Piecing Tips I Wish Someone Had Shared With Me

How-To Tips For Beginners To Make Better Quilts.

I hope you enjoy reading some of these tips from Superior Threads. A couple of fun Pot holders are a good place start. Use scraps that won’t break your heart to mess up, and if it works out well, you have something new for the kitchen!

 

 

Seams. Practice rotary cutting, using a quilting ruler, fussy cutting, cutting and sewing half square triangles, and sewing with a perfect 1/4″ seam allowance! It’s important to use an accurate 1/4” seam. A difference of 1/8″ of a seam allowance adds up quickly as you try to put blocks together. A little too-big of a seam can result in your quilt being 3” smaller than it’s supposed to be. The solution is using a 1/4″ foot . Next, practice sewing until you feel confident that you can use the foot to keep a straight, even seam.

When rotary cutting, place the quilt ruler accurately on the outer edge of the line on the cutting board. Previously, I would place the ruler “on” the line (or on the inner edge of the line). By the time I made the cut, I found I had lost 1/8″.

Quick To Quilt Pot HoldersPressing. Once you sew a seam, iron it in the direction the pattern calls for. ‘Press’ gently over the seam, without pushing the iron as you do when ironing laundry. Press as you go. It’s worth the effort because the fabric fits better and you’re left with a completely flat quilt top.

Seam Ripping. There is a balance as to when you should spend time unpicking your stitches and being ‘Ok’ with imperfect stitches. Decide when to seam rip, as it pulls and stretches the bias, and the quilt block will never be right again! There is no need to unpick everything. Sometimes you might get away with slight imperfections on a small project, and especially if the fabric is really pretty.

Unpicking is not a loss, it’s a gain. It’s the chance to do it better. Understandably, there is a balance as to when you should spend time unpicking your stitches and being OK with imperfect stitches. There is no need to unpick everything. I think we tend to be our own worst critic and guaranteed, unless you are piecing a show quilt, you are the only one that will notice that the corners are a millimeter off.

Gooseberry Lane Autumn Quilt – Free Quilt PatternThread Choice. The greatest gift anyone can give is the thread tip from Superior Threads.  Using a smooth thread like MasterPiece will help keep your seams flat! 

The time required to clean your machine is time consuming! You have to stop working on your project, arrange your blocks and tidy up your sewing station so nothing falls out of order, find your brushes, open the case of your machine and that’s only the prep work required to start cleaning. MasterPiece is a 50 wt./3-ply low lint Egyptian-grown extra-long staple cotton thread. It’s strong, smooth, creates lasting stitches. Using threads with low lint has made my life much easier and my sewing experiences more enjoyable. Not only am I able to clean my machine less often, my seams lay totally flat.

Feature Image: Easy Quilts from Precut Fabrics by Sue Pfau