Today’s Topic: Six Ways to Travel Stitch for Machine Quilters
Welcome to Week Twenty of The Better Machine Quilt-a-long based on my book 25 Days to Better Machine Quilting.
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Good Morning, Quilters!
Can you believe we are already in week 20 of our quilt-a-long? Time flies when you’re having fun!
This week we will look at options for travel stitching.–No, not stitching while traveling–that’s an important topic too–
Today we are traveling while stitching!
Travel Stitching for Machine Quilting
Travel stitching is what you do when you’re quilting away and you get stuck in a corner. Or when you complete a motif and you need to start another. You also need to travel when you’ve completed quilting a block and you want to move to another area of the quilt.
There are six options for traveling: retrace, stitch in the ditch, step off the edge, add a loopy line, echo stitch or knot off. The type of traveling you choose depends on the motif, the block and the thread.
Motif, Block, Thread
For almost all of the motifs found in my books and here at LKQ, I design the pattern to make it easy to travel from one motif to the next. When you try other motifs, look for this characteristic.
The block will influence the type of travel as well. For example, if the block has many seams, it may be easy to stitch in the ditch to travel between motifs. On the other hand, if the block is plain, one of the other methods of travel will be more suitable.
Finally, the type of thread will influence the travel method. For example, retracing a line with lightweight thread will look fine, but retracing with heavy weight thread may look messy.
Six Ways to Travel Stitch for Machine Quilters
Retrace
You can often stitch over a previous line of stitching to travel to a new area within a quilt block. This works best with lightweight thread-as it is hardly noticeable. On the other hand, when using heavy weight thread, the double stitched line may look messy and create an unwanted focal point.
Stitch in the Ditch
Travel is easy when there’s a seam nearby. Carefully stitch in the ditch and the travel stitches will be invisible!
Step off the Edge
If you are near the edge of the quilt, you may be able to travel in the margins of the quilt to a new area without cutting your thread.
Add a Loopy Line
Some simple motifs look great when connected by a loopy line. Keep it simple!
Echo Stitch
My favorite way to travel (other than First Class) is echo stitching! Simply echo stitch the motif, or part of a motif to travel to the next area for quilting. While it may seem lopsided to echo stitch only part of a motif, the overall effect looks great!
Knot Off
Knotting off is everyone’s least favorite way to travel. Create a knot and move to another area of the quilt. (Read The Easiest Machine Quilting Knot here.)
It’s the obvious, but the most time-consuming way to travel.
Details, Details
They say the devil is in the details…
Travel stitching is one of those little details. You probably won’t think about this again until your quilt is stuffed under the harp space and you don’t want to pull everything out to tie a knot. For now, just tuck these ideas in a nook in your noggin for when the time comes…
What about YOU?
Do YOU travel stitch and stitch travel?
Do YOU miss going to quilt conferences and other travel?
Are YOU traveling anywhere in 2020?
We’d LOVE to hear!
YOUR Travel Companion (Warm Weather Ports ONLY!)
Up North, Lori
(where we’ve had 8 inches of snow already and it’s 20F this week!)
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy Quilts and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to LKQ. For all other purposes, please contact me at Lori@LoriKennedyQuilts.com. Thank you!
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13 comments
Arvilla Trag
Bobbie – if you are at all interested in visiting Ecuador (very inexpensive), all they are requiring is proof of a negative COVID test within the previous 2 weeks. If you are concerned about the actual traveling, CDC recently said you are 100 times more likely to be struck by lightening than you are to contract COVID during a flight. Considering that less than 3% of the U.S. population has contracted COVID, and of that only 2.5% die (0.07% of the U.S. population) there is really nothing to worry about. You can still have your 50th anniversary trip. Look at http://www.latinfrontiers.com, and if you go forward with this and get Marcello as your agent, tell him I sent you.
Congratulations on making it to 50 years!
Bobbie Elder
We love to travel. My husband and I always plan a trip out of the country for our anniversary since we retired in 2006. In May we will celebrate 50 years, but sadly we cannot go on the big trip we had planned. Trying to count our blessings, however, and praying that we can even celebrate with good health this year! Yes, I miss all the quilting activities. So thankful for Lori, though, and the activity and education she has generated for me during this isolation. Bless you, Lori, for being so generous with your time and talent!
Marta
Arvilla. I hope to read about your trip for batiks to Indonesia some day! You go Girl !!
cyndy parry
Yes, miss quilt shows…nationals and locals .. and guild meetings! All 3 travel events this year have been road trips…Mom dying, Mom’s funeral a couple months later when the ground thawed, MILaw as she recovered from emer. hospitalization…nothing fun. I DID, however, take stitching — several bindings sewn on quilts (yeah, lots to carry but they were road trips…), my first OMG XL sashiko piece, quilt-y DVD’s and OL programs. I’ve also been reading…a LOT… though not quilt-y related. 4 major annual looked-forward-to conferences cancelled, annual Asia trip cancelled, a new adventure also cancelled…All sad. On the bright side, tons of UFO’s done, new quilts, Quilts of Valor, charity quilts, too. I’m fast approaching 30 quilts and yes, stash IS diminishing. Quilting is a great hobby custom made for an unforeseen event such as we find ourselves. Back to sewing….
