07/20/2024
Ok, long post but below you will find some of my best practices and favorite tools that I have migrated to this year. I saw a post on a free motion group this week about tips for quilting on minky and I thought it was worth putting a bigger post together in case it is helpful. I know that minky is now one of the “go to” soft backings for our more sensory loved ones. I have always used flannel and occasionally a minky for a baby quilt.
I noticed that this quilter was also on a sit down Bernina Q series long arm and I reflected back that my struggles with the minky backing on my pink ribbon quilt were maybe not all from post accident injuries. While it seriously impacted my ability to endure my normal hours with a bent over neck and shoulders….which is why it has taken me close to a year to finish this quilt, and I may continue to struggle with quilting for a while to come…..my struggles controlling the actual quilting motions came a bit more from the added friction of the plush minky I chose.
Last summer I finally came home with my Brand New Bernina Q20. I started prepping for doing quilts for others…. On Halloween I was in a car accident that completely detoured my plans and replaced it with months of pain management, effecting my engineering work, along with my only stress relieving hobbie left to me, quilting. As any other good sailor would, I have spent the last several months adjusting my sails as each challenge popped up.
-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-
All that backstory, to tell you what I have learned, that has enabled me to work with minky or (work with the chronic pain) or both.
1) Go in with a flexible plan and a mental forsight that nothing will be perfect…. And things will not go as expected….. flexing will keep your sanity. There will be good and bad days.
2) Become a Jaded Optimist like me…… if it can go wrong, it will……😅 I always go in hoping for things to work as planned but I am never surprised when things fall apart either. We just are not able to control everything….from our pain levels, to machines, to the unexpected weight and friction of your quilting fabrics. And on and on….
3). Don’t set a strict timeline - this is actually the most important part….if it’s strict and you find you have to take a break a lot….you may eventually lose the enjoyment of the activity and start to avoid the quilting table without realizing why……then the longer it drags….the less likely you are to come back and complete it.
a. Plan only for a hour or two a day. If your assess at the end that your good to continue….do another hour and asses again….but it also means if u are having a bad day, after an hour u get to feel that you completed your planned amount and are ready to take a break.
b. Give yourself the grace to take the mental and physical breaks - you will need them with minky or with chronic pain. This could even be, to put a smaller practice quilt on for a while to mentally do something you know u can be successful with. It does a lot to counter the negative thoughts.
c. Give your self a frustration timer…..that’s a bit harder….. I know, trust me…..ADHD engineer Veteran here……😂 but I have found, if my 5 minutes of threading and rethreading suddenly turns into an hour of cursing and squealing (I know, you know what I mean. 😜)…..it’s time to break. Eat, pray, meditate, run, walk, ride or drive for an hour….or if your neurotypical maybe u prefer to clean? Whatever clears your mind and heart.
d. Set a food and stand/walk timer and I highly recommend the Apple Health app and thier medication, food and water reminders. I set my medication ones to persistent so I can’t just ignore them when I am focused. Worked well when I traveled too.
3. Adjust your table and chairs fresh each day. You may feel differently each day….don’t assume yesterday’s settings will work for today’s work. Buy a chair that is super comfy.
4. Pay for the tools that will keep your hobby enjoyable…..if you really love the feel of minky like i do, you will want to not dread sitting Down to quilt a new quilt….that just leads to more UFO’s. Minky is probably not an issue on a quilt loom….so we have a different set of needs and challenges as sit-down quilters.
5. Don’t sit down if you’re tired….learned that one the hard way…..u will make some mistake…and you will be more frustrated because of it.
-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-
Tools that I found to be the most useful:
1) Sullivan’ a spray basting - recommended in class of Karlee Porter’s. There are some sprays that are set with irons and some that are released with irons. This one is set with ironing for those of you who like to iron your quilt sandwiches.
2) Definately baste or stabilize over the spray. Basting thread (something inexpensive is fine) but if I was to do another minky quilt….I am going to use wash away thread. I wound up picking out my SID stabilizing stitches at all the borders….somthe wash away would save me som headache. No matter what, the minky seems to stretch and shift differently than the cotton quilt top.
With smaller quilts, it’s probably not an issue, but with my twin, it was an issue about 2/3rds of the way out from the center.
3) A couple of rolls of vinyl. I used this for the table top sections. It definately helped….and later I am going to put all my stickers across the table and cover it with fresh vinyl so I can give my table my personality but not effect the movement.
At the biggining, I only felt I was struggling because of the table slickness….so I bought this: VViViD Clear Self-Adhesive Lamination Vinyl Roll for Die-Cutters and Vinyl Plotters (12" x 6ft) https://a.co/d/hQFmrhw
4) Sullivan’s silicone spray. I don’t use this that often but with minky it’s probably worth the money to help prevent the stretching while u push and pull your quilt around the table top.…..I used it for all the layers.
5) supreme slider - and I mean the original thick pink and white rubbery silicone one…I found the other ones, the minky tended to snag on the edges and over time I had to replace them. But the pink and white slider could bridge across the edges of my vinyl film and plexiglass sections on my table perfectly. I used it previously on my HQ capris as well.
6) But soon I realized that it is the extra weight and the friction that was causing problems so. I bought 2 dog grooming arms and set them at an angle to the table. I put one end across the end seam of the table and the extension - to give the extension some extra support from the added weight. I also cut some scraps of practice quilts to protect my table from the metal clamps.
I spent the money early on for the weightless quilter….but I hated it and it never worked for me since I don’t own a large house with a large open space available to stretch it out and I was really worried it was stretching my quilt out of shape.
7) Then the last thing I did was rig up a pulley type adjustable lanyard with 3 clamps that allow me a lot of flexibility in what it is holding up. I like this the most as I can tighten and loosen and move the clamps as I go….particularly useful seems to be leaving the back off the quilt up off the table or just barely above it.
8. I broke down and finally bought a set of the quilt hoops off of eBay. The only thing I don’t like about them is the engineers did a poor job of determining the adhesive and the chamois keeps rolling off of it. Annoying but the hoops helped so much that I am going to make a cover for them to help. I don’t use them all the time, but I was able to use the bigger one in conjunction with some of my smaller rulers….and that was helpful with the added weight.
9). If your feet tend to swell, I found an angled nursing footstool that seems to really help. I have’s had that issue since I was on my HQ capris. I keep 1 foot on the floor with the peddle and the other on the angle….and sometimes move them around…depending on how I feel.
10) cup holder like the one I got from Amazon was super helpful.
11) Command hooks for all your rulers…I also keep my snips and a magnet for a needle on hooks either on my machine or on the bars of the dog holders.
12) Bernina laser point - I have an extra in box i would sell at the cost I got it.
13) Needles….do your research….size and strength are the most important. Test, test, test until you find the one that is good for your needle and thread (my spool had a sudden rough section that I wound up changing my needle size for).
14) adjustable ruler foot with slot….or adjustable open toe foot. With minky the height could need to be adjusted depending on how lofty and how much batting was used.
15) quilting gloves - with the minky I kept going back to the swan gloves.
-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-
Lastly my handling tips would be…never let the weight fall over any table edge…. But also don’t let too much square footage lay on the table…the more that touches… the more force you will spend moving minky….find the mix that about right for your body and strength.
You can see in the picture below, I tend to use a squared rollup method that helps minimize the drag. I can hook up the tops of the rolls to the clamps and it lets me move it around.
I know this was lengthy but feel free to share this around if the tips are helpful at all.
.
