Free Motion Quilting...on a treadle

 At the last in-person River Rats TOGA, September 2019, I picked up a variety of quilting projects that were UFO's. That's right, they were UnFinished Objects and I love to take something someone else gave up on the bring it to completion. That might mean a different ending than the original maker planned on but, hey, they gave up on it so now it's my turn. 

Original pattern: Thimbleberries Countyside Wreaths

I had a wonderful time finishing up a red and brown quilt that had fade marks due to exposure to the sun. It meant I needed to remake a few of the blocks and then finish a few more for a grand total of 16 blocks plus sashing and borders.

Assembled blocks with sashing

Top of quilt complete with borders

Since this quilt was started with either a treadle or hand crank sewing machine, I felt obligated to continue it with a similar machine so I finished this up with my treadle, a Singer 66 Red Eye in a parlor cabinet. Now that it was read to quilt it together with batting and a backing, I realised I wasn't ready to use my treadle for free motion quilting. Maybe I could use a walking foot but, no, that wasn't going to work either because my machine was a back clamping model. Helen Howes has a nice explanation of this phenomenon and a whole page of back clamping feet. There is no darning or free motion foot nor a walking foot as an attachment for my Singer 66. I tried bare needle but that was a disaster so I had to set it aside until I either gained the skills I needed or found a different way to do this.

Several quilts later, I have more skill with free motion but it was a session at the Virtual River Rats TOGA in September where we could watch and learn how to quilt better with a treadle. It gave me the confidence to try again but this time I came prepared. I traded out my Red Eye for a much plainer Singer 66 that had a side clamp for a standard darning foot plus I now use gripper gloves and a super slider. Here's how I set this all up:

First, I needed to cover the feed dogs since they didn't drop. I already had a plate for this model so I slid it into place:

Feed dogs "cap" and clear plastic free motion presser foot

Next, I added a smoother surface so the fabric can glide better. I bought an oven mat that is a somewhat thin sheet that I could tape into place:

Mat taped in place plus additional light

Now I was ready to try this out. It worked! I decided to fill in the stars with straight lines so tried it with a walking foot as well as free motion and FM won hands down. Why? With FM you move the quilt but you can go backwards and on an angle, too. Using a walking foot you need to stop and turn the quilt for each line since you can only move forward and that's just too difficult. After I finished the stars I didn't know what to do with the other parts so I set it aside again but only for a couple weeks. By then I had finished Michelle's quilt and had more ideas of what pattern or design to quilt where. The first border had a version of triangles, sashing has X's that could look like diamonds, and the outer border got a diamond treatment using tape.

Detail of quilting pattern

The tape idea came from the book One Line at a Time Encore by Charlotte Warr Andersen. Using her concept but modifying it so I could use the same four pieces of tape on each side, here's how it looked:

Step 1: set up tape for 4 rows of stitches

I laid down four pieces of inch wide painters blue tape side by side. Starting in the corner, even with the red border, I marked the tape in two inch increments, drawing a line across all four pieces of tape. Then I removed the second one from the right

Step 2: first row of stitches in the second lane

and stitched from one side to the next in a long zigzag pattern at the two inch marks. Next, I removed the strip between where I just stitched and the red border. I made the same direction stitches to "ghost" this pattern:

Step 3: second row of stitches in the first lane

I tried to move the tape over to cover the row of stitches just made but then I couldn't see the exact point where I had stitched. Remember, this is on a treadle and I'm still working on getting it to stop exactly where I want! For the last two rows I reversed the design by removing the third piece of tape

Step 4: third row of stitches in mirror image mode

and stitching the opposite points. Where I had moved left to right I now went right to left for a diamond shape. The above photo shows the fourth piece of tape removed but I left it in place while stitching. The final row was identical to the third row for a finished look:

Step 5: last row of stitches just like third row

I liked this concept, although they stitched right through the tape and then even managed to reuse it. This worked for me and gave me much needed practice in slow treadling and free motion control.

The binding was added and now it is DONE. I cannot say I made this whole quilt on a treadle sewing machine because someone else constructed most of the blocks, but I did finish it on a treadle and even learned to free motion quilt on a treadle. Important take aways: use grippy gloves (can use gardening gloves that are sometimes dipped in a silicone-like substance), lay down a surface that helps your quilt to slide better, try different machines to find one that can use a darning/free motion foot.  It also helped to use books to get ideas on how you can make the process work better and for ideas on designs to use.

I have ideas for about four more quilts but I think I should put them on hold while I sew some other items in my pile of projects, including getting machines ready for sale. The Phoenix 283 is almost ready! Here's a view of the red/brown star quilt finished:

One version of Countryside Wreaths by Thimbleberries