Making a rag quilt

It's the final day of the FIVE bobbin sewing challenge with the Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q. I've managed to get through a lot of the projects that were selected at the beginning of the week. The Opal 690Q has come through the challenge with flying colors and I'm very happy.

Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q

As I was winding down the string pieced project from yesterday, I still had some bobbin thread to use up. Nothing on the stack of projects was going to use that up in a hurry so I looked around the studio and found another project that had been sitting for a long time and grabbed that.

I had a friend, actually two friends, who had started a rag quilt. They decided they didn't want to finish them and gave the pieces to me. I'm one to never say no to a freebie so I accepted both.

This would be the perfect thing to finish off the bobbins.

Sewing a rag quilt

If you've never sewn a rag quilt before, you start by cutting out a bunch of squares of flannel, smaller squares of batting and create a bunch of small quilts. They're usually quilted with an X through the center. Then those little squares get sewn together with the seams exposed on the front of the quilt. The edges get clipped, the quilt gets washed and the exposed seams get raggy. 

The quilts that I was given were made from rectangles which meant a lot more seams had to be clipped and I suspect that's why I was given the projects! Besides both quilts were huge!

Upon looking at the projects, which came in a huge garbage bag, the little quilt sandwiches had already been made. The rectangles just (don't you love that word) needed to be sewn together. 

Flannel sections of a rag quilt ready to sew together

This is what the flannel sections looked like. The squares or rectangles can be any size you want. I'm not sure what size these rectangles are as I didn't measure them. It was the first rag quilt I'd ever seen that was made with rectangles. Normally, rag quilts are made with squares.

The batting pieces are cut anywhere from 1" to 2" smaller than the rectangles/squares of flannel. One piece of batting is sandwiched between two flannel squares and an X is quilted through the center.

One section of the flannel raggy quilt that has already been quilted

There was such a variety of colors and patterns on the flannel that I didn't bother to lay them out. The pattern was also included in the bag but I must admit that I'm not good with patterns. I should have looked at the pattern a bit more carefully. There were two sizes in the pattern. I wasn't sure which one the ladies were making and I assumed they were making the smaller version despite the fact that there were pencil marks beside the larger size. I think there's a saying about assuming things, but I won't go there.

There isn't really a right or a wrong side to the rectangles. I grabbed two rectangles and sewed them together with a 1" seam. It was easy to maintain the 1" seam by using the guides on the stitch plate on the Opal 690Q. 

Using the guide lines on the stitch plate to get a 1" seam allowance

In no time at all, I was through another bobbin. I inserted the LAST of the bobbins. Remember that I had added a 6th partially wound bobbin into the mix.

Time to change the bobbin

Once all the rows were sewn together and yes, I discovered that in fact, the ladies were making the large version of the quilt. So I added the necessary pieces to make the rows longer. In fact, when I got all the rows laid out, I was wishing I had combined the rectangles from the two bags to make three smaller quilts, not two large ones. But I wasn't going back to rip out those rows. We're going to end up with two large and heavy rag quilts.

I do like my quilts to be heavy so I figure someone else out there likes heavy quilts as well. Let's just keep sewing.

Next up was to sew the rows together. I used the Sewing Advisor of the Opal 690Q to set the sewing machine to woven Heavy. I was now going through a lot of layers of flannel and from time to time, I was going through the batting depending on how it was positioned within the quilt sandwich.

You can see from the photo below, that when I went over those seam allowances that there was a LOT of bulk. The Opal 690Q performed flawlessly as I went through all those layers.

Many thicknesses to sew over at the seam intersections

It didn't take long to get through the last bobbin. The FIVE bobbin sewing challenge is over!

However, my project was half sewn together and I was on fire. I was so close, well not really, but I really wanted to get this quilt together and not have another UFO so I decided to keep going.

The last bobbin is empty

Not only had I emptied five bobbins and a partial bobbin, but I had used some non-gray bobbins as well. It was time to clean out the bobbin case, change the needle and wind the next set of bobbins. 

Lots of lint in the bobbin case

There wasn't as much lint as I would have imagined given the fact that the last project I was working on was a flannel one. Still, all that lint can affect the tension on the sewing machine and so cleaning on a regular basis is critical to the operation of the sewing machine.

