Why You Need a Sew Off Piece

What is a "Sew Off Piece" and Why Do I Need It?

Who knew that such a simple little thing such as warming up your machine by stitching on a small square of fabric could have such an impact on your quilting!? The answer is, it does!

What is a "sew off piece?" 

It is two pieces of scrap fabric (about 10” X 10”) with batting in between, basically a mini quilt sandwich. It should be made out of similar material and batting as the quilt you are working on i.e. if you are working on denim, cotton, or batik practice on something similar and same for the type of batting you are using 80/20 Heirloom or polyester etc. You will lay this under your machine's foot, turn on the machine and move it with both hands under your running quilting machine.  

Why do I need it?

The first reason for your sew off piece is to get any excess oil off the needle of your quilting machine after you have oiled. Nothing is worse than finding an oil spot on your quilt that dripped down the needle.

Secondly use the sew off piece to check the tension of your quilting machine. Since there isn't any tension on the sew off piece, just you holding it in between your hands, it represent how your stitch should look tension wise. After stitching on it pull it away from the needle, flip it over, and look at the stitches to determine if you need to tighten or loosen your tension dial. 

Many times I have found that when customers call in with tension issues they have their quilt tensioned and stretched too tightly on their quilting frame. The quilt should not be stretched like a drum or you will skip stitches or have bad tension. Quilting on the sew off piece lets me see what my stitches will look like without any other variables messing it up.

When I have my machine in a stitch regulated mode I will hold the sew off piece in my left hand along with the tails of the thread after pulling the bobbin thread up. The Block RockiT will not stitch in Regulate Precise Mode unless I move the machine with my right hand while holding my sew off piece. I you would rather not move the machine around switch to manual mode and set your stitch percentage to about 45% (that means 45% of the stitches per minute capability of your machine, i.e. 1,800 Stitches Per Minute for the Block RockiT 15R)

Either way move the machine forward and back, side to side around in circles or any way that you need to to replicate any issues you are having with your tension or skipped stitches. If you are still having issues with your machine after stitching on your sew off piece then you can move on to other troubleshooting steps to narrow down the cause of the quilting symptom.

Using the Sew Off Piece as a Channel Lock

Here is a great tip that can help you when you want to multiple straight lines.