Who here has an HQ?

[sadiedaisy1]

I'm set up & playing...so far, so good. It is a lot of fun!

[cindyg]

That's terrific. Have you tried a panto yet?

[sadiedaisy1]

Yes, the machine came with one pattern so I gave it a try. I'm not great at following the lines, but it looked pretty good on the muslin, better than my free hand quilting. Where do you buy your pantos at? How about your thread? I'm wondering if there are cheaper places than going through my dealer.

[cindyg]

Online panto places I've bought from:
www.kmquilting.com
www.quiltscomplete.com

There are others, too. Just Google quilting pantographs.

When I have marked a quilt or I am trying to follow a panto, I use my right hand on the machine to steer it and I put my left hand down on the line I'm following and move it along just in front of the needle. For some reason that helps me a lot.

Make sure the pantos are "continuous line" unless you don't mind going over the same area more than once.

[sadiedaisy1]

Thanks, Cindy! You are very helpful.

[campbellkid]

I have an HQ-16 that I bought just before the Avante came out. Even if I had known about it (don't know if the dealer did or not, but she didn't say anything), I don't think I would have gone to the larger machine. the 16 is just right for me. I am just doing my own quilts, or for charity. One tip that I have for people wanting something to practice on. I get sheets from the goodwill store (or rummage sales would be good also). Get the more loosly woven ones. I get childrens twin size character top sheets and something solid for the back, use the least expensive low-loft batting I can find and go to town. I recently did one with hearts in it so I did a loopy meander and then went around the hearts and it turned out great. It will be given to charity. I also got a plaid flannel sheet, did the same thing. It was great practice for using a ruler for stitch in the ditch/straight line work. I liked it so well I kept it for a twin guest bed. I also did two layers of fleece with no batting, it it turned out wonderful. It was a gift for my husband and had a large farmall tractor on it, but wasn't very thick, so I came up with the idea of quilting two layers together and he loved it. It came out very well.
Another thing you can do to practice is get used pieced quilts, like you would buy at a discount store (bedspread), take it apart (the quilting is very large and easy to remove), layer it with the same backing or new backing, and new batting and requilt it. I'm going to do this with my present comforter on my bed which came as a bed in a bag. Also good to get at thrift stores is pieced pillow shams. Two of these can be taken apart, resewed together with other fabric to make a baby quilt. Hope this gives you all some ideas.

By the way, I'm in Indiana. Any other Hq-16s in my area?

[sadiedaisy1]

Thanks for all the ideas, campbellkid. We loaded muslin for the top and bottom and batting in the middle to practice on. I just took it off and cut it into large squares to donate to the humane society. But I'm wondering what do I do about the raw edges? Should I just sew a 1/4" all around the sides to secure it? I'm not sure if the humane society cares or not. There is definitely enough quilting to keep all layers together, but we didn't go real close to the edges as the backing was the same width as the top. Any ideas?

[cindyg]

Sadie - do you have a serger? You could serge the edges or maybe just do a close zig-zag.

[sadiedaisy1]

Good idea, Cindy. I do have a serger and just recently pulled it out to serge the ends of the leaders (the guy ripped the sides so it would fit on the bars since we didn't put it up to full size). I think I will do it like that-quick & will definitely finish off the raw edges nicely. Thanks!

[Itchn2Bstitchn]

Try this site for patterns too. I've used several of the freebies.

www.designsbyvickie.com'>www.designsbyvickie.com

Keep stitchn! --Jan