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One Block Quilts – How to Make Them Pop!

One block quilts are simply a quilt that is made from repeating one block. I like taking these quilts and finding ways to make them more interesting. You can do this through color choice, positioning of the blocks, and adding borders to name a few things. I will also share a bit of history on the evolution of the quilt into a collection of blocks from its earlier incarnations. So, let’s get started for this week.

A Bit of Quilt History

Early quilts were more of the medallion style quilt. What is medallion style? It’s a quilt that has a large central design. Most medallion style quilts in the late 18th and early 19th centuries were referred to as broderie perse, a central appliquéd motif, sometimes framed by a border. The central design for the quilts of that era was often cut out from a large piece of fabric, like an imported chintz, and was then appliquéd to a plain background. My Picket Fence Blooms quilt below gives you the idea of this medallion style although my appliqué design was created from wool and not cut from another piece of fabric:

Another of my patterns, Rail Fence Blooms, can also fall into this category although some of the central motif is pieced.

You have the idea, right? 

In the mid 19th century, the block style quilts that we know today began to emerge. Prior to this time, making quilts was reserved for wealthy women who could afford expensive imported fabric. As fabric began to be produced domestically the prices lowered and more women were able to a buy it to make quilts for fun instead of for necessity only. The earliest block style quilts were friendship or album quilts usually made for someone leaving a community to move west. Friends and family being left behind would sign the blocks as a remembrance for the traveler. These were mostly simple pieced blocks. The more elaborate Baltimore album quilts also emerged at this time. Those quilts were made up of blocks, usually about 25, that were elaborately appliquéd. Often all 25 blocks were unique designs.  

So ends this snippet of quilt history. Now let’s move on to one block quilts.

One Block Quilts

One block quilts are great because once you make one of the blocks and it measures correctly, it’s all smooth sewing from that point on. The cool thing with one block quilts is you can make them pop by playing with the colors used in each block. Here’s my quilt, Star Wheels, that has the same block repeated, but the different color combinations add interest.

The addition of the black fabric element to each block gives a bit of continuity among the blocks and adds a secondary design. Now with this next one block quilt, Scrappy North Stars, I just went a bit wild using 56 assorted fat quarters! 

By alternating light and dark colors in different places on each block, there is the illusion that the blocks are different. You can also see kind of a circle design appear where the blocks meet.

The next examples build on the secondary design I mentioned above. They show how an element in a block can create another design once they are joined, even though all the blocks are the same.

In Star Struck on the left, the stitch and flip corners of the blocks are rotated in opposite directions to create an illusion of geese flying across the quilt. In Mill Country Sky in the center, the blocks have alternating green and tan corners to create the two-tone quarter-square triangle squares when the blocks are joined. Finally, for Open Windows, brown corners on two sides of each block work with the sashing to make an alternating shoo-fly design.

Another way to make one block quilts unique is to play with the background fabric too, like I did with Marbles & Jacks.

For this quilt, I alternated the background of the blocks between a light tan and a black print. I also changed the center star points to the opposite of the background fabric color. Same block… but this adds interest!

A final way I make one block quilts more interesting is to add scrappy borders or even some appliqué. Scrappy North Stars above has a piano key border created from the fabric left over from the blocks. Here are two more examples:

Two completely different one block quilt interpretations, right? On the left, is Paper Chain where I simply made a pieced border from an element of the block itself to give it the illusion that the quilt goes on forever. On the right, Stepping Stones has the blocks turned on point, a border of plain blocks embellished with appliqué and then finished off with plain border strips in alternating colors.

Well, that’s my lesson of the week. I hope you enjoyed our brief journey through quilt history and my one block quilt lesson. Leave a comment or ask a question and I will enter your name into a drawing for my quilt pattern, Marbles & Jacks.

The drawing will be on Monday, March 27th. Good luck!

