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Today on the blog, we’re discussing the most common mistakes new quilters make. New longarm quilters often encounter a few common pitfalls. In quilting, it is totally normal to make mistakes (and learn from them!), but our hope today is that we can help you avoid the most common quilting mistakes. So you can focus on honing your skills, having fun, and becoming a Super Quilter! Â
Why I’m Qualified to Talk about Quilting Mistakes!
Hi, my name is Mary Beth Krapil. I’m a Handi Quilter National Educator (one of the first), and I’ve been quilting and teaching quilting for decades. I love introducing beginner quilters to the wonderful world of longarm quilting.
Mistakes new quilters make and how to avoid them
Understanding these mistakes and learning how to avoid them can make your quilting experience smoother and more enjoyable. Here are the top three mistakes new longarm quilters make and tips on how to sidestep them. Â
#1 Mistake New Quilters Make : Not pressing and squaring the backing fabric
When we quilt on a longarm frame, the backing fabric is secured between the poles, pretty side down, covered with batting and then the quilt top. Unless you make the effort to look, you really can’t see what is going on with that backing fabric as you quilt. So it is important to make sure it is smooth and wrinkle free as you load it, to avoid stitching in tucks or pleats into the back of the quilt. There is nothing more disheartening than to take the completed quilt off the frame to find a tuck sewn into the back of the quilt. This mistake new quilters make is an easy one to fix.
How to avoid backing mistakes
Step 1: Press your backing.
It is critical to press your fabric backing well. This is not as easy as it sounds, because often you are dealing with a HUGE piece of fabric. You’ll want to use a steam iron, or a spray bottle with water. A large ironing surface helps tremendously. Just like everything else, you’ll get better at this with practice.
Step 2: Square your backing
Once the fabric is pressed, take the time to square the backing. Each of the corners have to be at 90 degree angles and the two sides should be parallel to each other. Â The top and bottom edges must be straight and parallel with each other. Note: It is critical to press your fabric before checking that it is squared! I use a laser level to achieve this.
It gives me perfectly straight lines of light that intersect at a 90 degree angle. I lay the backing on a flat surface (like the floor) and place the laser level in the corner. If the edge needs to be trimmed, I use the Handi Batting scissors and cut along the laser line.
I love these scissors because they have offset handles and long blades. You can get them from your local Handi Quilter retailer or online HERE.
If you’d like to get more in depth as to how I use the laser level, read this blog post HERE.
#2 Mistake New Quilters Make : Not understanding tension
Notice I didn’t say “not knowing HOW to set tension”. The important thing is to UNDERSTAND tension. Once you understand, setting tension is a snap. We all know good tension is key to good quilting results.
Learning to understand tension
There are so many resources to help you with learning how to tension all the yummy threads we have to work with. Here are a few:
Your local retailer
I would first send you to your local retailer who supports you and your machine. They are a wealth of knowledge and will be happy to help you. Another excuse to go to the quilt shop? You’re welcome! 🙂 They can provide you with in-person help and answer all your questions.
YouTube
Sometimes, (at 2 am and you are trying to finish a quilt), a little on-line help is preferred over in-person help.
Go to the Handi Quilter YouTube channel and search for tension. There are lots of videos to choose from. A favorite is TNT: Threads Needles and Tension.
Handi Quilter Website
Whenever you have a question about your Handi Quilter machine you can access the information available on our website. Click the LEARN tab and choose Educational Resources. This page is all about setting tension. On the main handiquilter.com page scroll to the bottom and under the LEARN heading, click on free downloads. There you will find printable PDF resources. Go to the website to download the PDFs below. I’m showing them here as an example.
Your Handi Quilter Group on Facebook
If you haven’t joined the Handi Quilter Facebook group, do it TODAY. It is a wonderful community of quilters who share questions and help and quilts and accomplishments and struggles. If you post a question, you are likely to get many helpful answers from experienced quilters. I guarantee you will be inspired and learn so much from your fellow quilters!
To join, sign in to your Facebook account and go to this page. Answer the 3 membership questions to be admitted. We try to keep this group a safe and positive place to discuss all things longarm quilting. Be sure to read the rules for participation and always be kind.
Tips for learning tension
- Always set the bobbin tension first.
- Don’t be afraid to turn the top tension dial. 15 minutes on the clock is a SMALL tension adjustment.
- Floss the top thread securely between the tension disks.
- Learn what good stitches look like. And you also need to know what bad stitches look like.