Cleaned out all the lint, replaced the needle. Remember, approximately 8 hours of sewing and that needle needs to be changed. A dull needle can damage your fabric so you must change it on a regular basis. It's surprising how many people don't know that. Since it's hard to gauge 8 hours of sewing, my rule of thumb is four or five bobbins. Once the bobbins are used up, it's time to change the needle.

 

Five bobbins are wound, the needle has been changed

One thing that really surprises me. Well, it doesn't surprise me, but it's a shame that people don't pay more attention to it. That's the tension on their sewing machine. 

I came across one rectangle that had only one line of quilting through it. I stitched the second line. In the photo below, the difference between the stitching done on the Opal 690Q and whatever machine was used by the other person is pretty obvious. 

In the line of stitching that runs from bottom left to top right, the stitches are well formed, neither the top or bottom thread is sitting on the fabric, the threads are knotted in the seam. Sometimes, it's hard to see that, but it pretty obvious in this example. If the tension isn't right, the seams will have a tendency over time to pull out. I wasn't going to rip out those seams where the tension was wonky. 

With the Opal 690Q, even those bulky seams at the intersections were very well formed. Best part, I didn't have to adjust the tension. No, I just started to sew. And I maintain the sewing machine, by keeping the bobbin case clear of lint and change the needle on a regular basis. 

Tension on the bottom left to top right seam is well formed, the other is not.

A couple of days ago, I was sewing some small quilt tops together. Remember how I sewed the rows in pairs and then sewed those rows in pairs and so on? Because of the bulk, it was critical that I sew this quilt together the same way. In the photo below, I'm sewing the two quilt halves together. It was the only time I had to deal with all that bulk.

A very large bulky quilt easily handled by the Opal 690Q

At last, the quilt is finished. Now comes the hard part or at least the time-consuming part. All those exposed seam allowances have to be ragged. 

Now if only there was a function on the sewing machine that would do that! I do have a special pair of scissors with spring action handles that makes the task easier, but it still takes a lot of time. 

Quilt top with exposed seams that are ready to be cut with the special rag scissors

Before I start to clip those seam allowances, I took a picture. It's hard to gauge the size by the photo. Let's just say that it's big!

Rag quilt sewn together, it's ready to be clipped.

I didn't have time to finish clipping the seam allowances and get it washed. My plan is to get that done and when I'm back in a couple of weeks, I'll have the completely finished quilt top to show you.  

I had loads of fun this week as I worked my way through some of my projects. The FIVE bobbin sewing challenge helped me to focus on getting things done. I'm not even sure that I can remember everything. The first day, I prepared five bindings, then I prepped a hanging sleeve and got that sewn to the quilt. A couple of bindings got stitched to the quilt. Two small quilts got sewn from start to finish, joined some batting, finished a couple of gift bags, sewn on a button, string piecing and lastly the rag quilt. 

That's loads! But what's more important is that each of those items got finished easily, quickly and with no frustration over how my sewing machine performed. It didn't matter what kind of project I was doing, what kind of thread, or the technique. The Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q performed extremely well.

This is a starter machine in the computerized sewing machine line, but its performance makes it a winner. It's the kind of machine that you could take to class or retreat or even as your main sewing machine. There wasn't one time where I said, oh I wish I were using a more feature laden sewing machine. I love the Opal 690Q. It's my new best friend.

I hope you've enjoyed the adventure this week. It's been loads of fun and I'm so excited, that I wound another FIVE bobbins and I'm seeing how far I can go with them.

Have a great day!

Ciao!

Techniques for buttons, batting and string piecing

Welcome back to another day of the FIVE bobbin sewing challenge with the Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q. 

I started the week by winding five bobbins, sorting through some projects and seeing how many of the projects I could complete before I ran out of bobbin thread. So far, I've accomplished a lot. I hope, not only that you continue to follow my posts as they are filled with tips, but that you share with us some of your projects that you complete with your own five bobbin sewing challenge.

Let's get started and see what's on the sewing agenda for today.

Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q

Sewing on a button

Yesterday, I used the tacking stitch to quilt a small quilt. The tacking stitch is essentially a zigzag with 0 stitch length so the machine will zig and zag without advancing the fabric.

