Table top Stitch regulated long or mid arm machines

ok, I can understand the noise thing, but it's really not close to the fabric, it's under the throat plate and the holes in that are pretty small, you'd have to have a major and probably already unrescuable fabric snarl for there to be any risk there.

I find I almost exclusively chain piece, even if I'm making one block, I'll either leave a piece in the machine and have everything get one step out, or if I'm getting mixed up and need to have them all laid out to have any chance of getting it right, it's back to the box of scraps for an ender, once I figured that out, I saved so much time snipping threads and I was never very religious about that, then regretted it later when you'd have a thread sneak it's way to the front!

Anne

I find I almost exclusively chain piece, even if I'm making one block, I'll either leave a piece in the machine and have everything get one step out, or if I'm getting mixed up and need to have them all laid out to have any chance of getting it right, it's back to the box of scraps for an ender, once I figured that out, I saved so much time snipping threads and I was never very religious about that, then regretted it later when you'd have a thread sneak it's way to the front!

Anne

I stopped using enders (aka "thread bunnies") a while back. Now I keep a bunch of 2" squares next to the machine. When I come to the end of a seam and have run out of things to chain piece, I pick up two of the 2" squares (usually a light and a dark) and sew them together. When I have a good bunch, I pair them up into four patches. I made a quillow top out of the stack of four patches by adding lattice strips, and I'm using it in my recliner every day!

I also love the auto cutter on my Janome and miss that feature when I'm using one of my older machines.

Iris

Oh Anne, if I haven't driven you crazy already, I most certainly would if I described my working methods to you >g< (a recent task of sewing together hundreds of triangles in strips would have you begging for mercy!) It's good to know that the blades couldn't actually catch the fabric, if they really tried, but ... ...! Actually, in all seriousness, I find I like the long tail ends so that I can knot and bury them. The one try I did, when the machine was new, left short tail ends that I could do nothing with.

And , in my defence!, I do sometimes adopt new working systems - just not very often >g< (I appreciate your trying). . In message , Anne Rogers writes

great theory, but I know for me it would be doomed as I'd never cut the scraps up into squares! I don't seem to produce that many scraps, I think in part that's because I tend to use a wide range of fabric in a quilt, so what for some might be a scrap for me is still a piece of fabric, just a smaller one! I've also not been quilting that long, so I don't have 10 years of small pieces, I may feel differently in future, but right now I do dip into my small pieces for various different things, so I wouldn't want to lose that palete because I'd processed them into 2inch squares!

Cheers Anne