Hey everyone! Today you're going to learn why a Sew Slip mat only helps your QISS blocks when it is the right kind — the one with the large rectangular cut-out — and why your feed dogs stay up the whole time. Here we go.
What is a Sew Slip mat?
Short answer first: it is a slick mat that sits on your machine bed. Your block slides across it with less drag. You still steer the block. The mat just takes the fight out of moving it.
That matters in QISS — Quilting Is Sew Simple, the system Pauline Rogers created at Pauline's Quilters World. In QISS you quilt one fused block at a time. A block is three layers thick, and three layers do not glide like a single piece of cotton. The mat helps that sandwich travel smooth while you follow a template design.
Pauline's template instructions put it plainly: sew on the lines, one block at a time, using a sew slip mat to help glide and guide your fabric. Glide and guide. That is the whole job.
Why do the feed dogs stay up?
This is where folks get tripped up. In free-motion, you drop the feed dogs. Your hands move the fabric in every direction, and set the stitch length too.
QISS is not free-motion. QISS is Controlled Quilting. Feed dogs up. Machine feeding the block evenly. Template guiding the design. We walked through that idea in Controlled Quilting Explained.
With the feed dogs up, the machine helps you keep stitches even. You focus on following the design. If I can do this, y'all can do it.
What is the large rectangular cut-out, and why does it matter?
Here is the detail that makes or breaks the setup. Pauline's class requirements call for a Sew Slip mat with the large rectangular cut-out. Not the small-hole version. The large rectangular cut-out.
The cut-out sits over your feed dogs. It leaves them open and working. They can rise, grip the block, and feed it forward, just like they should.
The small-hole version is made for a different job. That small hole is sized for free-motion work with the feed dogs down. Put that version on a QISS block and you cover the very teeth you need. The block drags. Your stitches tell on you.
So check before you sew. Large rectangle over the feed dogs? You are set. Tiny hole? Wrong mat for this method. Completely up to you to swap it now or later, but now is less frustrating.
How do you set up the mat for a QISS block?
Work through this list, in order:
- Clean the machine bed first. Lint and dust under a mat just make lumps.
- Lay the mat flat. Line the large rectangular cut-out up over the feed dogs, so they sit clear inside the opening.
- Raise the feed dogs. Up, always, for QISS.
- Fit your regular open-toe appliqué foot — not a free-motion foot. Our post on the right foot for QISS shows you how to tell the two apart.
- Set your presser-foot pressure for a three-layer fused sandwich. Our machine setup post on presser-foot pressure walks through that dial step by step.
- Sew a practice sandwich first. One straight line. One gentle curve. One turn.
One warning, right where it matters. If the mat shifts, bunches, or covers the feed dogs mid-seam, stop and reset it. Do not hold a wrinkled mat down and hope. Slow down, flatten it, and start that line again.
What difference will you actually feel?
You will feel it first in the turns. Curves take less pushing. Straight lines take less correcting. Your shoulders will notice too.
You will see it in the stitches. When the block feeds without dragging, stitches stay more even. Block two starts to look like block one. Repeatable is the goal.
That practice sandwich sits on the same batting the method runs on: Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Fusible Batting Package, the double-sided fusible batting Pauline's method calls for. Fusing holds the layers. The mat helps them travel. The feed dogs do the feeding.
And here is your permission beat. Your first block on a new mat does not have to be perfect. Practice lines are supposed to look like practice. You are your own worst critic. Take your time. It is not a race.
New to the system? Start with What Is QISS? Quilt As You Go, One Block at a Time, then come back here. Small gear, set up right, makes a big difference. Just like that.
Thanks for sewing along with me today. We'll see you next time. Bye.
Explore templates, Sashers, kits, and the batting this method runs on in our QISS — Quilting Is Sew Simple collection at Linda's Electric Quilters.
