Armpit Quilting

Short Arm Quilting On A Three-Roller Frame
(the usual disclaimer, if you are new here:  I am not an expert at anything.  This is not THE WAY to do it.  This is how I do it.)

I have quilted by hand (king size quilt, took 5 years to quilt) and have done machine quilting by wresting quilts through a sewing machine.  Hand quilting takes too long and machine quilting is a royal pain in the neck.  And shoulders.

Several years ago I had the unbelievable good fortune to walk into a charity shop and spot a frame for machine quilting with a regular sewing machine.  This is called short-arm quilting, as opposed to mid- or long-arm, which use special sewing machines that have a wider space between needle and pillar and thus a longer "arm".

I use a post-WWII Japanese straight stitch sewing machine of the type copied from the Singer model 15, and known as 15 clones.  I love the 15 clones for piecing, too, but they require some minor modifications for the very high speed sewing that happens on the frame.  See my earlier post about adapting a cheap Japanese class 15 for free motion quilting and another post which describes an easy and so-cheap-I-can't-even-calculate-the-cost method for modifying that clone to create a more secure thread path.  How much DOES one tiny metal washer cost anyway?

There were some great responses to those posts, and it was correctly pointed out that comparing frame FMQ with stationary-machine FMQ is apples to oranges.

FMQ: free motion quilting, in which the machine does NOT use the feed dogs to push the quilt through in a straight line.  Instead, the feed dogs are disabled in some way, and the operator moves the quilt or machine, creating beautiful and graceful quilting patterns.  Or maybe not.
Stationary:  the sewing machine is not moving.  It's a normal sewing machine, preferably a lovely vintage one installed in a nice cabinet. 
Frame:  The machine sits on a platform, which the operator pushes around. 

As with everything else in life, the good news and the bad news are the same.   Good news:  I can quilt up to 108" wide.  Bad news:  You have to have space for a frame that is 10 feet long.   There are smaller systems.

There are three long rollers that hold the quilt top and back with absolutely NO BASTING.   This is why I love this system and would only give it up for a long arm.  And that's not happening unless I stumble upon one in a thrift shop.

To prepare the quilt top I add a 3 to 4 inch border of waste fabric (meaning it will be thrown away at the end) on all four sides.  This border has functions (discussed below) but will not be part of your quilt design.  Old sheets work well for this, or any fabric that you don't want.  In the photos below you will see this as an outer border of light blue.   

The quilt back is made to the same dimensions as the quilt top including the waste border.  But instead of a waste border I just make the outer border of the quilt design wider all the way around.  I absolutely do not trust myself to get the top and back to match up perfectly, so extending your quilt fabric rather than using a waste border means that when you trim everything at the end, you will have nice quilty fabric on the back all the way out to the edge.

The first task is getting the top and back onto the rollers.  Initially this involved about an hours worth of pinning the quilt to the canvas leaders on the rollers.  Then I discovered a 108" long separating zipper system made for quilting frames.  Sew one half of a zipper system to a canvas leader, and the other half to the quilt top and just zip it on.   The quilt back also zips on.

Problem is, the zippers that you sew to the quilt top and back will have to come off at the end of the process.  Solution:  a chainstitch machine.  A chainstitcher uses a single thread (no bobbin) and if you pull a loose thread at one end, each stitch pulls out easily.  A nice temporary seam.

another thrift shop find

Zip the quilt back, wrong side up, onto the front roller and the farthest back roller.

a heck of a lot easier than pinning!

quilt back zipped to front and back rollers, face down

The next step (not shown) is to draw the back up until it is not quite taut and lay the batting on it.  The batting just floats between the two quilt layers, it is not pinned except at the front edge.  The batting drapes over the back roller and hangs down in back.

Quilt top zipped to middle roller, face up.  If I had been smart I would have added the batting before doing this.

Zip the quilt top to the middle roller as shown above, and roll most of it up smoothly.  The "smoothly" part still has me stumped and I have no clue as to why this is so challenging.

All three parts of the quilt sandwich (top, batt, back) meet at that front roller.  The back is zipped to the front roller.  The batt is lying on top of it, smooth and relaxed.  Pin the front to both batt and back.  So there is some pinning, but not as much.  And pinning through quilting cotton is easier than pinning through canvas.

You can't see the batt, but it is secured under those pins

and now you are ready to quilt.

Functions of the waste border

• At the beginning of the quilt it gives you space to quilt a practice row to check your tensions.
• It is a place for the clamps that attach to the sides of the quilt (not shown).
• About 3/4" of it will disappear underneath the binding, which means that your quilt design does not have to allow extra for the underneath-the-binding part.  In the quilt shown I used 2.5" strips for the sashing and outer border.

