind them up as I need them in any thread I want to use in my longarm machine.

I'm also really loving my TOWA Bobbin Gauge.  I am SO GLAD I purchased this little contraption!  I bought six different bobbin cases for my longarm machine so I can set one to the correct tension for Glide polyester thread, one for Superior So Fine thread, one for MonoPoly Monofilament thread, one for cardboard prewounds, one for Magna Glide prewounds, one for silk thread if I'm feeling fancy...  And then I will only have to fiddle with top tension when I switch from one thread to another.  (The spare bobbin cases for the "L" Smart Bobbin are only about $12 each versus $54 each for a spare large capacity "M" bobbin case, so that's another advantage of going with the "L" bobbins if you're ordering a new APQS machine and trying to decide whether to order your machines with L bobbins or with M bobbins).

Here's how the bobbin gauge works.  You pop a full bobbin into your bobbin case, and snap the bobbin case in place in the TOWA gauge just like you would click it into place in your machine's hook.  You pull your thread tail up and over the two little guide wheels and straight across to the left, and the red dial will show you a numerical value for the amount of resistance, or tension, on your thread coming out of the bobbin case.  Superior Threads has a great video demonstration right here:

You would think that  a brand-new spare bobbin case would be factory set to some standard appropriate for commonly used quilting thread, but my spare APQS bobbin cases came out of the package with ridiculously tight tension that would be appropriate for no thread on the planet -- seriously!  I was getting awful eyelashes on the back of my sample quilt, and then when I checked the bobbin case tension it was all the way up to 400!  

When Your Bobbin Case Tension Is WAY TOO TIGHT!!

With the Glide thread I'm using in my Tabby Mountain quilt, I'm getting beautiful, balanced stitches with my bobbin case tension set at about 180-200.  If you're using Superior threads in your longarm machine, they have a handy reference chart on their website with recommended bobbin tension settings for each of their different thread lines.  That makes it SUPER easy to get perfect tension with any of their threads in your machine.

Now, I'm not telling you that you NEED a TOWA bobbin gauge in order to get perfect tension on your longarm machine.  Plenty of quilters will tell you that they adjust their top and bobbin tension primarily by feel, pulling each thread independently, and then tweaking settings according to what their test stitching looks like.  However, for a newbie like me, the TOWA gauge is invaluable for shortening my learning curve and reducing frustration when I don't yet know what appropriate tension is supposed to feel like, when my bobbin tension is WILDLY out of whack and when I crank my needle tension up enough to balance the stitching, it's so tight that the thread keeps snapping when I try to sew!  The TOWA gauge gives me the confidence to experiment with ANY thread in my longarm machine.  If you want one that works for adjusting tension on an "L" style bobbin case just like mine, you can get it on Amazon here.  

I am pretty sure I can use my "L" TOWA gauge to tweak the tension on my vintage Singer Featherweight bobbin cases as well, but I haven't tried that yet.  Please note that if you have an APQS longarm machine with the larger capacity "M" style bobbins, or if you have an A-1, Innova, Gammill, Nolting or Handiquilter longarm machine that uses the larger bobbins, there's a different TOWA gauge to fit your larger bobbin case.  Use this link instead.

Ever since I started this blog in 2010, I've always included links in my posts indicating where you can find the specific tools and products that I'm using in my projects.  I do that because, when I'm reading other people's blog tutorials, I always ask myself "WHERE does she get such wonderful TOYS?!""

Unlike Batman, I Will Always Tell You Where I Get My Wonderful Toys!

Going forward, I will be participating in the Amazon Associates Affiliate Links program so that Amazon can compensate me when readers purchase the products I recommend on this blog.  Mamma needs thread money...  ;-)  As in the past, I will only be linking to those products that I personally use and that I have found to work well for me, and I promise to tell you if I ever get freebies in exchange for writing a review.  This will help me justify to my husband why I spend so much time writing these blog posts and reading and responding to all of your terrific comments and questions.  I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Okay, now -- back to the cool stuff I'm learning with my Tabby Mountain quilt!  Once I've got my bobbin case tension adjusted just so with the TOWA gauge, I do some test stitching on a fabric scrap that I just plop down on the excess batting and backing that extends beyond the sides of my quilt top.  I stitch side to side, up and down, stitch some clockwise and some counterclockwise circle loops, and a few points.  It's easy to see if the stitches look good on top, but I can't see the stitches on the back of the quilt unless I crawl under the frame and look up -- and then the light shining down through the needle holes makes it really difficult to see whether the tension is well balanced anyway.

Can YOU Tell If Those Stitches Have Perfect Tension?

So now I lay a couple sheets of white paper on top of my test stitching to cover up the needle holes, and I use the camera on my iPhone to reach under the quilt and snap a photo of the stitching without climbing under the frame.

Same Stitches, Still On Frame, MUCH Better Visibility

See what a difference that piece of paper blocking the light from above makes?  Now I can zoom into the photo on my iPhone and scroll around to get a really good look at the stitch quality on the back of my quilt.  This tension is pretty close, in my opinion, with just slight eyelashing on some of the curves.  I think I gave my upper tension about a quarter of a twist of tightening to correct that for a beautifully balanced stitch on both sides of my quilt.  Easy peasy, and no vertigo from climbing under the quilt frame to look up at my stitches!

By the way, I'm only using two rulers so far on this quilt:

Hartley and Handi Quilter Rulers I'm Using for Tabby Mountain

The 12" long Hartley ruler on the left is the one I am using for all of the long diagonal lines on this quilt.  It came as a freebie with the purchase of the Hartley ruler base that I had to buy for my Millennium in order to quilt with rulers.  The 2" x 6"  HQ Mini Ruler on the right was much easier to control for stitching the shorter SID distances horizontally.  I feel like I'm going to be using that one a lot!  I put a couple of TrueGrips on my HQ Mini Ruler to reduce the tendency for the slick acrylic to slip and slide on top of my quilt while I'm stitching, and those work fine for small rulers, but I've got two lengths of Nexcare first aid tape to tame the slippery bottom of my 12" ruler.  The first aid tape is clear, has a slight rubbery grip to it, and is easy to tear off at the end of the ruler when you're putting it on.  This is the stuff I use, and since it comes in 20-yard rolls it's ridiculously inexpensive:

And once again, my "quick blog update" has grown into a monstrously long post.  Meanwhile, I've got just ONE MORE ROW of solid fabric triangles to be quilted with the ruler before I can roll back up to the top of the quilt and begin free motion quilting in the print fabric triangles!

And now, for my Question Of the Day:

What is YOUR favorite notion, product or tool that you routinely use for your sewing or quilting, that is NOT intended for or marketed for that purpose?  Let me know in the comments!

Today I'm linking up with:

• ·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com  
• Esther's WIPs on Wednesday at http://estheraliu.blogspot.com
• ·       Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/
• ·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/
• ·       Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/