There was a charm pack here of Michael Miller's Fairy Frost in 50 colors. I've made twelve Dutchman's Puzzle (flying geese) blocks from Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth. That went well. They will be used to frame an appliqué named Silly Goose. ( Geese - goose. Are you with me so far?) I remember the pattern is in a magazine that has a pull-out set of patterns so it should be easy enough to find. We have most thoroughly discussed the pitfalls of using silk thread for appliqué and agree that the reading of laundry labels by new daddies is too much to hope for. Moving forward, as we must : it crosses my mind that setting the stitch length to more stitches per inch might make the flying geese sturdier. It also might make the seams have more thread and therefore not as nicely behaved. Do you accept whatever your SM chooses for quilt piecing? Do you adjust it to more stitches per inch in the hope (real or imagined of longevity)? or have you thought about it? Polly
I most often leave the automatic setting on my Bernina. It seems to be a bit smaller than other machines. But if I know something needs some extra security, I shorten the stitch length just a titch under "2".
Well . . . why I was wondering ... I usually set the stitches per inch a little shorter than default in the hope that the seams would be stronger. With the flying geese, I didn't. It seemed to me that there wasn't a lot of stress on those seams. Every one of them pressed nice and flat. Just beautifully. It caused me to wonder if it had to do with more thread in the seams. Maybe so. Maybe not? Polly
"KJ" I most often leave the automatic setting on my Bernina. It seems to be a
No clue. Maybe our Pati would know. I think the longer stitch length is a bit more relaxed, so maybe that's why it pressed well. Or it could be your fabrics. Or whatever house the current moon is in.
Depends. Sometimes it comes down to how likely I'll be to need to frog- stitch it . It's probably the only thing I'm not thrilled with my Viking about. Often '2' seems a little long, but '1.5' seems a little short, and I don't think there's any way to go in between.
Polly when I'm doing piecing like flying geese or half square triangles or any really small piecing, I make my stitch length much shorter. Don't know if it's right or not, I just know it makes sense to me. The more stitches, the stronger the seam will be -- I think. I also lengthen the stitch for straight (or almost straight) quilting. I like the look of a 4.0 or even 6.0 stitch on top of a quilt.
I change my stitch length all the time, depending on what I am doing. I hadn't specifically thought of longevity; but, for instance, if I am going through more layers than usual, I will lengthen my stitch length slightly; and for the corners on mitred binding I will shorten them a lot. Shortening the stitches as you propose, Polly, should make no difference to seam folding and 'pressability'; it does (for me) make an improvement on visibility of stitches on the outside i.e. they are *not* so visible! . In message , Polly Esther writes
I can't see that it would take much, if any, more thread to use a smaller stitch, Polly -- after all, the seam is the same length, and you need that much thread to get from one end to the other. The only difference might be in how many "knots" are in between the layers where the top and bobbin threads meet. At any rate, I really do believe that smaller stitches are stronger -- I'm not sure why, but that's MHO.
Basic answer is "It depends." On a lot of stuff. Bulk from thread is there, finer thread=3Dless bulk resulting in flatter seams. Finer thread may be made with fewer fibers or may be more tightly twisted/ spun. A high quality fine thread is tightly spun, and small in diameter. A lesser quality may be the same "thickness" but have less fiber in it and be more loosely spun. (More than you wanted to know, right?) you will use more thread with smaller stitches, because there is a bit that goes "down/up" between the layers of fabric. So you essentially have the thread traveling over small "hills", and like a hilly road there is more mileage than is indicated by the distance "as the crow flies". And the "thicker" your fabric the higher the hills. Next is the fabric you are using. If your fabric is very tightly woven, adding more thread to the thread count/more stitches per inch can actually cause some problems. It may cause the fabric to "buckle" a bit because you are forcing the threads more tightly together. Too much of that and you actually start weakening the fabric. Think of a container of pencils/chalk/etc. The pencils are standing up with the eraser ends up. When there are enough pencils for them to stand fairly straight there is not much room to add more pencils, and there comes a time when trying to add another just won't happen. Now imagine that the container you have holding the pencils has some "give" to it. You can force more pencils into the container, but the shape of the container starts to distort/stretch out of its original shape. The same sort of thing can happen with stitches in fabric. And is why we have to use stabilizer for stuff like machine embroidery. (And you still often see some distortion at the edges of very dense embroidery designs.)
