Simple
Custom Quilting. iQ Project
#1. 2017
7. Stitching the first row of block patterns and
vertical sashing.
In this installment, I
use distort and shape shift to modify the patterns so they fit in the blocks on
my real quilt.
You’ll see that I have a
serious tension issue at the start that cured itself. I have found that with
the change of seasons, and thus temperature and humidity, my elderly machine
does this. I had stitched a bit before making this video and thought the
machine was warmed up enough, but surprisingly that was not the case. I chose
to ignore the bad tension. You might also notice that my machine’s speed
changes - that’s because I accidently brushed against the speed dial when I was
working on modifying the patterns. I did not check the dial’s position before starting
to stitch. The lesson here is to always glance at your speed setting when iQ
prompts you to do so before touching that start button on the sew quilt screen.
I changed the speed slightly whilst iQ was stitching.
Now onto the
instructions.
Retrieve your complete
quilt map and align it away from your real quilt, just we did last week. This
time I aligned it off to the right hand side.
I marked the centers of
the next row sashing corner stones, then did these steps :
Add/edit block > add
block > standard block > mark on quilt.
I marked points around
the block as many times as necessary to show the true block on the screen. This
is important.
(My remote clicker has a
small usb receiver plugged into one of the ports on the top of my tablet.)
When I got to the end of
marking my block, instead of taking the needle back to the start, I simply
touched close block.
Finished > add/edit
pattern > copy pattern. I copied 2 vertical sashing patterns. It didn’t
matter which two I copied as they are all the same. I zoomed as necessary.
I moved the copies into
position in the sashing block. I snapped the start point of the pattern to the
top reference point of the black, then touched stretch. I anchored that start
point, and then moved the end point until it snapped to the bottom reference
point of the block.
I used true size zoom to
inspect the pattern and saw that it needed some modifications.
I touched the double
arrows to find shape shift.
Look at the size button
– I changed that to 3” before the video started because I had been working on
the other sashing patterns. After checking the preferences, as I do in the
video, change your effect circle size to 3 inches. Modify your pattern – if you
don’t like your modifications, touch undo. Change the size of the circle and
try again. Sometimes it can take a few tries to get the result you want – try
working with a large effect circle and a smaller effect circle to see which
modifies the pattern to your liking. You can undo up to 10 steps so don’t worry
if your pattern starts to look really bad. If it gets completely out of shape,
you can always delete it then copy the patterns from the quilt map and start
again.
If your shape shifted
patterns looks very strange, check that you have smooth on. If it’s off, touch
the button then touch the plus or minus sign to change it to on.
Note: when you get to
the next sashing, copy the patterns from the quilt map, not from this sashing
which has been altered and thus will be more difficult to modify for the new
block. Always start with an unmodified pattern for the best results.
As you watch my machine
stitching, this is where you’ll see that terrible tension. It didn’t happen
again. You’ll also see that that first double stitched line wasn’t right on top
of the previous stitching. This shows how my quilt had moved because I had my
hand on the surface. Lesson number
2 – do not touch the quilt until you are absolutely sure you need to!
Don’t worry about making
mistakes like this – we learn so much from our mistakes (and I’m obviously
still learning!)
Having completed the
first vertical sashing, go on to the next. Mark the sashing block, copy the
patterns from the quilt map, move them into place and modify them as necessary.
Stitch them. Move on to the next sashing, then the final sashing. Always work
on one block at a time – mark the block, place the patterns and sew them
immediately.
After completing all the
sashings, delete the sahing patterns and the sashing blocks, and then move on
to the 10” blocks.
I started with the block
at the right hand side. I marked on quilt the block, and then added a diagonal
line to help me position the heart patterns. I copied the two heart patterns
for that block and moved them into place.
I studied how the
patterns related to the diagonal line and found I only needed to rotate the
patterns. If your patterns need more modification, use distort and/or shape
shift. Just play around – if you make horrible mistakes, simply delete the patterns
and copy them again.
Before stitching, I
needed to check that my preferences, or local configurations, were set for
backstitching because there are some jump stitches built into this pattern.
I sequenced one pattern
then touched sew quilt to get to the page where I can alter those settings.
I set my back stitching
length quite long so you can see the machine doing them. Personally, I don’t
like that double backstitching, especially with this high contrast thread. If
this were a piece I needed to look really good, I would have modified the
pattern and eliminated the backstitching. I’ll show how to do that in an
additional video.
After setting my
preferences, I backed out of the sew quilt page so that I could sequence all
the block patterns I wanted to sew.
I choose jump stitch as
the transition between the two patterns.
I moved onto the center
block next, marking the block and copying the center pattern.
This time I used
distort. I always go to true size when modifying patterns with distort and use
the little reference points of the distort box as guides. This gives me
consistent spacing from pattern to pattern.
After using distort, I
panned around and used shape shift to alter one side of the pattern where it
came too close to the seam (edge of the block).
The image on the video
is zoomed in at this point so you can clearly see what happens to the pattern.
What you can’t see is that I chose shape shift, and then altered the size of
the effect circle (you can just see me altering it by using the keypad).
This allowed me to move
that part of the pattern away from the block.
On the stitching
sequence page, I swapped the start/end points so that the pattern would stitch
the outside first before going to the wreath.
Note: Look at the close
up of the pattern at the end – the tiny circle in the center should have
touched the petals. Mine doesn’t probably because I was going too fast. I think
slowing down iQ would have improved this stitch out considerably, so that’s
lesson number 3 for this installment.
Let’s see if I remember
those lessons in the next installment.
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