How to Create Fabulous Quilts with a Quilt Machine
A quilt machine provides a great way to make the entire quilting process smooth and hassle-free. Moreover, you will have consistency when you get a quilt done with the help of the machine. With a machine at your service, you would have no worries about misaligned blocks of fabric and erratic stitches. The machines are sophisticated enough to make quilting a childs play for the novice.
Getting a standard quilt machine can cost you a good amount, but if you are fascinated with the idea of quilting, then the machine will be worth the price you pay for it. Make sure you get the machine from a reputed fabric store. Apart from using a quilting machine, you will also require things like the measuring tape, quilting pins, quilting machine needles and quality quilting shears. The quilting templates are useful in helping you trace a design straight onto your fabric.
The quilting machine and its features
A quilt machine has an extended bed space (the working area between the inside of the machine and the needle), which is larger than that of a quality sewing machine. This makes it convenient for the quilter to handle the large pieces of fabric as well as the bulky quilts.
Some machines come with a stitch regulator, which keeps the stitch length consistent during the free motion quilting, irrespective of how fast or slow the fabric is moving.
A standard quilt machine will provide you with high speed stitching option, which means around 1000 straight stitches per minute. The decorative stitches have a slightly reduced stitching rate. This saves on much of your precious time when quilting.
The needle up/down setting in the machines would allow you to sew by having the needle in the down position. When doing free motion quilting or when working with heavy quilts, this feature seems to be an extra advantage. If you stop with the needle down, you have very little chance of the quilt slipping offering a continuous stitch line.
The automatic thread cutter facility on your quilt machine will cut both the bobbin thread and the top thread in a single action; this reduces the time required to manually trim the thread tails and decreases thread wastage as the same time.
If you are considering about making a quilt and thinking of buying a machine for it, then just go for it. A quilt machine would help you to generate a marvelous piece handcraft the quilt, which you would cherish lifelong.