Another factor is the type of needle you use. A sharp needle can penetrate the individual threads of the fabric. this can cause some weakening, and if there is too much of it, it can really damage the fabric. Usually we don't notice the individually damaged threads in a woven fabric, because they are made to "hide" this. But when you have broken threads in a knit fabric it can really show because of the fabric construction.......thus the development of "ball point" needles, which will not penetrate the individual threads but slide beside them. (Which also causes some less than really straight seaming.)
You may also have differences in seaming depending on the grain line of the seam. Sewing bias seams can give very different results from sewing on the straight grain. (and there may be some difference between a cross grain and a lengthwise grain seam.)
And then there is the consideration of tension........ both top and bobbin. You can easily have a "balanced" tension, when top and bobbin thread interlock exactly in the middle of the fabric sandwich, and still have the tension "wrong'. I have seen cases where the actual mechanical set up produces that "perfect" stitch, but both bobbin and top tension were way too tight. It pulled the seam line something terrible, and any stress would pop stitches, in any direction. So you need to have a correctly balanced tension. (And it may change with different thread/needle/fabric.)
In other words, you need to consider a lot of different things. Fabric, thread, needle, grain, tensions,(And even pressure foot pressure... which is another subject I can get on a soapbox about.......) and more all come into play. Most of the time we just do it, and don't really think about all these things because it becomes automatic.
IF all the mechanicals are set up "right" and you get a good seam, I wouldn't worry too much about stitch length. As long as it is short enough to hold every thing together, and long enough to not bunch the fabric it works. For what it is worth, on my Viking the default length for "medium" fabric weight is 2.5. And that is generally what I use. I do shorten it for some things, lengthen it for others, but most of the time I just go with it.
ahh, gee...... Thanks KJ. I tend to accumulate information and am glad to pass it along when appropriate. (or not... if a subject comes up and depending on my mood. ) I have no plans on leaving the group, even though I am not fond of reading through google groups. sigh.
Have fun, Pati, > You are our own personal Google Pati! =A0Thanks for chiming in. =A0You al= ways
I can accumulate the information....but I usually can't remember all of it. DH calls it my "oh yeah" memory. As soon as I'm reminded, I say, "oh yeah, I knew that!" It was a hindrance in college....I'd get my corrected tests back and think.."oh yeah, I remember reading about that!"
Me too, Sunny. Me too. She even answered a question that I didn't even know what was. I've seen machine embroidery that makes the support fabric look like a cat that just ate a dill pickle. Now I know why. Polly
oh my lord............do those comments just come out without even thinking about them??? Good thing I've learned to not be drinking anything EVER when reading one of your posts..... "cat that ate a dill pickle"..... is that where the expression "sour puss" came about???? Did I ever tell you about the day I came home and our Bichon was acting a little guilty, but was smiling at me?? Upon closer inspection, I discovered he had found one of the kids' suckers and had it concealed crossways in his mouth! Hence, the "smile". He also got into a bowl of Halloween candy once and had candy hidden all over the house. But he would give it away by stealing glances over to his stash with a look on his face that said "I hope she doesn't look over THERE or over THERE!" It was hysterical! Hummmm what got me started on that.....oh, cat eating a dill pickle.
Thank you both. Sunny, I am a reader. I read a lot and tend to remember the stuff that is important to me. Plus there are many years of experience and a widely varied background. (high school physics, chemistry and so forth.)
Always glad to provide info, and I try not to get too long winded about it. (It is the teacher in me.... people ask questions and the answers make more sense when the "why" and "how" are both included.)
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