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

What is That? Quilting Acronyms Explained

When I was a beginning quilter, I would come across abbreviations and acronyms in a pattern, or when reading a magazine, and say “what???” And because I started quilting in pre-Google times, the answer wasn’t always right at my fingertips. Yes, I am aging myself here! So, I thought I would have a bit of fun with week’s post talking about these acronyms. Maybe you’re a beginner right now and would benefit from this discussion. Or perhaps you are an experienced quilter and can share a laugh with me over how I, and maybe you, discovered the meaning of these acronyms.

I’ll finish up with some fun ideas for quilt guild activities if you find that you are in charge of planning for these in your guild. Let’s get started!

Some Common Acronyms

Here are a few of the common acronyms that I think all quilters should know when they begin quilting. These acronyms are used often in patterns you purchase and in magazines.

Acronym #1: One of the first acronyms you should know when you begin quilting is WOF. That acronym stands for width of fabric. It is often referred to when you are cutting pieces for a quilt. Width of fabric is the measurement of the piece of fabric from selvage to selvage.

This is often used when you are instructed to cut strips for a project. If the pattern says to cut 1 1/2 x WOF strips from yardage, they will typically be 40″ to 42″ in length. If you are cutting from a fat quarter, they will typically be 20″ to 21″ in length. Knowing the width of your fabric before you start cutting out pieces will help you to figure how many pieces you can cut from each strip which helps you to calculate how many strips you need. And by knowing the number of strips you need, you will then know how much fabric you need to buy.

Acronym #2: These next ones sometimes go together so that’s why I will cover them together. HST and QST will show up in many patterns that have designs from triangles. HST stands for half-square triangle and QST stands for quarter-square triangle. That would be these:

The HSTs are on the above left and are created by cutting a square in half and the QSTs are on the above right and are created by cutting a square in quarters. You will see that when I join these with HSTs and QSTs of different colors, they make squares that are referred to in patterns like mine as HST squares (bottom left) and QST squares (bottom right).

Acronym #3: RST – Right Sides Together. Now this one is often used when making the above units, but not in a traditional way. To make an HST square or a QST square the alternative way, you start with squares right sides together with lines drawn on the top squares. Here’s diagram example of the steps to make HST squares starting with 2 squares of fabric.

So when you see this sentence in a pattern: “place these two squares RST” now you know what the writer is talking about. They want you to place the two squares right sides together.

So those above are some of the most common acronyms I use in my patterns. Now here’s a few you might find when you are reading a piece in a quilting magazine. If you run across these in your reading, now you know what they mean. Some relate to quilting and sewing in general, and some are just fun.

  • SA – Seam Allowance: Referring to the size of the seam required for the project.
  • QAL – Quilt Along: Usually referring to weekly lessons from a designer for one of their patterns.
  • BOM – Block of the Month: I do one of these! You usually get a pattern for a block each month then have a quilt top at the end of the year.
  • LQS – Local Quilt Shop: If you have one… definitely go there to pick out fabric and get advice!
  • WIP – Work in Progress: We all have a lot of these…!
  • PHd – Projects Half Done: … and these…
  • UFO – Unfinished Object: …. and definitely these! This is one that too familiar with! I have a few too many of these UFOs stacked on a shelf in a cupboard, waiting for inspiration to strike.

What are some acronyms you’ve run across that you find helpful or amusing?

Quilt Guild Activities

Are you on the board of your quilt guild or a program chair and need to think up some fun activities for your quilt guild? Here’s a few ideas for you.

  • Quilt Bingo

Get some Bingo cards. Quilters will “pay” a fat quarter or a certain amount of 2 1/2 x WOF strips (you decide) for bingo cards. Those go into the pot. The winner of the game gets the fabric in the pot! You can actually come up with ideas on “designs” on the card that are needed to win a game. Like checkerboard, four-patch or maybe a heart. Here’s a Bingo card I created for an example of terms to use in your game:

I created this card on a free Bingo card site. Use traditional bingo numbers to draw, just associate the terms you’ve chosen with a number. Obviously your cards would have to be printed with the terms randomly on each card. If you don’t want to create your own cards, simply use traditional Bingo cards.

