Speeding Up My Quilting Process

Today's post is a more technical post.  Part of doing quilting for Quilts of Valor (QOV) is trying to be quick on the turn around time.  Not my strong suit this past month with school wrapping up.  But with summer here I have a little bit more time to quilt.  I've found an easier way to get my QOV quilts done in less time and it has nothing to do with becoming faster on the quilting end (although that never hurts).

The Quilt of Valor I was working on when I took these pictures.  Isn't she beautiful?

Instead of using paper pantographs, which are long rolls of paper with the quilting pattern drawn on them, I use Pantovision. Pantovision is a program designed by ABM Innova.  I happen to love it because it makes the old fashioned roll paper patterns obsolete and digitizes everything instead of me trying to find a place to store the paper rolls.  Let's just say, I wasn't blessed in the organizational area of life, I'm treading water at best.  I'm a fan of anything that takes paper clutter out of my life.
To make my QOV quilting go smoother I've found a way that works for me.  What I've done is I have taken my most popular QOV patterns and saved them as QOVStars, QOVvines, etc so I I know that these are the patterns that I've used on previous QOV.  It is also helpful because most QOV quilts are about the same size usually within a few inches.  Then to make the process easier I've taken and resized all my patterns so I can easily get a set number of passes (usually 4) before I have to roll my quilt.  Knowing that I've done this I do not have to worry about checking before I start quilting if I have enough room on my final pass before rolling.  I know I'm good to go because I've set this pattern up so it fits without needing to check to make sure I'm not going to run out of room.  Nothing stinks worse than starting a pass of a pattern and then bumping into the back of your longarm and trying to pull it down to finish the pattern. It is also nice because I used to spend a lot of time moving my pattern on the screen up and down after I rolled it each time trying to figure out where I was again.
I haven't downloaded the latest Pantovision update so this is my "old fashioned" way of advancing my quilt. I load each quilt and quilt my first four rows.  My first row of the 4 rows is usually a partial row where I am only quilting in the parts that are on the quilt and the pattern is actually hanging off the top of the quilt on the batting.
Each time I start a new row I mark where I start on the batting with a dot.  After I complete the row I come back and line the sew head up with the dot.

 Then I check my screen to see how far off I am. Here I am only about a 1/2" off to the left.

 To fix it I scoot the pattern over with the arrow keys  to line it up. (I'm off just a tad to the north in the picture because I'm trying to do too many things with too little hands.)

 Once I'm lined up on the screen I go down to the next row and put my needle down in my starting place on the quilt.  I always start off the quilt on the batting and then sew my way onto the quilt.  I also mark with Sharpie.  It doesn't bleed through the batting and it will be cut away after I finish quilting.  Then I put my needle down back in the black dot and start sewing.  When I'm through I'll come back to my dot, adjust as necessary like before and go across again.

 Here you can see all 5 dots.  The dot at the very top is from the previous 4 rows that I did before I rolled the quilt top.  It is how I know far to roll my quilt which I explain in the bottom photo.  The next four dots are the four passes I made this time/roll. As long as I line up with the previous dot before I move down I'm good to go.  

 Below is a picture of me lining up the fourth row from the previous quilting before I rolled it to the top. It then becomes a measuring point which you can see on the sewing area but doesn't affect my quilting. What I do is after I finish my 4 passes I roll my quilt to the very top of the frame.  I stop when I have my sewing head pushed as far up to the quilt take up bar as possible and the black dot from the 4th row is now nestled inside the sewing head hole.  If you look closely in the picture you can see the dot and the take up bar where the quilt is rolled onto in the picture.  Since I'm lined up on that dot I can now move down and start quilting immediately without having to make any adjustments on my Pantovision screen.

Hopefully this gives you some new things to think about when you are quilting.  I've found it very helpful to have resized my patterns to fit a certain number of passes on my quilting area.  The time I save is definitely the time it took me to figure out how to resize my patterns to get 4 passes in each time before I rolled it to the next.
What have you done to make longarming easier for you?

