Quilting My First Quilt on the Q-Zone Frame
Last week I built my Grace Q-Zone hoop frame and with a bit of rearranging, I set it up in my upstairs office. Now I’m ready to try quilting my first “real” quilt on this frame with Stippling! See how this works in this new quilting tutorial:
Click Here to find the quilt panel I’m using in this video. I designed this last year for the 4th of July and I’m so happy I had a chance to quilt it before Independence Day THIS year! I recommend getting this in Kona Cotton Ultra or Minky Fabric for the best results.
Click here to learn more about the Q Zone Hoop Frame. I’m really having a blast playing with this little frame and learning how it works. I can definitely say it’s faster than pushing a quilt over a table top, but yes, having my home sewing machine on top does limit the amount of space I have to quilt in. My plan is to eventually move my 15 inch Qnique longarm to this frame so I have more space and won’t have to advance the quilt so many times to quilt it.
Preparing the Quilt for Quilting
I used the Q-Zone leader cloth for this first quilt project. In the instructions for using the Q-Zone frame, you don’t HAVE to use the leader cloth, but it does save you some fabric. If I didn’t use the leaders, I’d need to cut the backing fabric 8-9 inches longer on the top and bottom edges in order to attach the quilt to the frame.
For this quilt, I pinned the backing to the leader cloth, then ran a second line of pins to attach the batting to the backing. I also ran a line of pins connecting the quilt top to the backing and batting in a straight line. This stopped the quilt from shifting and wiggling around too much and it was much easier to get the quilt loaded into the frame.
No, you don’t have to fully baste the quilt, meaning I didn’t cover it with pins to hold the three layers together. Because I was quilting this quilt so soft I didn’t feel like that was necessary and no, it didn’t seem to cause a problem as I quilted down the length.
Begin Quilting on the Hoop Frame with a Home Machine
I slipped the leader through the arm of the machine and positioned it over the rails. I like to have my machine on the far left side of the frame so it’s easy to quilt from left to right. As I mentioned in the video, this is still a home machine so I still need to generally work in the direction it likes to quilt it, which is from left to right. This direction corresponds with quilting from front to back, exactly how a home machine is designed to work.
One thing you might have noticed is I forgot to drop my feed dogs! LOL! Yes, you can quilt on a frame with free motion quilting and leave your feed dogs up. I felt it pull a bit only halfway through the quilt and lowered my stitch length to 0.0 mm. No big deal!
The first line of quilting I stitched was just a straight line to connect the quilt top to the batting and backing fabric. This is exactly how I get started quilting on my Continuum Frame and it’s just a habit to get started this way.
Then I had about 2 inches to quilt in so I wiggled through that area with Stippling. It wasn’t much space to play, but I got the quilt top connected and the quilting design started.
Advancing the Quilt on the Q-Zone Hoop Frame
After quilting that first narrow space, it was time to advance the quilt and stitch the next row and I wanted this to be a full row – as wide as I could quilt it with my home machine. I took off all the clamps, shifted the quilt up and rolled it, and then clamped everything back in place.
The most important thing to watch out for on a home machine is your needle bar. This bar extends to the inside of your machine and it can easily bang against the frame or the clamps. This is why when I begin quilting, I always make sure I have at least 1-inch of quilted space within the hoop. This way I won’t get too close to the back bar of the frame. But I did get too close right at the end of the video so make sure to watch to the end to see me jump!
Learning with Every Quilt
I intentionally picked a 36-inch wide fabric panel for my first quilt on the Q-Zone. I wanted to use this size because I could quilt across it without having to shift to the left or right. All I had to do was shift upwards and roll the quilt around the cording within the leader cloth.
I learned a lot while quilting this quilt and I found the Speed Controller really essential for starting and stopping smoothly. The speed could be adjusted with my thumb and click the machine off whenever I stopped and needed to roll my chair down the length of the frame.
I plan to adjust the legs so this frame is higher and I can stand and quilt. As you can see in the video, I spend a lot of time standing and then sitting back down to quilt. I’m used to standing with my longarm frame so I’d like to see how it feels to stand at this machine.
I’ll have another video on how I quilted this cheater cloth panel and how to finish off the last rows of quilting and take the quilt off the frame. Be sure to check in next week for that video and please suggest more videos on the Q-Zone in the comments below!
If you’re interested in learning more about the Grace Q-Zone, please check it out on our online store. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
What type of sewing machine/quilting machine works best with this quilting frames? Also, would you suggest this for a beginner?
Thank you!
I would try the machine you have right now and just see how it goes. The Juki TL series is very popular to use with this frame, but I had issues with thread breaks and bad tension on that machine. Personally I’m liking the Juki F600, but I can tell this is only going to be a stepping stone for me. I’m definitely going to move my Qnique 15 inch longarm to this frame as soon as I can.
For a beginner, it really depends on what you want to do with quilting. I was perfectly happy with a home machine in a table for years and became really good at quilting that way, but mostly on a very tiny scale to do show style quilts. I got bored with that a few years ago and wanted to do something different. I wanted to quilt faster and finish more quilts in a year (I was only finishing 1-2 per year before). I also wanted to quilt bigger shapes and make soft quilts for beds and throws.
So if that is your goal, yes, I would suggest looking at frames because quilting with big movements and lots of space between the lines of quilting is easier on a frame where the machine moves instead of the quilt. I hope that helps!
Very interesting, thanks
Phyllis
Thank you, Leah, for doing this video. I have had my Q zone hoop frame and 15R machine since January and had trouble knowing what to do with the black straps. The tails kept catching on my machine. Now I just need to know how to correct the tension on the bobbin so I don’t get eyelashes when I free motion quilt. Setting my quilt up makes much more sense now. Thank you.
Wonderful! I’m so happy this video has helped you Linda!
My Q zone Frame is all set up, and now getting ready to sew for the first time on the 15R long arm machine. I sent away for some of your fabric from Spoonflower I need to get some more like this type of panel, because it will be good to learn on GREAT FABRIC PLUS Need More Free Motion Quilting for us who are just taken the next step on Longarm What Thread do I Use? To Practice Thank you
Great suggestions Debora! I’m definitely planning to design more panels like that for Spoonflower. On thread, whatever you were using on your home machine for machine quilting would be a good choice. I’ve used Isacord embroidery thread for years and love it. I also really like Grace’s new Finesse thread.
Leash, can you use the Qzone Frame with a Baby Lock Destiny II machine? And if so can you use the Ruler base with it?
When did the Destiny 2 come out? I can check on it, but I think yes, it probably will work. You most likely won’t need a ruler base because the bottom of the machine is so bulky. It’s the area right around the needle that will support the ruler and the Destiny looks more than bulky enough to support it.
Leah,
I am back….we moved o be closer to grandchildren. So redoing sewing room and design area. I think that the Q zone hoop frame, will let me quilt quilts more quickly!
Thank you so much for what you have done to and for the quilting world!!!
Carrie Krumrie
Wonderful Carrie!