Because 3/4" of the waste border will end up underneath the binding, I quilt about 1" of it to secure it.

The quilting frame has an electric outlet on the front so that you can plug in your sewing machine.  The problem then becomes:  how do you make the machine run?  You can't use the motor controller as a foot pedal because you move along the frame as you quilt--so your feet are moving.  You can buy a hand controller for modern electronic machines that mounts to the platform, but I use a vintage machine.  

In desperation I came up with what I thought would be a temporary solution, but it has proved to work remarkably well.  I call it:

Armpit Quilting   

First, I tuck the motor controller (aka foot pedal) into a handyman's apron.  Cost $1.00.  Lowe's provides no sponsorship for this blog.  Do you think if I showed them this post they would give me my $1.00 back?

Then I tie the apron around my neck, cross-body, and tuck it up tightly into my armpit.  Sophie demonstrates it here, and since she does not have any arms you can easily see the position.

It was odd for the first 30 seconds.  Then I completely forgot about it and it just became a natural process.  Do you think about your feet while you are sewing?  I'm guessing not.

If it is tucked up tightly you have very good speed control and the ability to start and stop immediately.

The platform on which the machine rests has two sets of rollers:  we'll call them "north-south" and "east-west".  With the ability to go forward or backward and side to side at the same time, you have the ability to quilt any shape you want.  It is just another form of free motion quilting.  It takes the same 2,000 hours of practice to get good at it.

The biggest limitation of this system is the fact that you can only quilt a narrow path.  Then you roll up the part you just quilted and quilt another narrow path.  And when I say "narrow" I mean about 4 inches wide at the beginning of the quilt, when there is very little on the first roller which takes up the work that you have just quilted.  

at the beginning the quilt takes up little space on the front roller

By the time you are almost finished, the take up roller is fat with quilted quilt, and you only have about 2" left to maneuver.  Very limiting as far as quilting designs go.  But a good metaphor for life, in which we all have to learn to be creative within our limitations.

With a thin cotton batting rolled VERY tightly, the quilt still takes up most of the space in the harp by the end

The biggest advantage of this system:  Speed, speed, and more speed.  No basting:  how much time does that save?  No basting thread or pins to remove.  For me it works best when I find the right rhythm and that seems to be when I run the sewing machine flat out at its top speed.  I auditioned several machines on the frame, and some that work beautifully otherwise balk at these speeds and start spitting out shredded thread.  The $10 black clone shown above can handle the speed, and will now live on the frame.

After the quilting is completed, I unzip the middle roller and then roll it all the way back to the beginning, checking carefully for problems or areas that got overlooked.  It's easy to add more quilting now and much harder once you have it off the frame.

 Unzip the other two zippers and then find that magic thread to pull to remove the chainstitching.  Always fun.

pop pop pop pop:  the sound of chainstitches being removed

This (The Spirit of Service) is the ninth quilt I have quilted on this frame, but five of those were baby quilts.  I'm still learning, building skill, and discovering.  On this quilt I discovered two good reasons for using an obviously contrasting waste fabric as an outer border on the quilt top. (versus just extra wide borders, which is what I do on the quilt back).

Bonus #1:

follow the line

I serge the edges of my quilts before applying the binding, to trim to the correct size and secure the edges.  In the past, I marked a line on the border and followed that line with my serger.  Measuring and marking that line on the quilted quilt was never any fun.  It wasn't very accurate, either.  Have you ever tried to mark a straight line on a quilted (therefore somewhat bumpy) border three times as long as your yardstick?

trimmed and overcast in one pass:  the joy of serging

 With the waste border, you can use the seam line between top and waste to guide the serger.  Not only does this save the time you would have spent measuring, it gives a better result.

a nice edge ready for binding.

Bonus #2

The seam line on the top gives you a line to follow to sew the binding on.  Quilt facing up, binding underneath also facing up.

binding is underneath, can you see it peaking out?

stitched along the waste line, flipped around to the top

 

when you fold the binding over to the front, the waste all disappears.

and tucked under to completely cover the waste fabric

and stitched down

One of my favorite tools:  break a bamboo skewer in half and use the pointy end.  I recently saw something just like it at JoAnn's for $10.  Mwahahahahaha.

amazing accomplishment:  looks good from the back also

You may laugh, but for me getting the narrow zig zag stitching on the top of the quilt binding to follow the seam line on the back of the binding this perfectly is a MAJOR step up.  And it is a result of the fact that the waste fabric was a different color that HAD to be hidden.  It forced me to a higher level of performance, but it also made it very easy to see how to achieve it.  I wish that was a metaphor for my life also.  But sadly, no.