  • Quilter’s Exchange

You can set this up as an exchange of anything quilt related. Fabrics, quilting tools, patterns and even UFOs. Have quilters bring in any of the above items they don’t want anymore. Display each person’s pile on a table with a cup or a basket in front. Then quilters purchase tickets with numbers, the kind that can be torn in two, for .25 a piece. One piece of the ticket goes to the quilter to put into the basket in front of the pile they want and the other piece goes in a container where numbers will be drawn from. Once everyone has “spent” their tickets, the drawing begins and the winners get some new fabrics, tools or patterns! This serves as a small fundraiser for your guild too.

  • Thimble Toss

A silly, but fun game. Get a few plastic buckets and some thimbles (like these below from Amazon):

Set up two buckets and have two guild members toss thimbles into the buckets within a time period that you choose. At the end of that time, the quilter with the most thimbles in the bucket is the winner! You can have prizes like fat quarters, needle threaders, needles or other inexpensive quilter’s notions. You can even set it up as a bracket like tournament (like NCAA basketball!) and have a grand prize winner at the end who perhaps gets a gift certificate to your local quilt shop.

  • Quilter’s Wheel of Fortune

This can be a team game if you have a large group. Come up with quilting terms or phrases. On a white board or a chalk board, draw out the lines for your term or phrase. Each team has a turn to guess letters. As they are filled in, the person or team can only guess the puzzle after they give you their letter. The team that guesses the puzzle are the winners and score points. The team with the most points at the end are the winners. 

So, that’s all I have for acronyms and games! Share some of your ideas below. It will be fun to see everyone’s ideas. See you next week!

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

When the Quilting is Done

You have pieced the quilt and it’s been quilted, whether by hand or machine, so now what’s next? It’s time to think of the finishes. Binding, labeling, and a hanging sleeve. These are some things that tend to be afterthoughts when making your quilt, but you should include these in planning the project. These are all important parts of the quilt even if that’s not what someone pays attention to when they see it. I’ll cover these things in this week’s post and give you tips on adding them to your quilt. Let’s go!

Labeling

I confess… I’m guilty of skipping this step at times, especially if I am keeping the quilt for myself. But here’s why I think you should always label your quilts. So many quilts I look at in books say “quilt maker unknown”. I wonder who made the quilt? Who was it for? What was the occasion? You do not want that to happen to the quilts you make. They are part of your family history.

I inherited a few family quilts that did not have any labels on them. Luckily, I was able to get some information from a family member, who has since passed, and made labels for them. Now anyone in the family who inherits the quilt from me will know who made these quilts and the approximate date they were made. That’s great information to have.

In the years since I acquired those quilts, I have begun to label my quilts more. The labels can be as simple as your name and the date the quilt was made or it can be a detailed description.

Here’s one of my simple labels:

I used a pen made for fabric to write the quilt information directly on the backing. This is the easiest method. Be sure not to press hard with the pen so the ink bleeds to the front. And be sure you are using a pen that is safe for fabric.

I’ve also made labels that are more involved, like this label for my daughter’s high school graduation quilt using printable fabric:

I included her name, year she graduated and the activities she was involved in. If you don’t want to do that, you can perhaps include words to a poem or write your own tribute to the receiver of the quilt. You can find these fabric labels, that run through your home printer, sold at most quilt shops.

You can also just attach a fabric piece to the back of the quilt and then write on it with the fabric pen instead of using your printer. Here’s a tip to make those labels even more securely attached: sew it into the binding on two of the sides! Here is one I did:

Above left photo shows how the label, pinned in place on the lower corner of the quilt, is secured on the back as you machine stitch the binding on the front. The next photo shows the two sides secured by the binding so now all you have to do is hand stitch the other two sides and you’re done! You can do this with any piece of scrap fabric and make it into a label.

