Quilt Design Ideas: Bobbin Drawing

Bobbin drawing is a really fun way of adding unusual, thick fibers to the surface of your quilts without having to couch, and the reason that's interesting and some people prefer it is because when you couch, you end up with a zigzag stitch on the back of your quilt and sometimes that's not what you're looking for. Whereas bobbin drawing, you don't end up with that, you end up with a regular stitch line. This is bobbin drawing here with three different fibers, and this first one is going to surprise you when you see that the fiber that it is is actually a very, very thin silk ribbon. So that's a silk ribbon, this is what the fiber is, and this is how it stitched. Whereas this is a very heavy perle cotton, a very simple fiber, and this is a very wonderful sort of zig-zaggy fiber that I just really love. the way bobbin drawing is done is that you are actually going to wind these products onto your bobbin. And you're going to use your machine as you do that, you're going to machine wind them, sorry, onto your bobbin so that you can then put them in your bobbin case and sew with them. When you sew with them, you're going to be sewing from the backside of your piece and so you need to know where those lines need to go. So often people will stitch the line first from the front and then just go back over that line again a second time from the back. But the back is going to be where you're sewing because you're going to be using regular thread on the top and then that bobbin is going to have the funky thread in it. You can't use these threads through the top of your machine because they won't go through the eye of your needle. You can only use them in your bobbin. So it's pretty easy to put these on your bobbin. So I'm going to take this little hand-dyed fiber and I'm going to hand feed it, but I'm going to machine wind it. So I just need to find my end and put my bobbin on my machine just like I normally would and put my fiber through the hole if that's what you do on your bobbin. and it's what I do on my bobbin, so I'm going to go ahead and do that. If you normally just wind it around your bobbin for a little bit, your threads, then you can do that, but I always put it through one of the holes of the bobbin and that's how I get started. So it's through the hole, I'm going to put it on my bobbin winder, press it into gear, and I'm simply going to put tension on it by holding it ever so slightly as it winds. And I'm going to go very, very slowly and guide it up and down that bobbin until the bobbin is full, and then just pull it off. And then I'm going to clip that excess off of the top of the bobbin here so that it doesn't get caught inside my bobbin case. Now, I have never had a drop-in bobbin and I have to honestly tell you I don't know if you can adjust your bobbin tension and you can do bobbin drawing with a drop-in bobbin. I have a front-loading bobbin and you can do this also with a side-loading bobbin, because what you're going to do is loosen the tension on your bobbin case. Now, I know that some of you are just freaking out the minute I said that. You're like, "How am I going to get the tension back?" Well, it's very easy to get the tension back because the tension is done in a certain way and you'll know when you put your first thread bobbin back in there if the tension is in the right place. So I'll put a regular thread bobbin in first so that you can understand how it's supposed to look when it's in the right tension. So I'm going to put the bobbin in and feed it through just like you normally would, and normally you should be able to pull like so and the bobbin starts to drop ever so slightly. Some machines like it to be a little bit tighter, some like it a little bit looser. This machine likes it somewhat tight, like it is right now, so it's starting to drop, you can see it lowering, but it doesn't drop really, really fast. Now, I'm going to take my screwdriver and I'm going to loosen it. That means that the hook of my bobbin is facing away from me and that means the bobbin is facing me properly. And lefty loosey, righty tighty. So I'm going to loosen it about one complete turn, so I'm going to turn the whole screw one complete turn and then I'm going to insert my bobbin and see if I can get my fiber into that opening, which I can't. So now I'm going to go ahead and loosen it another complete turn. See if I can get that fiber through there, and I still cannot, but almost, and I just keep track of my turns. So another complete turn, so that makes three complete turns, which is going to help me. I've actually taken the whole thing off, so too many complete turns. I'm going to tighten it back down about a half turn. Don't lose that little screw, don't let it fall out 'cause it's a tiny little guy. So I'm just going to screw it back down enough to hold it in place and probably that's all I'm going to do, make sure it's not going to come off, and then I should be able to get this through, and if I can't, that means my fiber is too thick and it's never going to go through, which might be the case here. So we'll set this aside and put a different one through which we know is going to feed, and I know these are going to feed because I've already fed them through. There we go. And there we go, okay. So as long as it's in its casing, we're ready to use it. Now, to me, the casing feels a little too loose, so I'm going to tighten it again once I've got this fiber in there and make sure that it's in its proper place because it's acting a little funny, there we go. Make sure that I can pull this, make sure that this isn't going to come loose, and then go ahead and insert my bobbin. Now, remember that I'm going to be sewing from the back of the piece, this is my front, this is my back, and I'm going to be using a thread that's going to coordinate well with my bobbin. And now we're just going to stitch, and we're going to be stitching from the back, and I'm just going to stitch in a gentle curve, like so. I tend to take it pretty slow to let it feed that thick product through there. Now, you can do this free motion too, but I wouldn't do that in the very beginning. I'd kind of get used to how the whole process works first before I free motioned with it. And when you turn that over, you can see that that bottom thread is that wonderful fiber. So this is called bobbin drawing and it's a great way to put a really heavy fiber on the surface of your quilt without having to couch it down and still have a really nice stitch on the back of your quilt. Give it a try, I think you'll have some fun with it.