Quilting Tips, Shortcuts & Advice

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As a beginner, so often we play it safe when choosing fabrics for a quilt. And sometimes, we carry on in this manner for fear of trying something new! Here are a few of my tips for adding excitment to your quilt with the fabrics you choose.

One of the most important fabric tips, in my opinion, is to include many different pieces of fabric. By that I mean, if your pattern calls for three to five fabrics, choose a color family for each of those fabrics rather than a single fabric. You quilt will come to life if you move towards a less planned approach. For the "red" in your quilt, you could have 5 or 6 similar value reds that will all "read" as the same color, but will keep your eye interested.

Include some medium and large scale prints in your projects. A large scale print when cut up will help move your eye across your quilt. These fabrics also work well to transition between colors.

If you are creating a quilt that needs to "blend" or "transition" gently between colors, look for a variety of transitional fabrics that include both colors in the area you want to blend. These fabrics help your eye move over the space without a definite break in color.

Don't be afraid to experiment with new color combinations or fabrics that are out of your comfort zone. Try to add at least one fabric that stretches you into new territory!

Keep in mind when shopping for quilting fabric that your choices for a quilt do not all need to come from the same "family" of fabrics. It can be interested to combine a print with a batik, or a stripe. Keep the scale of your prints varied.

If you are having a hard time with color combinations, try combining colors you might find in nature, or pull out the color wheel to help. It's a good bet to base your quilt on a complementary, adjacent, monochromatic or primary scheme.

Have fun and experiment!

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If you love to quilt but just can't find the time for a lengthy project, look for strip piecing patterns. You can create such favorites as the Trip Around the World, Bargello, Irish Chain, Lone Star and more, using quick strip piecing techniques.

Strip piecing enables you to sew full length strips of each fabric to each other to form a unit called strata. Then, you simply counter-cut these units as a whole, stagger, and resew back together! You'll find instructions for using this technique for many patterns that you would previously have cut each individual square (usually with a template), and sewn them one at a time.

I was hooked on strip quilting when I saw a demonstration from local quilt instructer, Marilyn Doheny. As she showed off quilt after quilt, I grew more and more excited about the concept. I now create a king size bed top in a design such as the Trip Around the World or Bargello, in about 8-10 hours time. The quilts generally use about 20 different fabrics, and look like they would take a year!

You are able to cut multiple layers of fabrics, with your trusty rotary cutter, for the strips that you will need for your units.

When the basic cutting is finished, you'll sew together the specified number of strata units required to finish your design.

Just a word of warning on sewing these strata units ~ try to sew the strips without allowing them to hang off the table, creating a lopsided unit. The dreaded "rainbow" effect, where you end up with a curved strata, rather than a nice straight one, is a common pitfall in strip quilting! If you are having trouble with this issue, try rotating your strips as you sew. Sew from one end and then attach your next strip to the opposite end.

I think that you'll find, strip quilting is the way to go for a busy lifestyle. And, if you're not careful, it's pretty addictive too!

P.S. You'll find the pictured pattern, Joen Wolfrom's Reflections on the Pond, in the pattern section of my Ebay store.

Do you quilt smart? If you're short on quilting time, you need to think about how you work and make the most of the spare minutes you have!

One great strategy is to group activities. Do all your cutting at once. Take piles of blocks or units to be pieced to your machine, so that you can feed them through, one after another, without cutting the string in between. This technique is called string piecing. When you've sewn all the units, it takes less time to go back and quickly snip between blocks.

When you've sewn the first round on all your units, take them all to the ironing board at once, and set up a production line to iron quickly, one at a time. By the way, steam is great! Use lots! Just be careful not to pull your blocks out of shape.

You then take your sewn units, stack with the next pieces and run all the blocks through the machine on a string again. And repeat ironing.

If you get into the habit of production quilting, you'll work your way through many more projects!

Do you take the time to carefully pin every seam before you sew? When I taught classes in strip quilting, it quickly became evident to me that there are two definite schools of thought on this matter! Personally, I rarely pin anything. The only times that I would probably take time to place a few strategic pins, would be sewing curves, sewing long strips of already pieced blocks, or something that is very tricky to fit together.

If you are looking for a time saver, try to sew "freehand", without feeling the need to pin every strip. When sewing together strips for strata, just sandwich the two layers and gently feed through the machine. The trick to not pinning, is to keep the layers even, adjust your corners about 10-12" away from your sewing, and hold your place with your fingers until you reach it. For some, letting go of pinning is like telling your old home-ec teacher that everything she taught you was wrong!

Give yourself permission to not pin!

Check out some of my "unpinned quilts" in my quilt gallery at Alice in Stitches.

Alice in Stitches supplies unique and art-focused quilting, knitting, needlepoint and cross stitch supplies. Below are easy links directly to the category of your interest:

Tutto Sewing Machine Cases and Craft Totes

Quilting Frames and Stands

Quilt Hangers and Clamps

Sewing Tools and Notions

Misty Fuse and Tracing Paper

Quilting Patterns and Books

Electric Quilt Design Software

Collectibles, Gifts, Holiday

Cotton Fabric Yardage

Knitting

Needlepoint and Cross Stitch

I hope you'll find what you're looking for - if not just drop me at line at info@aliceinstitches.com.

