How to Use This Blog

Since we have lots and lots of videos here, you will need to know the best way of finding what you are looking for. Each post has the video(s) of the topic it is about. Sometimes there will be more than one video that is a continuation of the previous one. These videos will be posted together within the same post. To find what you are looking for, either use the search box or the list of categories posted in the right column.


The IQ system is constantly evolving, so please keep in mind that some of the older videos may show features that have been replaced by newer ones, or buttons that have changed position or names. However, the videos have not been removed because the methods demonstrated are still valid.



Friday, December 10, 2021

iQ Project #2 , part 6. The final instalment.

This is the final instalment of the line pattern project. 
I demonstrate a way to set the parallel line pattern in place so that all the sides can be clipped. These screenshots clarify that process. 
I place my needle slightly above the top seam line of the triangle that will become the clipping block.




I move the machine to the center of the long side for one repeat of the pattern and I make sure that the pattern matches the horizontal needle line (the green line) making it perfectly straight. I do not follow the seam line's slight downward angle.



I then move over to the other end of the triangle for the second repeat, again making sure the pattern is straight. If that's not done, the lines will not be parallel.

The top of my triangle was not perfectly straight, so following the seam line would have made my lines crooked and the lines in the second repeat would not have been parallel to the lines in the first repeat, as shown below. 



Making this pattern larger than my clipping block allowed all three edges to be clipped.  


The video goes on to explain once again how to set the border pattern in place with a description of placing the corner lollipop.




I hope this project has shown the usefulness of line pattern. I didn't need to mark any blocks once I had determined the height of each pattern because I knew the piecing was good. If this had been a quilt where I could see that the piecing varied, I would have marked more blocks and changed the height of the patterns as necessary so that they sat correctly in the piecing. 
If the borders had varied in width, I would have marked them all and changed the height of each pattern repeat to suit the piecing. Rather than keep all the patterns the same height, which will draw attention to the piecing, I look at the space between the top of the pattern and the edge of the quilt and try to keep that consistent. Any slight difference in the height of each repeat will not be noticeable.

There is one last thing to do after finishing the project, and that is to move the patterns into their final destination catalogs. If you want to keep them altogether but not at the top of your library list, simply rename the catalog without the spaces before the name. I will move individual patterns into other catalogs - for instance, I have one named Swags so all the swag patterns will go into that catalog so that they'll be easy for me to find next time I want a swag. Others may go into my P2P catalog, or just into the Patterns by Helen catalog. In the end how patterns are organised is a very personal decision. They just need to be easy to find.


Friday, December 3, 2021

iQ Project #2, part 5.

Another advance of the quilt. This time I place and stitch several line patterns together. It's a test to see if I get good results or if the quilt has drawn up too much. Practice projects like this are very helpful in building knowledge - mistakes are always good because we learn so much from them. I don't usually correct things on practice quilts. If this had been a customer's quilt, I would have picked out the stitches that weren't exactly where I wanted them to be - you'll see some in the ditch work that didn't hit the ditch. To make practice projects really useful for future reference, you can make notes about what you did and and how you might change the way you did things. 


I do not finish the pass in this video because I think you should be able to do that now. After completing this pass, I then went on to complete the next section of my quilt, which included the rest of the center medallion. For me that meant another advance, but those of you with larger machines can probably finish this part without advancing, allowing you to stitch the center motif as one complete line pattern..
Before the next instalment, please stitch everything shown in this screenshot.