Hmm, I could use that same stitch to sew on a button. I've had this art piece that I created a couple of years ago - OK a long time ago. I noticed a while back that one of the buttons was loose. I removed the button so it wouldn't fall off and that button had been hanging around my sewing studio for a long time and miraculously never got lost. One day, I did manage to get the button sewn on by hand.

Then I realized that another button was missing and fortunately, I was able to purchase more buttons as I had no idea where this second button went. This button issue had been hanging around for a long, long time (again). Here was the perfect opportunity to use the Opal 690Q to sew on the button.

I attached the Button Foot with Placement Tool, changed the thread to orange thread. I know, I'm really veering from the gray thread challenge. But I was on a roll, trying new techniques and basically trying to get through the pile of projects that was sitting on the table.

It was easy to use the Placement Tool that comes with the Button Foot to get the button in the correct position. I set the Opal 690Q to a zigzag stitch. The stitch length was set to 0, but I wasn't sure of the width and I certainly didn't want to break a needle. I used the flywheel to manually lower and raise the needle to get the correct width.

Using the Button Foot with Placement Tool to sew on a button

Here's a better angle. This is a great foot, you just need to take care to set the correct width of the zigzag stitch to match the width of the button hole. It might be easier to measure the buttonhole, but I just do the width manually. A couple of zigs and zags (I think I do about 10) and that button is now well secured to the project. I did cheat a bit here and used orange thread in the bobbin.

Here's the deal. I was highly motivated to get things done while I was doing the FIVE bobbin sewing challenge. Nothing was going to stop me from ploughing through that stack of projects.

The needle will zigzag into the holes of the button once the width of the stitch is determined

Stitching with the free arm

Time to grab the next thing in that pile. I was working on some gift bags for the guild and those, like the small quilts from the day before, needed to be done before the guild meeting. All that remained was to sew the casing for the drawstring at the top.

I ironed down the top of the bag to create a flap. It was very easy to stitch the casing by removing the extension table. Two rows of stitching around the edge of the flap and those casings were done. There were twelve bags in total.

Using the free arm sewing position to sew a casing in a small gift bag

It was during this process that I had to change the bobbin again. Hmmm, does that make four bobbins? Whenever I'm in a sewing group, I'm amazed at how much groaning goes on when the bobbin runs out. I was expecting to zip through those five bobbins, but I was getting loads done and still had wound bobbins. It's nice to have those bobbins already wound and ready to go, so I would highly recommend that you do that.

Time to change the bobbin

Joining batting

I had some batting that needed to be joined. This time, I chose the multi-step zigzag (1:06) from the stitch menus.

I set the stitch length to 5.0 and the stitch width to 4.0. In the photo below, you can see that both of them are highlighted meaning the Opal 690Q is no longer set to the default stitch length and width for this particular stitch. If I want to get back to the default setting, I can use the -/+ to increase or decrease the stitch length and width until the highlight box disappears or move to the next stitch and then come back to this one. When you exit a stitch, any changes you made are gone. The Opal 690Q will go back to the default settings whenever you open up a stitch.

Setting up to use the multi-step zigzag

I happened to have my Open Toe Applique foot handy and that's what I used so I could keep the two edges of the batting in position and still see what I was doing. There's an even better foot to use for joining. It's called the Edge Joining Foot. This foot is great because it has a flange in the middle. The flange helps to keep the two edges of the batting lined up to ensure that the multi-step zigzag sits evenly on the two pieces of batting. You can even use the Interchangeable Dual Feed Foot as one of the feet has that center flange to help keep the multi-step zigzag in the middle of the seam.

I'm not sure why I didn't use this foot, but you can perform this stitch with the Open Toe Applique foot. You just have to be more careful.

I know, you're thinking that I had to use the Open Toe Applique foot because I couldn't find either of the other two feet that I've mentioned. That is NOT the case. I'm very diligent about returning my accessory feet to that little plastic box that I showed you earlier this week. It's more like I was in a hurry, and likely had the applique foot there from something else and used that.

Stitching two pieces of batting together with the multi-step zigzag stitch

A couple of tips for getting this seam just right. Ensure that both edges you're joining are straight. You may need to trim them up if necessary, but you'll get a much nicer seam if the edges are straight. Make sure the two pieces are feeding through the sewing machine evenly. Don't let one get stretched as that will cause your batting to be wavy. The feeding mechanism of the Opal 690Q worked like a charm to give me a beautiful flat piece of batting.

