Mr. Darcy's Second Quilt & a Tour!

Although Mr. Darcy is armless & brainless right now, I still managed to press him into service for a new project.  This is another quilt of mine (and my last pieced top!) which was in a tutorial I wrote for Handmade News.

I decided that this quilt, at 64" square, would be my first experiment with wool batting. None of the other quilts I've received so far have had wool batting, so if I'm going to try it, now is the time.  I also think this is a good opportunity to give you a little tour of Mr. Darcy.

If you look at the far end of the picture, you will notice that there are FOUR bars.  (If you click on the picture & go to Flickr, you'll see the notes.)

The bar that is furthest to the left is called the backing roller bar, or "belly bar" as it is affectionately known.  This bar is at belly button height, and is typically how a quilter knows the perfect height to set the frame.  Mine is about 43" from the floor (yup - I'm all legs!) The backing is loaded, wrong side up, and rolled onto this bar.

The bar to the right of that is the top roller bar.  The quilt top is loaded right side up and rolled onto this bar. As I roll the quilt top onto the roller bar, I am always checking the edges to make sure the quilt rolls on cleanly, with all the edges lined up.  Knowing that the quilt top is square, BEFORE I start this process, helps me to keep it square as it rolls.  If all the seams are pressed neatly, the quilt will also roll on evenly, without puckers, and gives a nice surface to quilt on.  Incidentally, I go through the same exercise with the backing, but you can't see that in the picture.

The third bar (which not all machines have by the way!) is an idler roller bar.Nothing gets rolled onto this bar; it's used for tension to keep the quilt top level, and is set at the same height as the top roller bar.

The fourth and final bar is the takeup roller bar.  When the quilt is first loaded, the other end of the backing is attached to this bar.  As the quilt is quilted, all three layers will eventually roll up onto this bar.

The batting doesn't get rolled onto a bar; there actually is a 5th bar underneath the machine for batting, but because of how batting is made these days, it's not that convenient. So I just let the batting hang onto the floor.  After the top & backing are loaded, I push the batting between the layers and straighten it out.

The first thing I will do when Mr. Darcy's parts come back, is stitch a perfectly straight line across the batting and backing only, close to the idler bar.  That perfectly straight line will be my guide for aligning the quilt top, and I will be able to square the quilt top to that line.  You can see in the picture (hopefully) that this quilt top is not straight on the machine bed, and the borders are showing signs of rippling. Some of this could be because I haven't yet squared the quilt onto the machine, but some of it could also be an indication of borders that I will have to ease in.  This easing is pretty minor compared to some quilts I've seen, but it's still something that I have to watch while I'm quilting.  If you're careful in how you measure & attach your borders, you won't have this problem! If you don't know the right way, stay tuned for a lesson over on Quilt Possible!

Hopefully, by looking at this picture and seeing the bars explained, you can see how important it is for the backing ESPECIALLY to be square.  It is attached at the top and bottom to two fixed rollers, and if it doesn't get pinned on square, the rolling will be uneven & I can't get proper tension for the quilt sandwich.  The next quilt I load I'll be sure to take a picture of the very beginning of the process!


Happy quilting!