There are all kinds of tools made especially for machine quilting, and every machine quilter talks about some kind of covering for their hands or fingers. These coverings allow you to just lay your fingers down on the quilt and guide it through the machine as you are quilting.
That way, you don't need to grab the quilt and kind of force it through.
Some quilters like the rubber gloves that are used to wash dishes.
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Some quilters cut the tips off of those rubber gloves and put them on the tips of their fingers.
There are canvas gloves with rubber dots on them.
And there are knit gloves, some of them come in a beautiful orange - what could be better?
And, coming highly recommended, is the Atlas® lightweight glove with a 100% nylon liner.
This liner is seamless, so it produces minimal lint, thereby protecting sensitive parts from contamination. The thin nitrile palm coating on the Atlas Assembly Grip 370 glove is extraordinarily tough and flexible, allowing workers to perform detailed tasks with ease. For maximum flex and dexterity. These gloves are also known as Nitril Touch Quilting gloves.
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The Atlas gloves can be found in gardening shops. A quilt shop version is the Nitril Touch Quilting glove.
Maybe a discussion of the purpose of gloves for machine quilting is in order.
Why Gloves at All?
Frankly, I had been confused about why I needed gloves at all for machine quilting until I heard machine quilting expert, Pam Bauer share her secrets of machine quilting.
I had always grabbed at my quilt, and used my elbows to help guide the quilt through the machine.
But Pam presented a whole different perspective, and now the gloves make sense.
It turns out that in free motion quilting, the machine quilter's hands serve as the feed dogs in directing the quilt under the needle.
As you place your hands so your thumbs touch and form a kind of frame around the needle (6 - 8 inches away in front of the needle), you need to be able to move the quilt around so it stays flat and you don't get puckers and tucks.
That means that your fingers need to be kind of sticking to the quilt. While you could use glue, or sticky hand lotion, rubber might be a better alternative since it won't leave a residue. Thus rubber fingers on a glove.
What Pam likes about the Atlas Assembly Grip 370 glove is that it has the rubber fingers, the back is open - so your hand breathes and doesn't sweat - and the glove is washable.
If you are interested in more machine quilting tips from Pam Bauer, expert machine quilter, you can get a CD of a live call where Pam answered all the tough questions and told as many of her secrets as we beginning machine quilters could handle.
Happy Quilting!
Penny is the author of 7 books for beginner quilters and a self-taught quilter of more than 25 years who seeks to interest new quilters and provide them with the resources necessary to create beautiful quilts.
This article courtesy of http://www.How-to-Quilt.com.
You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.
©2007, Penny Halgren