A beautiful seam joining two pieces of batting

String Piecing

While it's been great to get all this work done, none of those projects was using up that bobbin thread and I needed to get through all five bobbins as the week is coming to a close.

The next project I grabbed was a string pieced one. Surely this project will use up a lot of thread.

There are several ways to do string piecing and I'll get into the how-to's at another time. In this instance, I used a foundation of muslin to create the base for the block.

Partially completed string pieced quilt blocks

These blocks are not easy to chain piece because you're stitching on various lengths of fabric. I use the side cutter on the Opal 690Q to cut the thread when I'm finished my seam. It's very handily located on the left side of the sewing machine and easy to quickly clip those threads and onto the next block. 

Using the side cutter to clip the threads

Yes - these blocks were just the thing needed to get through those bobbins. In a very short while, it was time to change the bobbin again. 

Time to change the bobbin one more time

Making the string pieced blocks is very easy. Choose the next strip that you're going to sew on and place it face down on the previous fabric strip. Then sew, press and trim.

I'll be going into this a bit more (OK - a LOT more) at a later date. Let's just say that finishing these blocks was an easy and fast way to go through those bobbins.

Sew and flip method to make string pieced blocks

And one more bobbin change for today. 

Time to change the bobbin yet again

And there you have it. A really really good way to go through bobbins!

I believe I mentioned that I use four or five bobbins as a measure of when to clean the sewing machine and insert a new needle. While we may "sew" all day, we don't realize how much of that time is spent cutting, measuring, marking and pressing. The actual sewing time on the sewing machine isn't as much as we think it is.

It's taken me several concentrated days of sewing to get through these five bobbins and I'm not done yet!

Stay tuned for one more day of sewing to see what I was able to accomplish with those five bobbins. 

All of the projects were easy when I used the Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q. The variety of machine settings, the Sewing Advisor to help me choose various settings, the vast array of accessory feet made all the jobs easy. And I'm getting many small projects completed and out of the way!

Join me tomorrow as I wrap up this week with the Opal 690Q.

Have a great day!

Ciao!

Chain piecing saves time, thread and stretching

Welcome back. Yesterday post was about sewing the bindings to the quilts and sewing on a hanging sleeve. Today is another day of the FIVE bobbin sewing challenge with the Husqvarna Viking OPAL 690Q sewing machine. This sewing machine is such a great work horse. I'm very impressed and it's making the FIVE bobbin sewing challenge a lot of fun. 

 

Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q

I'll be making up a couple of small quilts. I belong to several guilds and making quilts for various community groups is a big part of the guild's mandate. Not only does it make you feel good doing it, but it's also a great way to help out the guild and the community. The best part, you don't have to purchase any supplies.

I thought it would be a great way to use up some thread! Let's get started!

My kit came with the squares pre-cut. It's a simple quilt with two different fabrics which are alternated. That's easy enough.

Stacks of fabric squares ready to sew into a quilt

The piecing was easy as I used that Quilter's ¼" Piecing Foot P that I love so much and made quick work of sewing the squares together. I started by sewing the squares together in pairs. 

Using the Quilter's ¼" Piecing Foot P to piece the blocks

Chain piecing is a simple technique of sewing one seam right after another without breaking the thread. It was easy to chain piece these pairs of blocks. I had the two stacks of blocks beside me and was consistent in how they got sewn together, as you can see above. It's totally dependent on what you're sewing, but in this instance with only two fabrics, it was easy to keep the pairs the same. 

Chain piecing saves time and thread. To chain piece, I sew one seam and then without cutting the thread, I start to sew the next seam. This is a simple task with the Opal 690Q because of the Needle Up/Down function and the Sensor Foot technology. The presser foot raises ever so slightly when I stop at the end of a seam and it's easy to get the next pair of fabrics right up to the needle in preparation to start the next seam. This feature also helps with accuracy as the presser foot is not hindering the placement of those fabrics. I could manually lift the presser foot, but that takes times. The Opal 690Q has this built-in feature which I find very hard to sew without.

When I'm done sewing my blocks into pairs, it's easy to clip the small length of thread that's between the blocks to separate them. This saves a lot of time trimming threads. It drives me crazy when I see huge threads hanging off blocks. It also saves thread which means I get to sew more before I have to change the bobbin.