Hanging Sleeves

Adding a hanging sleeve (sometimes called a rod pocket) to the back of a wall hanging or larger quilt is the best way to easily display it. The sleeve also serves to hang the quilt smoothly and helps to avoid stressing any one side of the quilt. Once the sleeve is there, you can use about any item to hang your quilt like curtain rods, wire quilt hangers, and even yardsticks! Here’s some I have hanging:

The hanging sleeve can be partially attached like the label, by sewing one side of it while you attach the binding to the from of the quilt.

All you need to start is to cut a 2 1/2″ strip of fabric about 1 or 2″ shorter than the width of your quilt and hem it 1/4″ on each end. 

Lay the prepared strip, right side up, on the back of the quilt aligning it with the top edge and pin in place (photo on left). Then proceed to pin and stitch the binding to the front. The top of the sleeve will be stitched to the back at the same time (center photo). Finally, turn under the bottom raw edge, pin and hand stitch (photo on right). Easy, right?

Binding

The final finish! By the time quilters get to the binding they usually are just ready to be done and may not put too much thought into it. Actually I confess I sometimes feel that way too. I just want to be finished and get the quilt gifted or start using it. But, here’s a few things to consider: the color, the type, and how much fabric you need.

Color: when considering the color of the binding, consider whether you want it to stand out or to fade into the background. The binding can act as a frame for your quilt if you want it to. Here’s an example of that:

Now for this next quilt, I kept the binding color the same as the quilt top background so your eye is drawn to the appliqué instead.

Type: Now you need to consider the type of binding for your quilt: single-fold or double-fold. Single-fold binding is made up of strips, usually 1 1/2″ wide, and attached to the quilt top in a single layer. Double-fold binding is made up of strips at least 2 1/4″ wide and is pressed in half before it is attached to the quilt top (see photo below). I will use single-fold binding on things like table runners and wall hangings. I use double-fold binding on larger quilts because it tends to be sturdier for a quilt that will be handled more.

Fabric Needs: How do you figure out how much binding you need for a quilt top? Here’s some handy steps:

  1. Figure the perimeter of the quilt by adding up the length of all the sides. For example for a quilt that is 60 x 72″ here is the calculation:   60 + 60 + 72 + 72 = 264
  2. Add 2″ to that measurement to account for the length of the binding used when turning the corners (I figure in 1/2″ per corner): 264 + 2 = 266
  3. Then divide that measurement by the width of fabric to determine how many strips are needed. I use 40″ for my usable width: 266/40 = 6.65.  I always round up, so I need 7 strips for this quilt’s binding.
  4. Multiply the strip amount by the size of the strips needed. If I am making double-fold binding, I use 2 1/4″ strips so: 7 x 2 1/4″ = 15 3/4″. I round up to the nearest common cut of fabric, so I will need 1/2 yard to make the binding for this quilt. If I was only doing single-fold binding, I use 1 1/2″ strips so: 7 x 1 1/2″ = 10 1/2, rounding up, I would use 1/3 yard of fabric here.

Some Final Tips for binding:

Tip #1: Cut away the excess batting and backing from the quilted quilt before attaching the binding. However when you are cutting away the excess, leave a scant 1/8″.

This helps you to achieve a “full” binding. This little bit serves to stuff the binding as you turn it to the back for stitching.

Tip #2: Start pinning on a straight edge at least 6″ from a corner. Pin one side at a time for stitching. Once you get to the corner on the first side you have pinned, measure 1/4″ up from the edge of the quilt top and pin the binding there. This is a step you need to do before you turn the corner with your binding and continue onto the next side.

Tip #3: When stitching this side, start stitching and stop at the pin that marks 1/4″ from the edge. Doing this helps when making the mitered corner as you turn the binding to continue onto the next side. If you are using double-fold binding, don’t start stitching right at the top of the binding. You want to leave a little “pocket” to slip the end of the binding in once you are done. 

