I am having difficulty keeping lines straight when hand quilting a 1/2 inch diagonal cross hatch grid using masking tape. My quilt is 90 x 90 with a medallion in the center of white fabric. I drew registration lines and marked the first lines and am using 1/2 inch quilters tape as my guide for subsequent lines, but I find after a few inches my lines get a bend in the middle. It starts out minor but over space builds up noticeably. I'm quilting on a 14 inch floor hoop so I can only mark the space within my hoop. I've tried marking with a pencil but that doesn't work well either. I've quilted about a third of the quilt, but have ripped out almost as many stitches as I've put in. I would probably have the quilt finished if not for the ripping out. If any of you have suggestion as to what I'm doing wrong, I would really appreciate hearing from you.
Lesson learned: My next quilt with grid quilting will be marked prior to sandwiching.
TraditionalQuilter
Hi Jane! I wanted to say "welcome!" I'm not a hand quilter, so no help to you there. Good luck with this big project, and I hope we'll get to see a picture of it at some point.
On the banks of the Mississippi River in north central Minnesota (Brainerd lakes area)
Jane - the best I can tell you is to mark the whole quilt with the tiger tape and just make sure that when you hoop a specific area that you anchor it so it won't move. I am not sure why you are having problems. I marked my whole quilt when I did hand quilting and just made sure that the marks were remarked as I need to mark them - I use tiger tape when I am drawing just a straight line - and as I said would mark the whole quilt - anchoring the ends and then reanchor in the area that you are going to quilt.
Jane
I am with Thea on this one. I would mark the whole quilt before I try hooping. That is the only way I know of to keep the lines straight.
Vinton, Virginia
Thanks to all for your comments. Thea, I'm not sure what you mean by anchoring the tiger tape. I understand that the tape will move when hooped but other than the adhesive on the tape how do you anchor it -- pins? Anyway, I've tried marking with a ruler and Roxanne's silver pencil, but the fabric shifted and I ended up with so many lines that I didn't know which one to follow. I even added more basting so that I now have a 2 inch quilting grid rather than the 4 inch I started with -- helped a little. Yesterday, rather than using the half inch tape I decided to use one inch tape then go back and fill in. Out of ten lines I stitched four are uneven. It has to be that I'm only marking within the hoop because the movement starts in the same place -- about the third hooping. Today, I'm going to try taping the entire line and then hoop. Right now I'm so frustrated, but I have two years in this quilt and I can't give up now.
This is reason enough to learn how to quilt on my large floor frame. I put it away several years ago because I couldn't quilt with my thumb, but learning to quilt with my thumb can't be as frustrating as this. It's also reason enough to try machine quilting again. It's just that I love the look of hand quilting so much better.
Thanks again. Gotta get back to my quilt.
MN Nancy. When I finish this quilt I will definitely post a photo (if I can figure out how). Actually, I will shout out so loudly the whole world should be able to hear me.
Jane,
Have you tried hand quilting without hooping? It depends on the project but I have done several quilts without hooping. I thread baste my quilts together so I don't have to mess with pins and it makes the quilt very easy to work with. I don't use my thumb to quilt either.
aka Grandma Sunshine
Maggie
I can't use the hoop either. I do my hand quilting with the quilt pin basted and then just lay it in my lap. I am also able to shift any wrinkles I feel in the backing as I quilt. This is how I quilted my queen size Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. Worked great for me. I found that the frames and hoops got in my way.
I have never tried "lap" quilting, have read about it, but since I quilt with a rocking stitch couldn't figure out how to work my needle on fabric that isn't taunt. I spent the entire day analyzing my problem. I laid out the quilt on my cutting table and marked using one inch painter's tape to help stabilize the fabric. (I can't believe with a 2 inch basting grid that fabric can shift when you mark with a pencil. This has certainly been a learning experience.) I've only quilted a couple of lines so I won't know if it's really going to work until I get a few more lines quilted. If it does work, I'll go back and quilt between each line to get my half inch grid.
Hi Jane, it is nice to meet you. Sorry I cannot offer any advice as I do not hand quilt. I will look forward to your pictures!
Life is like a quilt...bits & pieces, joy & sorrow, stitched with love