- Remember tension is a balance between top thread and bobbin thread. A “tug of war” that we don’t want either side to win. We want the top thread and the bobbin thread to be evenly matched so that the “knot” that forms the stitch is in the middle of the quilt sandwich. Not pulled to the top and not pulled to the back of the quilt.
- Do a tension check (by stitching on a small sample sandwich) with EVERY bobbin change.
Once you master tension you will wonder what the struggle was all about. It’s a new skill, so give yourself grace and put in the practice time. I know you’ll get it. If you understand what you are doing, there will never be a thread you cannot use on your Handi Quilter longarm machine.
#3 Mistake New Quilters Make : Quilting in the Wrong Order
This is a mistake new quilters make who have been quilting by hand or on their domestic sewing machine. If you have been quilting using your domestic sewing machine or you have been hand quilting, you started the quilting in the center of the quilt and worked your way out to the edges. But before you could do that, you stabilized the three layers by basting. You used whatever method you thought worked best for your project. It might have been pinning, basting stitches (usually by hand), or temporary adhesive spray basting. The basting kept the layers from shifting as you quilted. Accomplishing this basting is not easy. It can mean crawling on the floor, painful fingers, messy glue. It’s, all around, not a fun process. Now you have a movable machine on a frame.
The good news is: No Basting! You wind the 3 layers around the poles and those poles hold everything nice and smooth as you work. So you load the 3 pieces and move to the center of the quilt and start quilting? NO! Quilting causes the fabric to shrink, and if you haven’t basted at all, you’ll have a wrinkly, puckered mess on your hands.
When quilting with a movable machine on a frame it is best to quilt from the outside in, not from the center out as you had been doing in the past.
And loading the pieces on the frame does not mean no basting. A small bit of basting is always needed. And depending on the quilting design, you might need more basting. The good news is: basting on the frame is as easy as setting your machine to a long basting stitch and sewing while the frame holds the fabric smooth.
Avoid this mistake that new quilters make by:
Learning to stabilize the quilt
Baste the edges
1. Always start by stitching a basting line across the top of your batting and backing only. Use a channel lock to make sure this line of stitching is perfectly straight and square with your frame. This gives you a straight line to line up your quilt top with. You can then baste the top edge of the quilt in place. Make sure your stitches are within the quarter inch from the raw edge, that will be covered by the binding. You won’t have to take these basting stitches out. No one will ever see them once the quilt has binding.
2. Next baste down the sides of the quilt that is within your frame space. Once again, the basting stitches should be within the quarter inch that will be covered by the binding. Â
Quilting Order
3. Ready to quilt! It is best to quilt from the outer edges toward the center in your frame space. Here are some examples of different quilting scenarios. All of these are in the frame space. Once the first frame space is quilted, you’ll advance the quilt and keep going, in the same manner, for each frame space, til you reach the bottom of the quilt. Remember to baste the sides each time you advance.
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 quilt with a border design – always quilt the border first and then quilt the interior. If you want to wait and turn the quilt to quilt the side borders then be sure to BASTE the borders first. In the photo below, I quilted the top border of the quilt. Then advanced and pin-basted the side borders. Next I will quilt the interior of the frame space and save the side borders til the end, when I can turn the quilt 90 degrees and quilt the side borders all in one go.
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quilting blocks with individual designs – quilt the outer blocks first (one side and then the other and then move to the next blocks in, working your way to the center
- quilting an edge-to-edge pattern – quilt from the left to the right. This is the exception to the rule of quilting from the outside to the center. All-over, edge-to-edge designs need to be quilted across the quilt.
Baste entire quilt
If you cannot start at the top and work your way through the quilt to the bottom, you will have to baste the whole quilt first, before starting the quilting. An example of this would be a wholecloth quilt.
When I quilted this quilt, I wanted to start in the center so that all the elements would line up properly with the pieced blue friendship star. I basted the entire quilt with a 4 inch grid and 1/2 inch basting stitches before I started any of the quilting. By basting, I secured the layers and I could start in the center and add the design elements, working my way to the outer edges without causing distortion.
Avoid these mistakes for every quilt!
By avoiding these common mistakes new quilters make, and prepping your backing, understanding tension, and quilting in the proper order, you’ll set yourself up for success!
Remember to Quilt Every Day!
What to read next
Keep learning and growing your quilting knowledge by reading these blog posts:
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Watch this video today! 6 Steps to Perfect Tension
by Mary Beth Krapil @mbkrapil