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TUTORIAL: Adding to Short Backing Without Unloading The Quilt

MikiM — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:25:00 GMT

Well, I promised, so here it is. A tutorial on how to sew additional fabric to backing fabric while the quilt is still loaded on the frame. This is not faster than unloading, necessarily, but I do think it was easier. I liked that I didn't have to wrestle the weight of the half finished quilt while sewing the additional fabric onto the backing with a domestic sewing machine. Please note that I only use two of the rollers on my frame because I float my quilt tops.

Step 1. Realize the backing fabric is too short to finish the quilt.

You know you should have measured before loading, but you didn't. Now you are experiencing a bit of negative reinforcement. Bummer!

Step 2. Measure how short your backing really is. You will need to add this much backing fabric plus a minimum of 4" to allow for piecing and pinning. For my quilt, I need to add at least 15" more to the backing.

Step 3. Release the take-up roller and pull enough of the quilt off this roller to allow yourself to bring the bottom edge of the quilt backing to the top of the backing roller.

Step 4. Align the add-on backing to the edge of the backing roller leader. Place the right side of the add-on backing to the right side of the existing backing fabric. Pin through both backing pieces and backing leader.

This is the view from under the table after the add-on backing. The add-on piece has been pinned to the backing leader along one edge and is hanging free.

Step 5. Now you will need to bring the free-hanging add-on backing piece up against the existing backing and pin to hold it in place. Do this about 4" away from the edge pinned to the backing leader.

Step 6. Retighten the take-up roller and position sewing head along the left side of the quilt as close to the backing fabric leader edge as possible without risking sewing the leader. Make sure the add-on backing fabric is out of the way from the seam you are about to sew.

Step 7. Once you have your sewing head positioned, put the needle down into the fabric and use a channel lock (fancy push-button type or inexpensive clamp type) on one of the machine wheels. Your carriage should be able to move left to right, but the sewing head should not be able to move toward or away from you.

Step 8. Sew the seam across the quilt backing. It should be straight because you used the channel lock.

Step 9. Trim the new seam allowance, cutting backing fabric away from the backing roller.

Step 10. Remove all the pins on the backing leader to release the scraps of backing fabric from the backing roller.

Step 11. Re-pin the bottom edge of the add-on backing fabric to the backing leader. Retighten the take-up roller and press the new seam with a hot iron.

Step 12. Lay the batting and quilt top down against the wrong side of the backing fabric and finish as usual.

Step 13. Lesson learned... always measure your quilt backs in the future!

Merry Christmas From The Millers

MikiM — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:33:00 GMT

Have a Merry Christmas! Alexandra, Bogie, Miki, and Craig Miller

Alexandra Donates to Locks of Love

MikiM — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:22:37 GMT

Alexandra was getting tired of having to brush her hair all the time, wearing braids, getting knots, etc. so she decided to get her second major haircut of her life! Last year she cut off 9" and dontated to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. This year she cut off 12" and donated to Locks of Love. Way to go, sweetie!

Good News, Bad News

MikiM — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:35:00 GMT

Well, the good news is that I was able to fix my machine on the first try on Friday morning. The bad news is that I had to take the Fern Hill Quilt off the machine so I could load the Thimbleberries Birdhouse Quilt. I put the wrong date in my planning software for the Birdhouse Quilt, so I was a day late on my delivery. The organizing software only helps when I put in the correct information, I guess.

Took Saturday off to do laundry and watch some TV. Watched my recorded Project Runway finale and was a little disappointed in the selected winner. I also gave Bogie his weekly bath.

Today I did the usual church and family thing. Alexandra had a birthday party to go to and I reloaded the Fern Hill Fabric Quilt and discovered that the backing is too short! Ooops! I've got more fabric ordered for my customer so it will all work out fine, but I'm going to have to unload the darn quilt again. I think I remember reading how to piece additional backing fabric on a quilt without fully unloading it from the longarm. I'll have to do some research and try the technique. I'll report on how it goes.

Tomorrow will be busy with coffee with my neighbor, a EIHQ guild meeting, haircut, meeting with a bank loan officer to refi my business debt. I also plan on squeezing a couple of work hours out of the day tomorrow. Better get some good sleep tonight!

Fern Hill Fabric Quilt in Progress

MikiM — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:31:00 GMT

I spent the day figuring out what I wanted to do on this beautiful quilt by Nancy H. This quilt uses fabric from a designer from the Fern Hill Quilt Shop in Amana, IA. Cool fabric. Really cool setting that is challenging me to quilt the fool heck out of the borders but keeping the center area simple and in balance with the border quilting. I picked out a burnt orange thread and am really happy with how this is showing up on the quilt.

I did get a little frustrated with some thread shredding issues today and felt like I spent more time removing stitches than putting them in the quilt. I'm going to try a few things tomorrow and will hopefully resolve the issue or this job is going to take way more than I had scheduled. Wish me luck!

Here is a sneak peek at this quilt.