Chain piecing the pairs of blocks

I'm all about being consistent when I sew. While there are several ways to press the seams in a project, I chose to press all the seams to the green in this project. That made it easier to remember which direction to press. 

Seams pressed to the green

The pairs were then sewn together into rows with three pairs in each row. Again, all the seams were pressed to the green so the seam allowances would nest nicely against each other and make lining up those blocks very easy.

The pairs of blocks assembled into rows

And it's time to change the bobbin! I was getting a bit worried as some of the projects I was working on didn't take up a lot of bobbin thread. Would I ever get through those five bobbins? You just have to start sewing quilt blocks together and the thread gets used up!

Time to change the bobbin

When I sew a quilt together, I try to handle the rows as little as possible. The more each piece gets manipulated, the more the danger of it getting stretched.

I start by sewing the rows together. Then I sew the rows together in pairs, then I sew those pairs of rows together so I end up with two halves of the quilt. The last seam I sew is the seam in the middle of the quilt.

If you think about it, that means that each row was handled the same amount of times with equal wear and tear on each row. If you were to start with row one and keep adding, row one would have gotten a lot of extra wear.

The other reason, I like this method of sewing the quilt top together is the bulk. If I sew the second row to the first and keep adding, I'm going to be creating a project that keeps getting bigger. It's harder to handle. If you sew each half of the quilt and then lastly join the two halves, the only time you're dealing with a big project is that last seam.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm all about consistency with my quilting and it doesn't matter what size quilt I'm working on, I piece them all like this.

Rows of the quilt are sewn together in pairs

As easy as that, the quilt top is together. When I press the seams that join the rows, I try to press them all in the same direction - all to the top or all to the bottom. It doesn't matter which, but I try to be consistent with each quilt.

I did mention that it's a small top so it didn't take long to assemble the top. I was feeling happy because it's one more project done. But wait! This one has to be quilted. That means I'm not done.

Quilt top is completely pieced

Now here's where I had a small issue. Reading the instructions, I was supposed to add batting (which wasn't in the kit). But I remember making these small quilts before and there wasn't batting. So I ploughed ahead and just sandwiched the back to the front (both cotton) in the envelope style. What I didn't realize is that if the quilt has flannel for the backing, there is no batting. Ooops - I made a mistake.

I thought I would share that with you in the event you think I had lost my mind in what I was doing. These quilts are for seniors in wheelchairs - I guess I just made two summer weight quilts.

I layered the quilt top right sides together with the quilt back. I sewed all around the edges securing the quilt top to the backing, leaving an opening so it could be turned inside out.

This is where I was very happy for my Quilter's ¼" Piecing Foot P. By using the markings on the foot, it was easy to see exactly where I needed to pivot the quilt at the corners. Love love this foot!

And no lifting of the presser foot at the corner to pivot as the Needle Up/Down function with the Sensor Foot technology did all that work for me. 

Using the markings on the Quilter's ¼" Piecing Foot P to pivot

I trimmed away the excess backing and the corners and turned the quilt inside out. Very gently, I poked out the corners using my point turner. The opening was closed using a small strip of fusible web.

A good pressing and it's time to quilt. I pinned the layers together and yes, this poor quilt was a bit thin with only two layers of cotton. The method of quilting as recommended by the guild was to tack the intersections of the blocks.

Quilt ready for the quilting - a tacking stitch

The tacking stitch was very easy to create on the Opal 690Q. I chose 1:05 from the stitch menu which is a zigzag. I decreased the stitch length to 0 and experimented with the width to find one that worked. I think I ended up choosing a bit longer stitch than 2.5. By decreasing the stitch length to 0, the zigzag would stitch in place without advancing and creating a very nice tacking stitch.

Settings for the tacking stitch

In the photo below, you can see the front and the back of the tacking stitch. It's very neat and fast. While I left the gray thread on top, I had to cheat again as I put a different color thread in the bobbin.

I had pinned the quilt top and backing together to hold it in place from shifting. As I was doing the tacking stitch, I kept rotating the quilt top to have the tacking stitch in the right direction on the quilt through the gray squares. Then I realized that if I did the tacking stitch in diagonal rows instead of straight rows, it would be much faster as I didn't have to rotate the quilt. That might not make sense to you, but the bottom line is that I often find little shortcuts to my projects as I'm sewing them. This one worked like a charm.

