Patent ID: 8074590

Claim:
A method of quilting comprising; a person selecting a computer-controlled quilting machine having: a sewing machine; a carriage connected to the sewing machine, the carriage holding a piece of cloth and positioning the cloth so as to enable the sewing machine to sew the cloth; a computer, the computer being disposed in communication with the sewing machine and the carriage so as to control the operation of the sewing machine and so as to control the operation of the carriage to cause the sewing machine to sew a pattern into cloth; a user interface, the user interface comprising a remote data entry device separate from the sewing machine which allows a user to trace a pattern without manually moving the sewing machine and thereby electronically transmit the pattern to the computer; the person selecting a desired stitch length; the computer storing the square of the stitch length; the person using the data entry device to trace a pattern; the computer tracking the movement of the data entry device; and the computer changing the position of the sewing machine relative to the cloth according to the movements of the data entry device to thereby sew the pattern in a piece of cloth in real time as the person traces the pattern; the method further comprising the computer squaring a lateral movement of the cloth relative to the sewing machine from a last stitch position; the computer squaring a front to back movement of the cloth relative to the sewing machine from a last stitch position; the computer adding the square of the lateral movement and the square of the front to back movement; the computer requesting a stitch when the sum of the square of the lateral movement and the square of the front to back movement is equal to the square of the stitch length; the computer tracking a predetermined number of the most recent stitch requests the computer determining an average frequency of stitch requests for a predetermined number of the most recent stitch requests; and the computer operating the sewing machine to create stitches at said average frequency.