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Large quilt frame... OK I give in!

I have a king sized, 3 rail quilt frame. I love the look of it, I love the smell of it and it wraps fabric beautifully. I have finally moved it upstairs into my sewing room, fitted it all together again and basted Blue Quilt to it (again). I did this all before, lost the plot and have mostly quilted the thing on a 16" circular hoop. I'm trying again.

However.

No matter what I seem to do all the lines of quilting seem to be away from me, diagonally in the wrong direction or just awkward to get at. It's driving me nuts. I want to get this right. It cost a lot of money, therefore I must be doing something wrong.

I have tried rolling the fabric top to bottom and bottom to top, but it seems to make no difference, all the lines are any which way but a convenient one. I CAN quilt with my thumb etc., but when I look at books and so on, everyone seems to be quilting happily right to left and top to bottom.

Is there a knack I haven't got? Is there a blatently obvious flaw in my technique? Am I missing something here?

Or is my Mighty Wurlitzer out to get me!

Sorry, long rant, but it's bugging me, and I won't be beaten by a gadget!

Nel (Gadget Queen)

Reply to
Sartorresartus
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How about sitting on the other side?

Reply to
Louise

Books just do that to make us feel bad.

If it were me....I'd put the quilt on the frame and then the direction for the diagonal lines would be whatever is upper right to lower left :-)

But yes, that is the one problem with a floor frame. You have to be able to quilt well in every direction.

marcella

Reply to
Marcella Peek

Like the carpenter who saves the nails with heads on the wrong end for the other side of the house? :-^

Anne > How about sitting on the other side?

>
Reply to
Anne in CA

Yeah, that's it!

I haven't quilted many quilts on a frame, and none of them were three-rail frames, which may make a difference, but I did find it helped to move from one side to the other, depending on which direction I had to stitch (I just couldn't stitch away from myself no matter how hard I tried!).

Reply to
Louise

I guess I don't understand the question. If the line are running "diagonally in the wrong direction"... can't you just start at the other side/end and quilt towards yourself instead of quilting away from you? Lines go in *both* directions???

Leslie- totally c> I have a king sized, 3 rail quilt frame. I love the look of it, I love

Reply to
Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Guess I didn't explain myself very well. Sounds so easy in theory doesn't it... that's what I thought. So I took the thing out (months ago) turned it end for end, turned 90 degrees, but still those lines went every which way.

Maybe it is just _this_ quilt, mind! It is a medallion thing with loadsa little 2 inch triangles that are quilted 1/4 inch from the seam. Then there are borders of cables. They are OK, I can get them at a sensible angle. It's these triangles.

You get up/down/right or up/down/left or right/up/down. Try it. I think I'm beat. It's coming out again today until those little b*****s are done. Then I might go for the long stretches on the frame.

I could climb on top of it, I suppose...

Nel (Gadget Queen)

Leslie & The Furbabies > I guess I don't understand the question. If the line are running

Reply to
Sartorresartus

Think of it as quilted in 3 direction, and diagonally! I've seen this lovely thing on the Mighty Whirlitzer (which takes up about the same amount of space as a baby grand piano!), and I know JUST what Nel means: whether you start top left, top right, or bottom left or right, the lines are going off the other way into the gloom...

Nel, have you thought of doing this two-handed? Using left hand as well as right? I can't remember how good you are with the left hand...

Somewhere on this machine I still have a picture of this quilt on the frame. Would you like me to post it on my site?

Reply to
Kate Dicey

I am completely useless with my left hand. :-(

Yes, I would love to see those pictures, I don't think I ever did. I've done lots more since then, in fact I can almost see me finishing it within the year, (DV).

Nel (Gadget Queen)

Kate Dicey wrote:

Reply to
Sartorresartus

Reply to
Taria

Hm... I can do some esoteric things with my left, like peel oranges and thread needles, and I'm OK either hand up on two-handed sewing in a frame.

Thee, Me, The Quilt and the Mighty Whirlitzer in the guest bedroom, along with those curtains we made in one of those tandem sewing sessions up in the erie you call sewing heaven! Are the walls still partly black, or have you managed to complete the conversion to cream yet?

They'll be on the Quilt Gallery page before the day is done! :)

Reply to
Kate Dicey

Pix of Nel's Mighty Whirlitzer and the lovely quilt now on my website in my Quilt Gallery.

For those who were following the summer wedding stuff saga, there's an update on the wedding gown made from the mum's gown, and the latest red and black beaded things. Look in the Further Adventures section and the Wedding Gallery.

Reply to
Kate Dicey

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