Sep 17, 2010

Two Question Friday

Well I have gotten a critique back from Quilt Expo.  They loved my choice of fabric, my design, my border.  They did not like my stops and starts.  So I have to improve that.  So my question to all of you is
How do you choose to stop and start?  I have been doing Micro stitches to stop and start, but I guess they do not like that .

Second question...has anyone bought that rotary cutter sharpener which is supposed to resharpen your old blades?   I do not want to invest in it if it really does not work.   I am asking this question because my blade started skipping and I bought another and just thought I really would like to recycle these myself and also not pay all the $ for a new one.  I know you can opt to send them in for sharpening but if this tool works that would be better.

...and a bouquet of flowers to brighten your day!

13 comments:

Beverly said...

There was something on the Quiltart list recently about buying blades for carpet cutters instead of rotary cutters, and they gave a link. They were way cheaper. It came up with the same question you have about the sharpening tool. I've never used it, but the response on the list was mostly negative.

As for stops and starts, sometimes I backstitch one or two stitches, but I always pull my threads to the back, knot and bury. I seem to have a penchant for non-continuous quilting designs, so I've done lots of them!

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

I don't have the sharpener but a friend does and she says it will sharpen an undamaged but dull blade a little but will not fix nicks on the blade.

Laura said...

What exactly are "starts & stops", places where you may have changed threads or started a different design?

Joyce said...

I have the same question as you about stops and starts. Mine are definitely not neat.
I have two different sharpeners. One was quite expensive and hardly works at all. THe other was much cheaper and has a round piece of sandpaper that does the sharpening. It worked quite well when new but now needs new sandpaper and I haven't ordered any more.
I got it here:http://www.agreatnotion.com/online_shop.php?cName=Rotary_Cutters__Accessories&categoryId=2000075
It's the blue one half way down the page. THe one just above it that is more expensive seemed to not work as well.

Terri Stegmiller said...

For stopping and starting, I've been simply just starting and stopping without the small teeny tiny stitches or backstitching. I then pull the threads to one side, usually the back, and bury them with a needle. Now, I don't know if this is right or wrong, so I'd love to hear from the experts/judges on what is best.

Marie said...

When you hear from anyone on the starts and stops, be sure you share. This is a problem I've been working on for a while.

WoolenSails said...

I usually do a couple of stitches at the start and then use my tie off feature at the end, but I don't have to worry about being judged;)

I did buy the sharpener and still haven't used it, so need to try it.

Debbie

Libby Fife said...

I have never used a blade sharpener. As for stops and starts, I stop at the first stitch and pull up the bottom thread so now I have both threads on top. My last titch is just a sticth. I pull that bottom thread to the top. Both sets of thereads get knotted, put through a super large needle and buried eithr on the front or pulled to the back and buried. It is time consuming but well worth it for cleanliness.

Libby Fife said...

Great spelling!

Kay said...

I use Terry and Libby's method of starting and stopping. I've never had any comments one way or another about it. There's a way to thread the ends through a loop of thread and then pull through that is wonderful. Here's the link: http://artwithaneedle.blogspot.com/2010/06/sinking-thread-ends.html

I bought a blade sharpener a few years ago and consider it money wasted.

Stephanie Newman said...

I usually do the micro stops and starts with a sequence of small stitches-around 6, and have discovered thicker threads will give less neat results than finer ones, also that a stitch length of 0.5 rather than 0 doesn't form knotty lumps on the reverse of the quilt. I do not use the fix function of machines for quilting, as i have yet to find one that doesn't do it at stitch length of zero. Instead on my Bernina I program in my own customised stitch length into the memory and use that instead! I show my work and do very well with that- but I also try to be very neat with beginning and endings- or knot and sew the tails in depending now visible the ends are. If beginning in a seam intersection it is almost completely invisible and if not, then depending on the thread diameter I use my short stitch method or knot and bury the tails.
One thing, threading a large needle can leave huge holes in fine patchwork fabric or worse still, sever threads or cause pulled threads/runs in fabric- use a finer needle and buy a good quality self threading needle where you pull the thread into the top of the needle rather than threading it. Much faster and easier on the eyes!

Barbara Strobel Lardon said...

Looks like I will stop the micro stitches and go to burying the threads. Much more labor intensive since I do like to use many different colored threads rather then a monofilament. But....I will give it a try and I might do a test piece using different weights of thread to see if some do not show like others as suggested by Stephanie. Thank you all for the tutorials.

As far as the rotary blade sharpener, as it stands right now it sounds like they do not work very well.

Janice said...

oh dear, I'm sorry you have decided to bury the threads - in my opinion life is too short to do that... I was hoping you would be encouraged to stand firm and let the quilt police change their attitude eventually. They had to change to accept machine quilting didn't they?

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