Quilting Continuous Line Designs

By Eileen Roche

Continuous line designs are overall quilting designs and usually stitched on a longarm machine. You can get this look with your embroidery machine by using continuous line designs that have been digitized specifically for embroidery machines. Continuous line designs have stitches reaching towards another design ready to connect in a continuous line of stitching. Their start and end points are usually in different locations.

The SulkyLeaves design was digitized to flow in horizontal rows across the quilt.

The design comes in two versions: one with the first stitch at the right side of the design and the other version with the first stitch at the left side of the design.

This digitizing trick makes aligning designs while moving hor-izontally across the quilt a breeze. The letter R (for right) and L (for left) is included in the design. It is the last color and is there only to let you know what design you have on the screen. Once you stitch the first color, the quilt design, you are done with that design. Do not stitch the letter on the quilt.

Use LeavesSulkyR when you travel from the right to the left across the quilt.

Use LeavesSulkyL when you travel from the left to the right across the quilt.

The LeavesSulky design is very forgiving – it’s an open, airy design with convex and concave curves that give the illusion of continu-ous stitching. Because there are no harsh lines or angles, the eye cannot easily determine rows or columns on a finished quilt.

When shown in different colors, the individual repeats are easily identifiable.

Let’s Quilt!Make a 36” x 66” quilt sandwich. If desired, baste the layers together with Sulky’s KK2000 or pins. Draw a 30” x 60” rectan-gle in the center of the quilt sandwich. This rectangle will be the finished size of the table runner.

Print a template of both the LeavesSulkyR and LeavesSulkyL designs on Sulky Sticky +. Place the LeavesSulkyR template in the top right corner of the quilt sandwich.

Hoop the quilt centering the template. Center the needle over the template’s crosshair. Remove the template and stitch the design. Lift the Snap Hoop Monster’s top frame, slide it over the machine head and let it rest there while you advance the fabric.

Place the LeavesSulkyR template on the quilt aligning the stitched design with the template.

Smooth the template in place. Place the magnetic frame on the bottom metal frame, keeping all layers smooth. Position the nee-dle over the center of the template.

Use the trace feature to verify the design is square to the template.

Advance to the first stitch. The needle should be positioned at the last stitch of the previous design.

If not, lift the magnetic top and slightly adjust the quilt sandwich. Sometimes, all that’s needed is a minute adjustment of a millime-ter or two. You’ll get better at this with each hooping but don’t fret if two designs do not meet perfectly. Small imperfections will fade into the background when the quilt is viewed as a whole. And once laundered, they will be practically invisible if your thread matches your fabric.

Peel the template off of the fabric. Pull it from the top down to the bottom keeping it as flat as possible to clear the foot. Hold onto the needle thread and drop the needle. Raise the foot and pull the bobbin thread to the top. Stitch about 10 stitches, stop the machine and trim the thread tails.

Complete the LeavesSulkyR design. Continue in this manner until you reach the end of the top row.

After you’ve completed the top row, lift the top frame and advance the quilt to place the second row in the hoop. Select the Leaves-SulkyL design and place the matching template on the quilt. Position the template so that second row sits snugly under the first row.

Follow the same steps above using the design and quilt the second row. Repeat until the the entire table runner is quilted. Trim the table runner on the marked rectangle. Bind as desired.

What to do when?Before pressing Start

Slide your hand across the hooped quilt to feel for any folds or puckers on the back of the quilt. Look over the back of the machine and verify the hoop is not holding a fold in its grip. If so, rehoop.

The bobbin runs out. Stop the machine, cut the top thread, make a note of the stitch number and carefully remove the hoop from the machine but not the quilt from the hoop. Firmly grasp the top and bottom of the hoop, do not let them move independently of each other.

Carefully pull the frames away from the machine and slide the magnet shield or clipboard under the hoop to safely transport the hoop.

Change the bobbin. Reattach the hoop to the machine, always holding the top, quilt and bottom frame together. Check the positioning, it should be spot on. If not, you can adjust the fabric right under the needle by tugging a bit beyond the hoop. Use the needle retreat/advance button to travel back to an inconspicuous area like the intersection of two petals.

Pull the bobbin thread to the top and continue sewing.

Thread Breaks Defense is your best offense here. When starting a large project, clean the machine, use a thread stand, insert a fresh needle at the beginning of the project and keep backups on hand. If a thread breaks, pull on the top thread to release any stitches that are already loose. Use the machine’s editing feature to travel back to that point. Then go back another 10 stitches. Rethread the machine, insert the needle in the quilt and pull up the bobbin thread. Give it a tug to make sure it holds. Stitch right on top of the ten stitches.

You come to the edge of the quilt and the design is too big for remaining area.

Let it stitch on the expansion fabric. If for some reason, you didn’t add expansion fabric earlier, go ahead and add it now. You can sew, fuse or tape it in place. Remember it’s a temporary fix and will be removed later.

Advance through the stitches that will stitch on the expansion strip. Resize at the machine, checking the perimeter of the design and using the trace feature.

The edge of the quilt top gets caught in the foot

I make it a rule to never leave the machine when it’s stitching near the edge. If it does happen, catch it as soon as possible. Stop the machine, snip the threads to release the fabric from the foot. If you have to, remove the foot from the machine and gently work the fabric away from the foot.