Pin, Pin, Pin

Pin, Pin, Pin. Did I say "pin"? When I sew I am not a pinner. When I do, I pin very sparingly, just enough to hold the fabric together. I have found while sewing this quilt that I must pin,pin,pin. It is to easy with the weight of the quilt to pull at the seams you are sewing. Then you have seams that are not even or miss a piece of fabric that should be sewn. This must be why I sew, rip and sew again. That being said. I have found it easier for my sewing machine to "under" pin my fabric sandwich. In other words pin the area that is going to be facing the feed dogs. My machine doesnt like to sew over pins, as most machines dont. So I try to pull them out just before they go under the foot of the machine. Occasionally I will miss one or two. Today is the first day that I have broken a needle hitting a pin. Of course I am using a heavy duty jeans needle as I am very hard on needles when I sew.

As you can see here I am sewing with the pins on top. With all the layers and thickness it put a lot of strain on the pins and the needle tends to hit them more and bend them. With the pins on the underneath of the fabric the pins lay straight and go between the foot and feed dogs much more smoothly.

A couple of other key points that I would like to mention about my QAYG quilt, one is to have a large flat surface around your machine. It helps to keep the quilt in the area that you are sewing. Another point is to be sure to leave at least one whole inch around your square. You need to have ease of movement when sewing your seams. I also sew a normal quarter inch seam. I tried the scant quarter inch seam and my machine just doesnt like it. The feed dogs dont seem to pull the fabric through like it should. There is one site that I visited and she quilts all the way to the edge. I had already started mine this way. So it will be the way I finish it. Maybe the next quilt I will try her way and it will be easier to put together. Her link is at the bottom of this page.

Dont quilt any closer than one inch to the edge of the quilt.

My husband made me this extra large table for my sewing machine.
I think I am going to tape the table to the machine bed as it tend to
move around a lot.

Be sure to make sure you fold back all the extra material before sewing the seams. You dont  want to have to rip out anymore seams than you have to.

The back of the quilt. I have five more rows to add to it.
It's not quite the size of a twin bed, but it will be close.

The back of my quilt has a grid pattern because I am using the same fabric for the back sashing as for the front. If you dont want the noticeable grid pattern you could use the same fabric as the backing. I only bought enough fabric for backing two years ago for the quilt and the chances of finding some that matches is very slim. Although if you happen to like the Disney Princess fabric you can find it on Ebay. I searched for the fabric just in case I happened to screw up some of the squares while making this quilt.

This is me ripping out a seam because it became all ruffled
and not a very flat seam which is what you want.

Even though I pin, pin, pin I still find that I have to rip out quite often. I like to sew fast. I have found that when I sew fast the bottom layer of fabric tends to ruffle or scrunches up. I'm not sure if that's my fault because I sew fast or if my machine needs a tune up. Probably the later as the machine is about 12 years old and has never been in for a tune up. I figure if it aint broke dont fix it. The tune up will have to wait until I am through with the quilt and a Halloween outfit that I need to make for one of my granddaughters.
http://www.sewwequilt.com/2011/03/quilt-as-you-go-qayg.html