Washing your fabric before quilting is another one of those somewhat controversial subjects. Your decision to wash and remove the chemicals from your fabric, pre-shrink and remove excess dyes, also results in your fabric losing it's new crisp feel and in some cases, the sheen.

I tend to wash all my fabrics before use. By removing the chemicals, your are also prolonging the life of your fabrics and beautiful heirloom quilts. Chemicals will tend to break down the fibers of your fabric and cause damage over time.

If your quilt is to be laundered anyway, there is no reason to not wash ahead of cutting your fabrics. You may as well remove excess dyes that could seep into other areas of your quilt.

My tip on washing long lengths of fabrics is to fold the lengths (into 3 ft sections), and then safety pin along one selvage edge to hold it all together. Then go ahead and throw it into the washing machine. You will save yourself the time and frustration of pulling out a tangled wad of thread and fabric that would have taken alot of power ironing to fix!

If you are looking for some fun and unique fabrics, please visit me at Alice in Stitches.

Mitering borders doesn't need to be as difficult as you think!

The first step is to decide how many borders you would like on the quilt, such as inner, middle and outer border. On a bed quilt, I often like to combine a 2 1/2" cut inner border with a 1" cut highlighting border (a color that sets the quilt off in a dramatic way) and finally about an 8 1/2" cut of my feature fabric for the outer border.

If your quilt top is 80" and you plan a 10" border all around, your 4 border sides will need to be at least 100" long (a little longer is better). You will need to seam together enough lengths of fabric for each strip of the border to create the length that you need. When all your individual border strips are the length that you need, go ahead and stitch these individual border strips together in the order that you would like to attach them to your quilt. You should now have a border unit comprised of your full length inner, middle and outer borders, seamed the full length.

Next, you will need to attach each border unit to a side of your quilt. First, find the center of your quilt (fold it in half and mark it with a pin), then find the center of your first border (fold it in half as well). Attach your border at the mid-point to the midpoint on your quilt. I usually do this process on my ironing board. From the center, begin to pin your border down as you work your way to each corner.

When your first border unit is pinned in place, you can begin to sew. You will begin to seam the border on by starting 1/4" in from the corner of your quilt. Backstitch to hold the spot in place. Stitch down to the other end of the quilt and again, stop 1/4" from the corner and backstitch. This will leave 1/4" unsewn at each end. Your border units should hang out at both ends beyond the edges of your quilt (overhang should be at least as long as the width of the border). Repeat the process with the other three sides.

At this point, all four border units should be stitched to the edges of your quilt, with 1/4" unsewn corners at each corner. I now put the first corner on my ironing board. Try to lay the border flat, with room to manipulate the corners. Extend the top border along the board, past the edge of the quilt. Take the second border and fold it back (under) so that it extends (right sides together) with the bottom border. Now iron border miter in place and use masking tape to hold in place. Flip fold back and sew. Trim to 1/4".

There are a number of types of applique that are popular with quilters. If you are new to applique the choices are a little confusing.

Let's begin with needle-turn. This method requires that you cut your fabric piece slightly larger than required. You will sew your applique in place using your needle to fold a slight seam allowance under with each stitch. Basically, you fold, then stitch, fold then stitch.

Paper-piecing requires that you cut out a paper template (I like to use the lightweight cardboard inserts in magazines), cut a slightly larger piece of fabric. Then you will baste your fabric onto the paper template, with seams turned under the paper. This gives you a nice, neat edge to then applique onto your quilt. When you near the end of appliqueing your piece down, you will cut the basting, pull out the paper and continue to applique the fabric piece in place.

Raw-edge applique means that you will cut your fabric piece to the size you need, and machine sew it to your quilt without turning under any seam allowance.

Fusible applique refers to cutting out your fabric piece to the correct size (no seam allowance), fusing it to a fusible webbing (such as Misty Fuse), and then ironing (or fusing) into place on your quilt. No sewing is required.

For reverse applique, shapes are cut from the interior of a piece of fabric and the raw edges are turned under at the cuts to expose a second layer of fabric beneath.

If you love the look of an applique quilt but just don't have the time to create one the old-fashioned way, fusible applique is for you! You just cut out the applique shapes to size, with fusible webbing and iron them right to your quilt.

Many of the popular pattern designers offer patterns design just for fusible applique - although you can use this method with any applique pattern. McKenna Ryan of Pine Needles is one of the best known and most popular designers. Her creations are detailed and whimsical.

When you work with a fusible applique design, you will be able to machine quilt over the fusible areas, providing that they are not too layered or stiff fusible. Misty Fuse is the best product that I have seen for the purpose of applique quilting. It is fairly new, extremely thin and pliable. Your fused area stays flexible and quiltable!

