Question Thursday #4

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

8 Responses

  1. Thanks so much for answering my question. I had tried a few ways to hide my threads and they were time consuming and not pretty. That video really clears it up. You are quickly becoming my best friend.

  2. a1angiem says:

    my straight-line practicing went well today and i also traced rather successfully along a marked motif – something i've struggled with! the stitches were pretty small but i adjusted and they turned out pretty well. i was surprised you keep the horizon on auto. do you fmq with the single hole plate engaged? thanks!
    – angie

  3. Patti says:

    Great Q&A today! I'm going hunting for a cheater needle tomorrow! I hate threading my needle so many times when burying threads.

  4. Sue says:

    Hi Leah, after watching your video on cheater needles and hiding your threads, I feel a little confused. I was taught that when you begin and end a line of quilting, you use very tiny stitches at first and then work your way up to the size you want to lock your stitches and prevent them from unraveling (or in the case of the walking foot and straight line quilting, quilt in reverse a few stitches then proceed forward to lock stitches.)

    But are you saying that you can just begin and end your quilting with your stitches the size you want them right off the bat, and without reversing, and just hide the tails in the quilt and that will hold them in place? And if so, will this be enough even for quilts like mine that are used daily and washed/dried regularly in a machine?

    Thanks so much Leah! You have been a blessing to me (and my quilting!).

    ~Sue

  5. Leah Day says:

    Sue – As I said in this post – everyone learns something different. What I learned is to start stitching as normal, then tie a knot in the threads and bury them in the middle layer of the quilt. What I learned and have experienced is that taking small stitches at the beginning and end is not nearly as secure as burying the thread tails.

    And yes, I have tried this on quilts that have been washed 100s of times with no threads coming loose.

    Cheers,

    Leah Day

  6. DrMary says:

    Thanks for providing information about Pinmoors – very helpful. In reading through the other questions, I was reminded that I suffered from frequent thread breakage once upon a time, especially when sewing through fusible web. Use of sewer's aid completely fixed the problem. Although it seemed like a miracle, it's really just a silicon based, non-staining lubricant. Now when my thread breaks, I go through all the things you suggested as causes (great suggestions btw), but most often find it's because I forgot to add those few precious drops of sewer's aid to my spool before I started sewing.

  7. Janet says:

    Two great tips here for me today, both about dealing with thread ends – the cheater needle and the simple way of bringing your bottom thread up with a little tug. Thanks!

  8. Lucy says:

    I just free motioned quilted a white boarder strip with a bright blue. Looks great but what can I do to secure and hide the thread ends? It is a baby quilt and will be washed. Love your site and am inspired daily!

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