The Spirit of Service

There is a Baha'i proverb that says:
Work performed in the spirit of service is equivalent to worship.

This has always reminded me of my friend Andre Dacosta.  We met years ago when, as part of a church fundraiser, he came to install a lazy susan in a kitchen cabinet .  Retired, he does handyman things to keep from being bored (he claims) but it is obvious to me and the DH that he is also working in the spirit of service.  We joke that he is single-handedly keeping us out of assisted living, as he tackles the jobs that we can't do for ourselves.

So when his wife Aggie approached me to ask if I would make a quilt for him out of African fabrics that she had collected over the years (including fabric from his native country, Angola), I said "yes" immediately.

Now, dear readers, I know what you are thinking.  You are thinking:  "she just wanted to get her hands on a basket full of African fabrics."  Busted.  Guilty as charged.
 
Aggie kindly offered to pay me.  Pause while my fellow quilters quietly chortle.  I could not say what I usually say, which is "I don't quilt for money, I only quilt for love."  Can't say that to a woman about her husband!

I told her it would take me up to a year, and it did.  She kept the secret for that whole year.  

I knew right away what the title of the quilt would be.  I was unsure about putting a Baha'i proverb on a quilt for a Methodist, but Aggie OK'd it.   Good thing, because whatever I put on the label, to me this quilt would always be The Spirit of Service.

It needed a simple pattern that would let the fabrics shine.  Sorry, I don't know the name of the pattern nor do I remember the name of the woman who taught it at the 2011 NC TOGA.  But you start with five large squares and through some tricky inserting and pinning one of those squares emerges as the on-point center.  

FMQ tip:  if you can't be good, be wonky

I fussy cut the fabrics, some of which were deconstructed garments.   

Same yardage, cut two different ways

 

These are glorious, beautiful hand-dyed African batiks.

This is the fabric from Angola.

Much of the joy of quilting for me is the thrill of fondling fabrics.  A map is just icing on the cake.

The sole reason I own an embroidery machine is to put text on quilts.  (Not the only thing I use it for, but the only reason I HAD to buy one.)  Instead of a label, the information becomes part of the the design of the quilt back.

in the strippy style of Kente cloth.  No Kente cloth was harmed in the production of this quilt.

Aggie gave me this proverb, a favorite of Andre's, and I put it on the quilt without really knowing what it means.  Google Translator, for some strange reason, was unable to help me with the Kimbundu language.  But Andre translated it for me:
If you don't listen...the cows won't come.
and then he explained what it means:
If you do not listen to the wisdom of the elders, then your efforts will not succeed.  

He expressed surprise and delight.

and did I mention that Aggie told me to keep all the leftover fabric?  
mwahahahahahahaha

The Herd: Singer 15s and clones

The Singer model 15 was produced for a long span of time and in many variations, including some made for industrial uses.  Japanese copies (15 clones) are even more plentiful.  I can't even scratch the surface of this topic, but I can show you my herd.

Disclaimer:  There are charts for looking up Singer serial numbers, and other charts which describe the characteristics of the models.  I'm no expert, but I can Google with the best of them.  So take my dates and model number on the Singer 15-30 as my best guess based on information found online.

1904 Singer 15-30, waiting to be restored.  No round stitch length plate.

I love the sphinx decals, which Singer also used on the 127 (and maybe others?).  Someday I will clean it up, take the motor off and pop it in the treadle.  It's easy to swap machines in and out and I like trying out the different models. 

1953 Singer 15-91

Singer 15's are easily identified by the tensioner on the left and the round stitch lever plate on the pillar.   I was excited to find this 15-91 because it gets a lot of good press on the boards.  The fact that it is gear driven rather than belt driven is acclaimed as a plus.  It is easy to drop the feed dogs on any model 15, but you do have to reach underneath and loosen a large screw to do it.  Dora has described how to do this on her blog.

On most vintage sewing machines the motors are interchangeable, but the 15-91 has a "potted" motor and is stuck on (see 15-125 photo below).  I've just never bonded with this one.  It could be that the almost 60-year-old motor may need some maintenance.  But I think it is because I easily fall in love with naked 15's--stripped of their motors.  Spin the handwheel on a clean and oiled naked 15 clone and it keeps on spinning and the needle keeps on going up and down.  Can't do that with a potted motor, and machines with enclosed motors always feel sluggish to me.

Not all 15's are gear driven.  Some have the belt driven motor on the back (and thus could be stripped naked), but I don't have one to show you.

1956 Singer 15-125.  Color is off here, photo below is better

Same machine in a new suit of clothes.  By this time factories in Japan were churning out copies of the Singer 15 in pretty colors and with some other improvements.  Singer tried to keep up.