When working with a fusible pattern, I will often afix a square of the fusible to a square of fabric and then cut them out as one. It can be easier then cutting the pieces separately, and less messy than trying to iron a cut piece onto a larger piece of fusible.

You'll enjoy creating more quilts in a fraction of the time a traditional hand applique would take!

If you spend much time quilting, having an effective workspace will be important to you. There are a few ingredients that I could not live without.

First, set aside a space that you can leave in place, like a spare bedroom, section of the basement, etc. I know that one is difficult for many but hopefully, you can carve out a niche for yourself. It is so nice to just jump into your quilting without first having to find all your stuff and set it all up!

Next, try to set up a space where your ironing board and cutting table are both within a few feet of your sewing machine - a triangle of the three is handy.

The chair you choose is probably going to determine how much time you can comfortably quilt. Try to pick one with good back support that will be adjustable to the correct height for your table.

Your cutting table should be large enough to handle a large cutting mat, and preferably space around it. It's nice to get the largest table you can accomodate. Check to be sure that your table is a comfortable height so that you will not cause unnecessary back strain with alot of cutting.

Find a system to organize your fabrics. Hopefully in a dust free way, such as covered shelves, bins, etc. I like to organize by color, or theme. At the moment, however, my room floweth over!

Last, one of my favorite parts of the sewing room is a large felted display wall, that your pieces stick to easily. When creating a quilt, I find it essential to put the pieces up on a wall and stand back to evaluate. More often than not, I end up changing things that look different once up on the wall!

Time to get to work!

When you reach the stage of selecting the appropriate batting for your quilt, you are often faced with a multitude of choices.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

~ A bonded batting generally means it's been needlepunched together so that your quilt will not need to be quilted as closely. Generally, you can quilt a bonded batt up to 10" apart (although, closer will generally look better).

~ Cotton batting has a more old-fashioned, flat look. If you pick an unbonded cotton (as in a true old-fashioned quilt), it will need to be quilted approx. every inch! Cotton batting is generally a good choice for hand quilting - although, I would go with a bonded cotton.

~ Polyester battings come in a variety of weights. The lower number weight will be a thinner batting. The highest number weight is going to be a batting that will require you to tie it, rather than quilt it. These are bonded and don't require as close quilting. They generally hold up fairly well with washing. A poly batting will also have a "puffier" appearance when quilted.

~ Wool batting is great if you want to make a very warm, flat quilt. If you choose a wool batting, be sure you are very careful in it's care and washing. It will be very prone to shrinkage which will quickly ruin your beautiful quilt. Also, if bringing it to a dry cleaner, be sure to mention that it is a wool batt!

~ Alpaca batting comes in blends of Alpaca/Cotton and Alpaca/Wool. This is a 100% natural batting and great for use if you are in need of a hypoallergenic product. The batting is very soft and drapable for garments as well.

Visit Alice in Stitches for our Alpaca batting selection.

If you are struggling with your unwieldly sewing gear for class and retreats, you can make life a little easier with the right bags. We've always got our eyes open for the best crafts carriers and we absolutely love Tutto and Omnigrid totes.

The Machine on Wheels bags come in two sizes, as well as coordinating embroidery bag and serger totes. The bags can stack together with convenient straps, and you can wheel your entire ensemble to class. You'll love the assortment of vibrant colors! If you don't see the one you want, just let us know and we'll be happy to order it for you.

Do you really want to become an art quilter? Wonder how to start the process, tap into your inner creativity? Check out my Art Quilting lens!

How about knitting? I take a look at the more unique side of the knitting world, with a look at the weird, wonderful and wacky. Visit Art Knitting for all the fun!

Interested in finding all the latest quilting, knitting and needlework supplies? You'll find it all at Alice in Stitches Quilting, Knitting and Needlework Ebay Store. We'll tell you about the latest products, give some good tips and quilt photos to inspire you.

Thanks for visiting!

Here it is - hopefully, short and sweet!

Fabric Grain Lines

The Straight of Grain (or warp)runs parallel to your selvage. It indicates the direction of the yarns. A cut from this direction will have very little stretch and is good for your borders.

The Cross Grain (or weft)are the yarns that run across your fabric from selvage to selvage and are woven to create the fabric. The cross grain has more stretch and give.

Bias is on a 45 degree angle to the straight of grain. This is best for any place you need stretch and give. You will often hear this used in bias bindings.

Ok - on to the cutting table!

If you don't need to wash your fabric for your particular project, then you may consider just steam ironing. Sometimes we want to keep the sheen or finish in a fabric, that would be lost in washing. You may still want to shrink the fabric, however. In these instances, it's perfectly fine to steam iron to accomplish this.

Steam ironing will not remove excess dyes or chemicals. But, sometimes you may be creating a small wall hanging or project that will not be washed later. Let's cut corners when we can!

Later, instead of laundering your completed quilt, try just vacumning it (usually sufficient if it is a wall quilt).