How to use a scan and cut machine with a Melinda Bula Designs pattern

Today is the day! After 5 years of researching and playing around and a lot of trial and error, I have figured out how to use my cutting machine to cut out one of my patterns. Big deal, you say. Well, if you have ever taken a class with me, you know there is a lot of cutting with scissors around sometimes very tiny pieces to make one of my flower quilts. I love to cut but I also love to make flowers fast.

Over the years at quilt festivals, I have watched many demonstrations at the Brother booth on how to use their cutting machines but I just could not figure it out, until my house burnt down and COVID-19  hit and I finally had time to focus. So, I bought the machine with the intention of scrapbooking but started experimenting with fabrics in the machine right away. Oh, the messes I made.

Bad cutting! 

Good cutting

Yes, you could always use your cutting machine before with fabrics but not with Steam A Seam 2.  All my art quilts and patterns are made using my preferred fusible web, Steam a Seam 2 and, before you start an email to me, yes, I have tried them all and continue to experiment with new fusibles. Then I go back to S-A-S 2.

The key was finding something easier and faster than the good old pair of scissors, but, in the beginning, how to cut was just one of the problems.  The prep work it took to make the patterns  readable for the scanning machine was very tedious. I could cut with scissors faster than drawing new pieces or trying to block out the numbers and letters on the regular pattern pieces. 

The scanner is powerful and picks up the smallest line or mark.  The problem to solve was how to cut pattern pieces fast and easy. 

What if I designed the patterns so you just scan the pattern sheets into your machine and build your flower?

 

So that is what I did. I have no idea if you will like these or use them but they are so fun and fast and now I am addicted to the process.

The NEW Rose is the first pattern that comes with the scanning sheets OR as a regular pattern.  The YouTube class here on the blog is also for using the regular New Rose Pattern.  If want to skip ahead in the video to the flower building part of the class, at about the 35 minute mark, go for it. Please let me know if you have questions - email me at melindabuladesigns@comcast.net

For patterns and supplies got to Etsy.com/shop/MelindaBulaDesigns or click on the SHOP button on the top bar of this blog. 

Keys to Successful Renegade Thread Play

 Clematis Flower Pattern and Kits

The Keys to successful Renegade Thread Play are to have a few of the right tools and follow your cut fused piece on each petal. All the work you did of cutting out those little strips and wedges or vines in the petals are your hit lines for how to curve your thread when quilting.  

1.    Do not go fast. Medium fast is great.

2.    Having something on you hand is a must for better control. Aka, Gloves. It really makes for better stitches.

3.    Having the right needle for the job.  What is the Job? Trying to quilt through thick fusible web while making beautiful line drawings with thread and coloring at the same time. 

You need a big hole in the eye of the needle and a needle that is designed to go through thick fabric like fusible.  Topstitch needle size 80/12 or 90/14, or a Jeans Denim needle size 80/12 or 90/14. I start out with the 80/12, but if you have skipped stitches try the 90/14. 

4.    Heat is your friend when sewing through Steam-A-Seam 2.   Warm up the area that you are about to quilt with your hot DRY iron. Steam will make your quilt wet. You can't quilt through a wet quilt. The heat melts and softens the fusible web. This makes its easy to sew through. This only works with Steam A Seam 2.   That is why I use it. You can iron it over and over. Not all fusible can take over ironing.

5.    Lower your top thread tension. I wish I could give you a magical number, but every sewing machine has its own number, and that number can change from day to day. Depending on how moody your machine is. The manufactures number for regular domestic sewing is around 4, 5. But when doing free motion quilting you are pulling and tugging on the fabric under the needle which means you need the tension to be looser than normal.  You need to have the tension at a lower number like 3, 2, or 1.  I move the number down a little at a time, always looking at the front and back of my stitches, to see if I have equal tension on both sides.

6.    I am using Rayon thread to do Renegade Thread Play. I love this thread because of it shine and comes in vibrant colors.  Rayon is very delicate and can break or fray very easily if you do not know how to handle it. I coat every spool of rayon thread before I thread my machine and after I wind my bobbin with Sewers Aid. Its a lubricate that keeps the thread from being nicked or frayed while moving through the sewing machine and needle.  I squeeze 3 to 4 lines of sewers aid a crossed the spool, length wise and squish it in.

The short video below will show you how I use Sewers Aid to helps with sticky build up on my needle.

To watch VIDEO - Click in the middle to play.

More videos are on my YouTube Channel-Melinda Bula Designs

Nasturtium Class Video "How to Use Ombre Fabric's in A Flower Quilt."

 If you would like a pattern or a complete fabric and pattern kit, go to Etsy.com/shop/MelindaBulaDesigns

enjoy!

NEW Nasturtium Pattern and Class

It's mind-blowing to me how many businesses have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and those of us in the quilting, sewing, and fabric industries have not escaped the pain.  Fortunately, the quilting business is made up of creative minds and that ingenuity, along with some tricky tap dancing, has kept most  folks upright and moving forward. I don’t know about you, but when I'm given a challenge, and I've faced  several big ones in my life, I need to overcome and conquer.  That does not mean I don’t have a good cry or get really mad - I do. But I eventually put the self-pity aside and find a creative solution to move forward.

My creative solution was to make some How To tutorial videos of a few of my patterns, like a recorded class, then post them to my YouTube channel. I was pleased (and a little surprised) to see how many quilters watched them, proving that even in this crazy time, you still love to be creative, too. Sales through my Etsy shop have been a genuinely nice surprise. THANK YOU. I love making videos - everything about it, from editing to lighting to adding graphics, even picking the right music, I love it all. It is just the spelling I have trouble with but thank God I married a great speller.

I also love to design NEW patterns for you to make and enjoy the creative process so, when I was asked by international quilting icon American Quilters Society to be part of a new project using a new pattern I designed, I jumped at the chance.  It's called QuiltCLASS@Home and my new teaching video will be part of their lineup.  So, while we wait for the traditional venues to come back, and they will, we can continue to support the teachers, designers, and industry we all love by taking classes and visiting quilt shows online. I think it’s a great idea.

For information about my NEW class with AQS and to sign up, click HERE.  The class will be through a private Facebook group.

Then order your pattern from my Etsy Shop. You can get a complete pattern and fabric kit or you can get a downloadable version of the same pattern and use your own fabrics. The downloadable pattern also has a color chart to help you find the right colors from your own stash.

In the class I demonstrate how I used Ombre batik fabrics in this quilt - the process is incredibly fun.

•       The Ombre fabrics I use (and sell) are from Hoffman of Californian and Robert Kauffman. The       complete kit, pattern and fabrics is $75. Background fabric is included.
•         Digital pattern is $12 - use a color printer when printing - all pages are letter size.
•         Traditional pattern through my shop is $20.

 

Hope this helps.

If you have any questions, please email me at melindabuladesigns@comcast.net.