Potted motor

I haven't bonded with this one either, but it is probably the potted motor.  I know I will feel better about them if I ever decide to take on motor evaluation, maintenance and repair.  So far cleaning, oiling, and tinkering keeps me happy enough.

a real improvement:  a marked throat plate.  You can order similar ones for 15s and clones from Jenny at Sew-Classic.

Japanese copies of the Singer 15 are collectively known as "15 clones".

The Royal shown above is a classic 15 clone.  It's a line for line copy of the Singer 15.

The beauty of the design details on these machines just blows me away.

I wrote recently about free motion quilting with these machines.  When I have one of these machines on my quilting frame I'm running it at very high speed, and the thread tended to pop out of the thread guide, which sent it flying out of the tensioner with disastrous results.  This ONLY happens on the frame, but if you have had a similar problem there is a very simple solution:  a metal washer.

Loosen the faceplate screw just a bit and slide the washer into position,  then tighten the faceplate screw (shown circled in red).

No way can the thread pop out of this guide.  Cheap, easy, and it does not change the machine in any way.  Of course you will have to take an additional microsecond to push the thread through the round hole.

Super easy, right?  Then why did it take me a full WEEK to figure this out?  I wandered around the house looking for things that could be glued in place.  I figured that glue would never hold.  One last peek in the parts box and it dawned on me.







 I've got another one of the black clones living on the quilting frame now.  I auditioned 4 different machines but in the end came back to the first one.  Once I had the washer thread guide figured out, it works beautifully.


Notice I said that the machine works beautifully, not the operator.  Take a close look and you can see how truly bad my FMQ is.  I'm working on it, and getting better.  By the way, this quilt is a secret, so don't tell anybody about it, shhhhh.




I paid $10 for this Admiral Star.  I had gone to see a machine listed on CraigsList, and when I got there the guy had two machines and was desperate to get rid of them.  I was not, repeat not, in the market for another black 15 clone.   I got a good price on the machine I did want, but only by "bundling" this 15 clone in the deal.  Do you watch "American Pickers"?  That's where I learned the term "bundling".  They ignore sewing machines, but sometimes you can spot them as they dig through somebody's attic or outbuilding.


The Japanese also made some improvements to the basic 15 model.  Beautiful colors, for instance.

Post WWII, Modernage 250.  I believe it was made by Toyota.  My go-to piecing machine.

This apple green and white machine is another line for line copy of the Singer 15, but can you spot an additional feature?

It has a feed dog drop knob on the top of the bed.  That's it right below the "250".

Photos don't do justice to the Remington 30's yummy pearlescent green.

I really do try not to buy more 15 clones, but for $10 how could I walk away? 

The feed dog drop linkage is vulnerable to being gummed up with decades of dried up sewing machine oil, but should respond to more oil, heat from a blow dryer, and some patient prodding.  Just peer under the machine below the knob--it's easy to see that the leg bone is connected to the knee bone, so to speak.  In fact, this is one of my favorite things about bringing vintage machines back to life:  peering underneath or inside and seeing how things are connected and how they work.  And then persuading them to work.

This is my favorite 15 upgrade:  a bobbin cover that flips up (rather than sliding to the left).




The access is great and it doesn't slide or fall off.

If you've got a favorite 15 that does not have the hinged bobbin cover, keep your eyes open for a thrift shop machine that does.   No guarantees, but I have performed some successful transplants.

Here's an improvement that seems fairly pointless:  The stitch length lever mechanism works the same way, but instead of numbers lined up vertically on the face, there's a tiny window that reveals a number printed on the moving plate beneath.

Pink Elgin 15 clone

This machine is much more beautiful than my photographic skill (or lack thereof) can convey.  In fact it is TOO beautiful.  It is so beautiful that I don't want to sew on it for fear of messing it up.  I much prefer an almost-beautiful machine like the pearly green Remington above.  It has a couple of nice deep scratches on the back of the arm and I'm not afraid to use it.

The decals are just about perfect and the gloss is glossy!

And at the opposite end of the spectrum:

I was recently given this one as a gift.  You see it here in "attic fresh" condition.  The key question is always:  does it turn?  If it does, it can almost certainly be brought back to life (this one does).  Even if it doesn't, there is still hope.  Oil + heat + patience will work wonders on frozen machines.  Motor/controller units can be swapped out interchangeably among all the clones--among just about any external motor machine of any kind, in fact.  Or you can ditch the motor entirely and pop it in a treadle or put a handcrank on it.   So one day this may join the herd as another of those smooth-as-silk 15 clones.