Good morning Cuties! We have all been given or ask, at one time or other, items we would rather not fool with. I have one now. There is no question about doing it, so I am bringing my thoughts to you.
My grandson Dalton was given a quilt top, by his other grandmother, that his great-grandmother pieced. ( see why I can’t not do) Anyway it needs quilting. There are two problems I foresee. The first being some 14 squares need to be re-placed because have holes ( maybe moth eaten?). The top or flimsy is MOSTLY double knit. (I cringe) but I can change the squares.Second problem is the actual quilting. I’m afraid if I quilt on my manuel quilter I will get skipped stitches as I’m sure I don’t have any ball point needles. What do you think? I could try to quilt with a ball point on my regular small harp machine but would be bulky because quilt is about 80 inches square or so. I didn’t want to tie it but if worse comes to worse…. Tell me your thoughts how you would go about it. Please don’t say you wouldn’t even try. As I said before, it is a labor of love with NO not an option.
I will probably use a batting but a cotton backing to not add too much to the weight. Someone suggested using flannel backing and no batting. I think he wants batting and I have enough cotton backing for it without buying flannel.
Give me your thoughts please. Thanks in advance and hope you all have a nice day. I’ll be ripping out and replacing those 14 squares-lol ❤️Toogie
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Toogie, my parents made quilts together, and tied their quilts together
it looks like they used a crochet cotton on it. I am not sure of exactly what gauge it was, but a little heavier than what I have here that I use to crochet around flour sack towels. I actually have one of their quilt tops, and the backing that they stitched before my mother got so bad with Alzheimer's. I pulled it out a few weeks ago, and I want to finish it, and I plan on do the tie like they did in each corner. the backing was not large enough for me to use as the binding, so I tried to match, but was unable to get the same type of fabric. I did get a t-shirt type knit, and hope that I am not sorry, but since I will only be using it as binding, it may be okay. Good luck with your quilt.
1 comment
by toogie
10 Dec 2022
I started quilting and hasn’t been too bad. Not as bad as I thought but those corner seam allowances are so thick I’ve almost stitched my finger several times. It wants to stretch and when it finally gives my hands right there. I told my husband if I stitch my finger, I’ll break a bone, the needle is so thick on my long arm.
44904I agree with several other ladies that you should tie it. I have an old quilt made out of feed sacks made by my husband's grandmother that was tied and is lovely. Don't stress over it-it will be fine! Hugs. Nan
3 comments
by toogie
09 Dec 2022
I wonder if you can tell what it’s tied with. We use DMC all six stands on church Prayer Quilts. I’m wondering if anyone has ever used the cotton crochet yarn that were used to make doilies, not the woolly kind used in sweaters and such.
by asterixsew
09 Dec 2022
toogie the only quilt I have made was in pure wool and I tied it with - yes cotton crochet yarn. So far its lasted two years and I hope it lasts many more
by mrskiki
10 Dec 2022
I am guessing from the look and feel that it was tied with cotton crochet yarn.
11927I know little about quilting either, but if you were wanting to stay away from the thick seams, perhaps you could do a circle or some simple design in the center of the squares. Best of luck to you.
1 comment
by toogie
09 Dec 2022
Someone suggested me using the eyelet stitch, in the center squares, with our many stitch settings, on our machines.
11506Toogie, you can just do a tie-off stitch in the corners. Drop your feed dogs, make 3-4 stitches and raise the needle and jump (drag) to the next corner to repeat. There will be lots of thread clipping, but I've used the method on one my mother-in-law made and it saved my sanity in trying to quilt that polyester.
1 comment
by toogie
08 Dec 2022
The corners are so bulky from the thick seam allowances I’m wondering if I can stitch over it at all. I will consider or stitch in the center square, maybe.
158715I am wondering if you could add a light weight fusible web behind the knitted squares. When quilting how would parchment paper ironed on the top work. Mind you these are just ideas of mine. Never have done it. I can see the problem with knit catching in the foot and the stretchy material giving you heart ache. When I did the memory quilt from the tee-shirts I used the fusible web.
1 comment
by toogie
08 Dec 2022
It’s not knitted, like sweaters with yarn. It’s double knit fabric, like leisure suits we’re made of.
109774I know nothing, I do remember Nancy Zieman did some really cool knit quilts that I thought I would try someday. Good luck in your quest!
The zieman quilt is a squarish wedding ring quilt you can find on the nancy zieman site on her blog.
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23282Go ahead and replace the squares that need replaced and instead of quilting it and fear of skipped stitches, tie the quilt. A lot of the older quilts made with knit were tied........best of luck girl!!!! Love, Tonya
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20088Sadly the gremlins are still active and pictures are somewhere other than here. Sorry I am unable to give advice on quilting or not. My knowledge of quilts is minim
3 comments
by rachap
08 Dec 2022
One thing you might try is to first hand quilt the double knit squares ( maybe using the big stitch with a simple outline design) then do your machine quilting on the rest of the quilt. Hope this makes sense! There are no quilt police wtching so do it the way that works best for you.
by toogie
08 Dec 2022
When I was explaining all this to Dalton, he said “Gram, it’s just for me, not in a quilt show” to which Ashley said , “but it’s Grams quilting!’ Lol
115749Toogie I can understand you not accepting no. I think the hardest part for you is the double knit and I can understand that cringe. I vaguely remember to slow down the machine and I think I kept my stitch length at 9. Hopefully I am tight, but I'm sure one of our clever Cuties will remember better than I do.
1 comment
by toogie
edited 08 Dec 2022
Oh wow! On my regular sewing machine my stitch length only goes to a 5. However, I want to try to quilt on my quilting machine because of the large harp space and I control the stitch length. I may have to slow me and the machine down-lol
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