Tacking stitches from the back and the front of the quilt

The last step was to add a small label to the front of the quilt. I was just following instructions in my kit. I took the small preprinted label and attached it to the front of the quilt using a zigzag stitch.

Quilt label attached to the front of the quilt with a zigzag stitch

I had so much fun with that first quilt, that I had to make a second. 

A second quilt finished

These were two small quilt kits that I had taken out over the summer. It was great to get them completed. I rarely get things completed on time and this was a bonus for me!

I hope you enjoyed today's adventure. These quilts didn't take long to complete and I didn't use much thread! How about you? Have you at least got those five bobbins wound? Sorted out a project or two?

Come back tomorrow as I have more projects to work on with Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q as I try to use up those five bobbins.

Have a great day!

Ciao!

 

 

2 questions before you sew binding by machine

Welcome back to my FIVE bobbin sewing challenge. I'm using the Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q to see how much sewing I can get done with five bobbins. Yesterday it was all about making binding - I made five bindings. Today it's about sewing the bindings to the quilts and sewing on a hanging sleeve. 

I can't wait to show you so let's get started!

If you want to preview the other posts I did a while back - check out A is for Applique and also this post on Decorative Stitches on the Opal 690Q

Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q

As you saw in yesterday's post, I've assembled all my tools and supplies that I'm going to need. I sorted out the projects, prepped the Opal 690Q and wound five bobbins. After making the five bindings, I wasn't anywhere near using up one bobbin. I did cheat a bit by using a black bobbin to sew that black binding onto the fleece quilt.

Today, I'm cheating a little bit again as I need to use brown thread to sew on the brown binding. I'm OK with that. I set this challenge for myself and I was on a roll, it meant a little extra sewing but got a project finished, all the better!

The binding for this next project was made yesterday and I just happened to have the quilt sitting here, trimmed and ready for the binding. 

I normally make my bindings when I finish the quilt top and way before it gets quilted. Sometimes, deadlines don't always allow everything to be completed when I would like them to be. In this case, I serged the edge of the quilt so it wouldn't get ragged while it waited for the binding. Normally a quilt wouldn't get a ragged edge while sitting in the studio, but this quilt has traveled and the edges needed to be neat for the show n tell. 

I'm going to chat about that serged edge later in this post. The big question is, "does it make a difference in applying the binding?"

Next project - sew the binding onto this quilt

Making a hanging sleeve

The quilt is actually a wall hanging and I want to put a hanging sleeve on it. Since I'll be machine stitching the binding on, I need to put the hanging sleeve on before I sew the binding on.

The first step in making a hanging sleeve is to measure the width of the quilt. Then I subtract 2" and divide the remainder by 2. i.e. The quilt is 40" wide, subtract 2" to get 38", divide that by 2 to get 19". Each half of the quilt sleeve is cut to 19".

I split my hanging sleeve into two parts so the center is open. If I'm using one hook on the wall or I need a support if the quilt is large, I can easily get to the hanging rod without dealing with the hanging sleeve. 

Unless the quilt is small, I cut my strips 8½" wide. The strips get folded in half and this width provides a nice sized hanging sleeve to accommodate most sizes of poles used at quilt shows or the curtain rod that I use to hang my quilts.

Hem the short ends of both hanging sleeves. I press under ¼" first and then stitch - with my gray thread!

Hem the short ends of both sections of the hanging sleeve

Fold the hanging sleeve in half along the long edge. Note that I don't have the two raw edges even. One side is shorter than the other by about ½". Make this edge fairly straight. If you're having trouble gauging the distance, use a piece of card stock and draw a line for a guide. Insert the card stock between the two layers and use it as a template. Label that piece of card stock so you know what it's for and since I make all my hanging sleeves the same width, you can reuse it over and over again as a guide. Personally, I judge the ½" by eye.

Press the fold with the iron to get a nice crease. If you're working with a directional print, make sure when you do the step above that when you flip the sleeve over, the images are running right side up. It'll become clearer as we move on, but the shorter side of the sleeve is the back of the sleeve.

Fold the sleeve in half, leaving the long raw edges offset by ½".

