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Quick Help!!

I had a not so brilliant, brilliant idea on DMIL's quilt and now need your advice/experience.

I am doing a crazy style quilt from her mothers fabric for a Christmas gift. I don't like the look of ties with this one and was going to use some of my decorative stitches to quilt the layers instead thinking it would fit right in with the more traditional style crazy quilt. I was having issues trying to get it to feed properly even with my walking foot so I decided not to fight the quilt and took the little bit I'd done out. Instead I thought I'd use my button hole feature to 'tack' the quilt similar to ties only without the strings hanging. Well that part is done and I'm working on tying and burying all the ends and thinking I don't have time for this. Is this necessary, or can I get by with just burying them or better yet just trimming them close. The were done with my button stitch on my Bernina. That stitch goes up and down 3 times in the same spot then does a back and forth a few times and then up and down same spot on the second side. I did this a few times in each location. Will this be secure enough? Knowing DMIL, it will likely get a fair amount of use and she has 4 dogs that will be cuddling with her so it will get washed frequently. So although I don't really have the time to get them all tied and buried, I would rather give it to her and inform her I need to finish it before she gets to use it then to have to worry about things coming apart.

Advise? Experience? Do I knot and burry, just burry or trim closely?? Thanks so very much!!!!!

Reply to
Charlotte Hippen
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Could you trim close and put a tiny drop of fray-check on the threads? I know it works a treat on all my sewing projects.

Reply to
Pat in Arkansas

Cheat. That stitch is very sturdy. After you trim closely, if you want to give it just a bit more security you can add the tiniest touch of FrayBlock or Craft Bond fabric & paper glue by good old reliable Elmer's. Either one dries clear and soft and sort of disappears. If one or two tacks turn loose one day, it's easy enough to re-tack - it's not like the whole thing will come apart and start wandering around the house. And breathe, will ya' ? Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

Okay. Innnn, ouuutttt, iiiinnn, oouuttt. That better?? : )

I was hoping someone would respond that way. I think I will just trim closely and not add fray blocker as DMIL is severely allergic to many things like that and I actually like her so no killing her off just yet. I was figuring with the up and down in the one spot a couple of different times it should be secure enough, but my DM didn't think real highly of it and thought I should do some stitch in the ditch instead. I just needed some reassurance from someone else that I wasn't totally nuts and that it wasn't going to fall apart the minute it gets a bit of use. Thanks Polly!!!

Charlotte ~~ who is off to bed 'cause since I'm no longer knotting and burying all those **** threads I don't have to pull a late night to finish in time!!!! Yea!!!!.

Reply to
Charlotte Hippen

True Confessions: I RARELY do the knot/bury finish. I tend proceed without caution! I just use the start/finish feature, adding several VERY short stitches after/before; finally, I cut the thread ends. So far, my quilts are holding up very nicely. My theory is that by the time ALL the ends work loose and louse up the quilt (IF they do)... I'll be dead and won't care. ;) PAT

Charlotte Hippen wrote: CUT

...cut...I thought I'd

Reply to
Pat in Virginia

LOL. Thanks for the reassurance Pat. After reading Polly's response I went ahead and just trimmed the tails. Glad to know that in your experience I should be just fine.

Reply to
Charlotte Hippen

I have an older model Bernina and it does little decorative stitches for as long as you keep sewing, or for little "once" stitches. Can't think of another way of describing it, but if you have a Bernina, you probably know what I'm talking about. You can set it to do the pattern from beginning to end, just one time.

I've done these little decorative tacks several times and think they're great. I used the kids' themes of cars, trailers, animals and such for kids' quilts, and the fancier, more intricate stitches for crazy quilts. They look great on the back, too!

Much easier on hands that are in pain, than tying by hand.

Reply to
René

I know just what button your talking about. I hadn't thought of using the decorative stitches as tacks!!! Thanks for that idea. I just used the button attaching stitch. Maybe next time I'll have to try one of my decorative ones (I have a couple of quilts to try to get done before the end of Jan I may try them on) !! Thanks Rene!!

Reply to
Charlotte Hippen

Reply to
Stephanie Bertels

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