10 Jul Straight line quilting
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| The quilting on Sedimentary pulled a bit – quilted on my old machine |
I’ve done a lot of straight line quilting over the years and it has worked out better on some quilts than others. I’ve heard conflicting advice about whether you should alternate quilting directions or not. I usually try to alternate, but it depends on the quilt and how the space I’m quilting is divided up.
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| Alternating quilting directions |
So, I decided to do a test yesterday. I cut out 2 20″ square pieces of fabric and layered them with backing and batting. I quilted one in alternating directions and one starting at the same side each time.
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| Quilting one direction |
To me, the one direction piece looks slightly smoother, though the other piece doesn’t have any puckers or places where the fabric pulled. This made me wonder whether I had quilted the pieces along a different grain of the fabric – e.g. crosswise vs lengthwise. I did not think to pay attention to that when I layered the pieces. However, using the stretch test says this is not the case – both pieces appear to have been quilted along the same grain.
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| The quilting on Curried Plums turned out great – also done on my old machine |
I also trimmed the pieces along the raw edges of the 20″ squares and measured the results. The one direction piece was slightly out of square by about 1/8″. Now, these are small samples, so if you were quilting a queen sized quilt and the distortion grew along with the size, that could be a problem.
So what have I concluded? I can’t say this test was definitive, but I will continue to alternate directions when I can to keep things square. But I’m also not going to stress about going in one direction if the bulk of the quilt gets too much to handle. Perhaps some of the issues I had in the past were more to do with tension, thread or needle problems.
How about you – do you alternate directions or not?
Dan and Kristyn McCoy
Posted at 14:43h, 04 AugustI just did some straight line quilting and found I got a lot of puckers and wrinkles when I quilted the fabric I cut down the length of the bolt. There is no give or stretch when the weave is on the length. The pieces of border I cut the WOF were flat after quilting. Wonder if the direction of the fabric would also matter and contribute to the quilting.
pippinsequim
Posted at 17:59h, 14 JulyThis is a great idea to test it head to head! I do think, though, that the test would be a little more revealing if you "challenged" the quilting a little more. What I mean is, on some quilts or some days pulling is more of a problem than on others. It would be interesting to see the difference in performance in poor conditions. One way to challenge the quilting a little more would be to quilt on the bias – the stretch allows the fabrics to move around a lot more.
In your samples, did you quilt adjacent lines in order, or did you quilt every other line and then fill in? Did you use spray baste, pins, no basting (since they are on the small side)?
cinzia
Posted at 11:52h, 12 Julyyou say that the one direction piece is smoother but has more puckers. those 2 statements contradict each other. maybe i am reading it wrong? the one direction piece looks better to me.
cinzia
Posted at 11:51h, 12 Julyi am a little confused. you say the one direction piece is smoother but it has puckers? those two statements contradict each other. maybe i am reading it wrong? the one direction piece looks better to me.
cinzia
Posted at 11:42h, 12 Julyi am a little confused. you say the one direction piece is smoother but it has puckers? those two statements contradict each other. maybe i am reading it wrong? the one direction piece looks better to me.
KaHolly
Posted at 10:57h, 11 JulyI'm just learning. I ruined one small quilt because of pressure foot pressure. I'm just taking my second off the Janome today. I did not alternate because I was using the walking foot with the little measuring arm on the side and you can't switch it to the other side of the foot. I had a small thanks for this post. How timely for me.amount of distortion, but enough that I wouldn't try to sell it.
Margaret
Posted at 10:51h, 11 JulyI also try to alternate and find it makes a difference. Since all I do is straight line quilting, I've had a lot of practice. But the thread makes a huge difference too.
Jayne
Posted at 13:50h, 10 JulyI try to alternate as well. Not always, but most of the time. I've found it varies with different fabrics and the size of the piece. I wonder how much thread type plays a roll in it…