Next, take the two long raw edges and line them up with the top of the quilt. Center the two sleeves leaving about 1" on either side at the edges. The shorter side of the sleeve will be next to the quilt backing. The longer side will be facing out. What happens to that longer edge? Notice the bump that's created (see where the arrow is pointing?)  That allows for the thickness of the hanging pole and helps to eliminate a bump from forming on the front of the quilt. If you look at quilts hanging in a show, you should be able to tell those that have this extra space in the hanging sleeve and those that don't!

The "bump" in the hanging sleeve faces OUT to accommodate the hanging pole

Below, you can see that the hanging sleeve is positioned about 1" from the edge of the quilt. 

Hanging sleeve is positioned about 1" from the edge of the quilt

My normal piecing stitch length is 2.0, but now I'm going through a lot of layers; quilt top, quilt backing, two layers of quilt sleeve and the batting. I use the Sewing Advisor on the Opal 690Q to select WOVEN HEAVY sewing and it's recommending I use a stitch length of 3.0. I'm good with that as I really just need to baste that sleeve in place.

Choose WOVEN HEAVY from the Sewing Advisor and get a longer stitch length

I use my Dual Feed foot (the walking foot) to attach bindings. I find that I get a smoother feed, with less work on my part. Plus the last thing I want is a wonky binding. The walking foot helps to feed the quilt and the binding through at an even pace. 

Walking foot is used to sew on the binding

The walking foot also helps to ensure that those two layers of the hanging sleeve don't get stretched. It's always nice to have the two edges line up perfectly when you get to the end of the seam. 

The walking foot prevents the two layers of hanging sleeve from stretching

Use a narrow (a scant ¼") seam allowance

Hanging sleeve is sewn on with a narrow seam allowance

Now it's time to actually sew on the binding. The initial step of sewing the binding onto the quilt top is the same, except that you sew the binding onto the BACK of the quilt, not the front. At least that's how I've been able to get it to look acceptable.

Sew the binding onto the BACK of the quilt top

I use a very generous ¼" for this step. The seam is more like ⅜". This seam allowance is totally dependent on the width of the binding strips that you started with. The key here is to sew about 6".

Remove the quilt from the sewing machine and pull that binding over to the front. Does it cover the seam line stitching on the front and is the binding full of the quilt? If yes to both questions, continue with that seam allowance. If not, then you have to make the seam allowance wider or narrower. Test again until you get it right! That is one of the key steps to making the binding look amazing. There shall be no limp or empty bindings in my house!

I'm very particular about my bindings and YES, I do check this on other people's quilts. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Binding is sewn on the quilt with a generous seam allowance

We talked about that serged edge. Did it help? It was nice to have all three layers secured together so no danger of any shifting which sometimes occurs at the corners. I was more afraid that the serged seam would show to the front, but you can see above that my generous seam allowance took care of that and the entire serged edge was encased within the binding.

As for thread color, I did switch to brown for the bobbin and the top when I sewed the binding on, but when I went to sew the next step, I put my gray back in the bobbin. 

Here's another tip - if you have put a hanging sleeve on your quilt, there will be that extra fullness at the top. Not a bad idea to pin that fullness away from the binding.  Look what happened as I merrily stitched the next step. Yep - goog thing that seam ripper was close at hand. 

The fullness of the hanging sleeve got caught in the binding stitching

Once that binding is on the back of the quilt, I flip the quilt over and start to stitch the binding in place in the front. This can be tricky and I don't have it perfected. I do use a matching thread (more or less in the bobbin). In this case, I used gray thread in the bobbin and brown on top.

You can see that I still need some practice in perfecting that stitch as some of the stitching went onto the binding and not on the backing. I need to pull that binding over a bit more on the top as I'm stitching. You can feel that edge on the front of the quilt.

This is where it's important to keep those seams STRAIGHT when sewing on the binding.

I remember sewing this thinking how valuable the sense of touch is when sewing. We don't realize it, but I use touch all the time when I sew. Are my seams nested? I touch to find out. Is the binding full? Touch to find out. I hadn't thought of that before.

Binding is now sewn on by machine - a few wonky spots

An observation about the Opal 690Q. The feed dog mechanism is amazing. I normally have to put on quilting gloves to give me extra grip when sewing the binding to a quilt, but I had no issues with this quilt. Even when I put the binding on that huge fleece quilt from yesterday, I didn't need gloves. That was an unexpected bonus. The Opal 690Q just fed that quilt through the sewing machine like it was tissue paper.