Technology and the New Longarmer

Part of becoming a new longarm quilter is figuring out how to learn all you need to know. I've joined Facebook groups, Yahoo groups, read hundreds of online article & blogs, and even taken classes.  Probably the advice that keeps popping up more than anything is the age old adage, practice makes perfect.  But I'm not a fast piecer & I must get sidetracked fairly often since I make my unfinished project list and I quickly filled a notecard with all the projects I have in the house that are in various states of unfinished-ness.
A lady I follow on Facebook has a unique way of practicing her longarming skills. She buys unfinished quilt tops off of eBay and then finishes them by quilting them. I've shown a previous Christmas quilt top that I acquired through eBay and finished. A couple of weeks ago I became the proud bidder and winner of three very similar quilt tops by the same woman. They measure approximately 60"x 70" and all were under $12 a piece. Her only request in her listing was that the person who bought them would report back to her about them. I wasn't sure what type of information she was wanting reported back but for that price I could write an email letting her know I'd quilted them and send a quick picture.

The three quilt tops I purchased from the same lady off of eBay.

When the quilts arrived I had just started back to work after Christmas break. I kept practicing on my sheets of fabric I had stretched on the frame. I'm finally feeling confident in my leaf pattern and loopy flower pattern these days. I have two Quilts of Valor that I'm needing to quilt in the near future and decided I wanted to practice my quilting skills from start to finish one more time.  So I loaded the yellow flower quilt Wednesday night. I took a class after I got my machine and learned several good tricks for loading a quilt effectively so I put to use my new skills.

The quilt I loaded to practice on the frame. After it was already loaded and I took the picture I thought maybe I should have ironed it. But then I reconsidered and decided it was fine.

Thursday after I came home from a meeting I went to the quilting studio (as I like to refer to it) and got started immediately. I chose to use my loopy flower pantogram.

My first row of flowers started. You can see my basting stitches holding the quilt down so it wont shift as I quilt.

 I quilted across one row and ended up with my back so tight I thought I would break out into spasms.  I decided I might do better if I had an adult beverage to loosen my muscles.  (A tip I picked up from a new longarming friend on Facebook.)

A small adult beverage to loosen up.

I also changed into my flip flops as I think they make me a better quilter. Or I am desperate for warmer weather.

I went back to work and I quilted and quilted. I quilted for 1 1/2 hours until dinner was ready. I had a quick dinner break and then back to the grind. I found I quilt like I drive, with the radio up loud and me performing my own concert.  I really don't know how I don't have a recording contract because I really am quite good.

I'm leaning in this one. I'm still learning how to run the machine and keep my body moving at the same time.  I find I lean instead of walking to the side as I go.

After another  1 1/2 hours of quilting I finally finished my quilt top.  I quickly pulled it off the frame, trimmed up the edges, and took some pictures. I went and emailed them to the lady I had purchased them from eBay. I let her know it quilted up nicely and looked really nice finished.

I make wonderful faces as I quilt. I often have my tongue sticking out.

I was very pleased that I finally feel as if I'm progressing in my skills. I was able to consistently keep my patterns consistent in each flower.  I practiced lining up my patterns after each time I rolled the quilt up without any mistakes. I was finally able to keep my batting from shifting by tacking down the quilt top each time I rolled the quilt to the new fabric that was ready to be quilted.  I've also been able to notice when I put in a new full bobbin how the machine feels "heavier" than when I get towards the end of the bobbin and the machine is much "lighter" to move. I also can feel it when I run out of bobbin thread these days instead of keeping quilting another +10".  I'm getting the feel for my machine that my research on longarming said would come if I put in the practice.  I'm not sure what people did before the internet when they wanted to learn something new. I appreciate the help I've gotten when I've posted questions on the message boarrds. I pick up new techniques or ideas as I'm reading others' blogs. When I need to see how to do something I can pull up a YouTube video and get a demonstration.  In the case of learning my longarm quilting social media has been extra valuable.

A close up of the loopy flower pattern.

The finished quilt off the frame. I think the lady I purchased it from should feel quite proud as it turned out well.