Rhonda R Goss
I miss quilt shows. Virtual shows are OK and give you an opportunity to see a show that is a long way away but you can’t see the back and the quilting for the most part. But I have pre-existing conditions and it is better to be safe and not dead. Be glad when things change.
martinsharon
Can you imagine going through covid with no ability to FaceTime or zoom call a friend? Can you imaging going through covid with no ability to order fabrics on line?
I miss my friends, I miss dinner parties, I miss going to restaurants.
I am truly grateful that I can tune in to Lori Kennedy on my computer and watch amazing things being done, learn new things, see new things.
Thank you Lori, its a gift!
Sharon
Lorraine Doyno Evans
No travel, no skiing this winter for me. I know it’s hard, but we have to endure it to get rid of this virus. Stay safe.
Barbara Daniel
I am going to be quilting a baby quilt that will need rows of zig zag types of motifs. Is there one of your books that would give me ideas for baby motifs?
Bette
How I miss traveling, whether it’s our yearly trip to Europe (London was to have been our 2020 trip) or to quilt shows (no Lancaster AQS either). I’m glad the quilt industry is adapting by creating online opportunities to attend shows, but for me, there’s nothing that can replace actually being at a quilt event.
Arvilla Trag
I am very dissatisfied with the way the quilts in virtual shows are photographed and posted on-line. No close-ups for detail, no shots of the quilt back. I also think canceling ALL the 2021 AQS shows was premature at best. Not only for those of us who want to attend, but there are vendors whose entire living depends on traveling to quilt shows and the like. On-line shopping is better than nothing, but a poor substitute for being able to touch and compare and chat.
sandy cunningham
I applaud AQS for wisely canceling 2021 shows. I heard a Dr. sharing this week, that once you have received the vaccine, you will still be masked! Several reasons for this. Some people have gotten Covid twice, as there are multiple strains. Plus the vaccines are only partially effective. As for venders that depended on shows, many creative ones have developed clever revenue streams like guild lectures, on line classes and pairing with Facebook live quilt shop auctions, etc. I love the talent and resourcefulness so many small businesses have achieved. I find “having a future” a small price to pay for not touching fabrics right now. I understand it is inconvenient. I don’t intend to be snarky. Looking in the rear view mirror, isn’t helpful to me this year. Just focusing on the long term, I find is easiest.
Arvilla Trag
My husband and I traditionally go to the Daytona and Madison quilt shows every year. Daytona was a casualty of quarantine, but when I read that the Madison quilt show (5 hours from me) was going to be virtual, I could have cried. Where I live the closest quilting store to me is 65 miles away and they do not carry batiks. This means I have to buy most of my fabric on-line, which is fine most of the time. Occasionally a piece of fabric arrives that is just NOT the color it looked like on the monitor, which can be problematic. This happened earlier this week when a green batik arrived that I needed to coordinate with other fabrics in a Christmas gift. On the monitor it looked like a light-to-medium green with slightly blueish overtones. In the flesh it looked like the green of some vintage science project in the back of the fridge.
I rely on quilt shows for fabrics, patterns, notions, inspiration and mental health breaks. My modus operandi is to stock up on fat quarters; yardage-worthy fabrics are bought in 2 yard increments. When I was looking for a long-arm I was able to test drive several varieties (I ended up buying an APQS George). I am going to replace my Brother VQ-3000 next year, and I really need to test drive several different machines before I make a several thousand dollar decision.
Because of virtual quilt shows I have been working 90% out of my stash. As extensive as it seemed, I have now depleted my low value purples and my high value greens, I am running out of Christmas themed fabric to use as backing on wall-hanging gifts, and am almost to the point of cannibalizing fabric that I bought for specific patterns. Some of the notions I need for Christmas gift projects are nigh unto impossible to find, even on-line.
All of this hideous inconvenience has had an upside, however. For a few years now I have had a goal of getting my stash built up to the point where I will not need to buy fabric again once I retire. The restrictions have made it abundantly clear that I need a bigger stash if I am going to get through retirement on stash alone. I don’t really have room for a bigger stash in my present set-up, so I will need a dedicated quilting studio. I can finally justify that expense.
If the restrictions are not lifted soon I may resort to a significant road trip for my batiks. To Indonesia.
Cheri
And it’s 19 degrees this morning!
Yes, I miss our yearly quilt conference and meeting up with quilting buddies, and the vendors, and the glorious quilts!
No travel for us in 2020 or 2021!
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