As we get older, that's a very important feature!

In the pile of projects, I had a couple of small wall hangings that needed a bit of quilting and the bindings put on. 

I cheated again on the bobbin thread by using a prewound bobbin which worked like a charm in the Opal 690Q. I used a lightweight thread for the top so the quilting stitches wouldn't be visible. I did put a size 60/8 needle in the sewing machine as I try to match the needle size to the thread size.

Bobbin weight thread used in the top and bobbin for invisible quilting

Again, I chose WOVEN HEAVY for the fabric type, but I did decrease the stitch length to 2.5. I didn't want the stitches too large and my thread was very fine. I could easily get away with a stitch length of 2.5.

You can tell from the photo below that I'm off the default setting as the box surrounding the stitch length number is highlighted. The stitch width of 0.0 is not highlighted. I love knowing that.

Stitch length set to 2.5

I did a little bit of stitch in the ditch with the Interchangeable Dual Feed foot. There are several different styles of presser feet that you can use. In this instance, I was using the open foot which allows me to clearly see where I need to stitch. 

Stitch in the ditch with the Interchangeable Dual Feed Foot

What I LOVE are those perfectly formed stitches on the back. There's nothing like sitting down at the sewing machine and have such beautiful stitches without changing a bunch of settings. I don't mind ripping out if I made a mistake, but if I have to rip because the tension was off - well that's not pretty!

Beautifully formed quilting stitches using bobbin weight thread top and bobbin

Time to put on the binding. OK - I cheated a bit again as I needed red thread to sew on the binding. I found a couple of partially wound bobbins in my bobbin case so I used those.

Two red bobbins to stitch down the binding

I even used one of the bobbins as my top thread. I used a spool cap to secure it in place and it worked like a regular spool of thread. 

Using a bobbin on the top instead of a spool of thread

I want to mention how handy all the functions are on the Opal 690Q. They're at your finger tips, there's the Needle Up/Down, the Fix, the Scissors, and so much more. All you have to do is raise your hand to operate the function. It doesn't get any handier than this. I use the FIX to anchor my stitches when I get to the corner of the binding.

Remember to check out all these features and functions from my earlier post on the Opal 690Q.

And here's another post all about applique on the Opal 690Q. I was really going to do some applique this time, but I just didn't have time during the 5 bobbin challenge.

Function panel is very handy when you're sewing

Now here's a situation where that quilter's awl comes in very handy. You see how that corner of the binding is bunching up?

The corner of the binding is bunching up

I can raise the presser foot to its highest position, then use the quilter's awl to control that seam in the corner. Once I fold that binding and it's where I want it to be, I hold everything in place with the quilter's awl. Only once in almost 20 years of sewing have I broken a needle by hitting the quilter's awl. This tool is INVALUABLE.

Another tip that works great for the corners. Once the needle goes through the binding that is folded up for the corner, I pivot the work which is very easy since my presser foot lifts when I stop because I've engaged the Needle Stop Up/Down and using the sensor foot technology. So while I'm holding my work in place, the machine is helping me by raising the presser foot.

Once the work is pivoted, I take an extra stitch in place (easy to do - just hold onto the work to prevent it from moving.) This helps to form a nice stitch in the corner. Then I continue on sewing the binding down.

Use the quilter's awl to hold the work in place while you stitch

Changing the bobbin thread on this one to cream as the backing is cream. 

Red thread for the top and cream for the bobbin

Beautifully stitched corner

Beautifully stitched back side

I was on a roll. As much as I hate to admit it, putting the binding on by machine isn't so bad after all. But you really need to play around as there are so many ways to do it. It has taken a bit of experimenting with different stitches in order to find something that worked for me.

And just when I thought I had everything down perfect, look what I did. On the second small piece, I sewed the binding to the FRONT, not the back. Oh well, that one will have to be hand stitched down. I wasn't ripping it out!

Oh I sewed the binding to the front, not the back

That wraps up another fun day with the Husqvarna Viking Opal 690Q and the FIVE bobbin sewing challenge.

Come back tomorrow where I'll continue to work through that stack of projects with the Opal 690Q. I'm really liking this challenge and can't wait to see what gets sewn next. 

And dare I ask how your challenge is coming along?

Have a great day!

Ciao!