Tip #4: Hand stitching the binding to the back is easier with these handy clips. They’re actually the hair clips my daughter used to use when she was in high school. These types of clips are now sold in many quilt shops for this use.

Tip #5: How to get a nice mitered corner when hand stitching the binding is something that seems to elude many quilters. Here’s how I do it.

When I get to the corner, I pin the two sides of the binding as shown in the photo on the left. Then I hand stitch up to that corner catching both folded edges and stitch up the diagonal “seam” created (center photo). I will then feed my needle back down that seam in the fabric and start stitching the next side. As you can see in the last photo, it makes a perfect mitered corner on the front! With practice, your corners will start to look like this!

As a bonus, here’s my binding video tutorial covering how to make double-fold binding and the steps to attach it to the quilt top.

I hope this was a helpful refresher for you experience quilters and a great learning experience for the beginners among us. Share your comments and questions below. I will choose a winner among the commenters to receive a copy of my newest pattern: Star Dash.

The drawing will be on Monday, March 13th. **We have a winner! Congrats, Julie!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Useful Tips for Every Quilter & Stitcher

This week I decided to cover some useful tips that I think are beneficial to every quilter. These are things that I do every day when I am quilting, so I thought I’d share them. You may be familiar with some of these or they may be new to you. Whether it’s a review or new information, I hope you enjoy this week’s installment. Let’s go!

These first few tips are for my appliqué friends.

Tip#1: I like to save time when appliquéing a project by having all my tools close by in a container. I have a magnet affixed to the inside cover and keep a stash of needles threaded with the colors I am using in the project. Once I pick up a needle with a particular color, I will re-thread another with that color so it’s ready to go when I need it.

Other items in my container are my needle threader, threads, a small scissors and a small Roxanne’s glue. This storage box helps to make my appliqué projects portable as well. I like to stay busy stitching in cars, waiting rooms and while sitting watching TV, to name a few places. By having my supplies all together like this, I can just grab this container with my project and I’m all set.

Tip #2: For my wool appliqué friends, a tip I like to share it to layout the complete motif and fuse/glue everything in place before stitching. Like my block below:

By laying everything out, I can get the motif positioned within the area designated and be assured that no part of the design ends up in the seam allowance. If you look at the edges of the block, you can see a line I have drawn that indicates the boundary for my design.

And like for the fabric appliqué, you can have all your wool stitchery supplies in a small container to make these projects portable too.

Tip #3: To store the whole project for travel, including the small box with the stitching supplies, you can make use of those zipper bags that new sheet sets arrive it. If you have read my blog for a while, you know that I like to upcycle and this is a one of those opportunities.

Another alternative to package your project for travel is this handy container called an Art Bin:

Now onto some of my favorite tips for quilters.

Tip #1: I have spoken before about measuring your units and blocks as you go to make sure they measure according to the pattern instructions. This is so your quilt goes together smoothly in the end. Part of achieving that is proper pressing.

Whether you press your seams to one side or press them open, flat seams are important for your stitched units and blocks to measure accurately. I like to press my seams open, I find it gives me more accurate measurements. Either way you choose to press your seams, make sure no fabric is bunched up anywhere and the seam lays flat on both sides of your piece.

The seam on the left was not pressed so it lays flat on the bottom and the top. You can see the red strip is creased a bit over the seam. The photo on the right shows the seam pressed correctly. That red strip is now flat with no fabric creased. Now this block will measure correctly.

Tip #2: This ties into tip #1. To get seams pressed flat, use a wool pressing mat. I purchased one when they came on the market and said “where has this been my whole quilting life!”. Here’s mine:

The heat from your iron penetrates these 100% wool mats. Because of that, it works to press your unit on both sides at the same time! No flipping of your piece is needed.  It also helps to reduce stretching or distorting of seams because of the cushioning provided by the mat. Because of this you can press down harder with your iron when pressing your blocks or units on this mat, as opposed to a regular ironing board, without crushing your piece.

Tip #3: This also helps with piecing accuracy and units measuring correctly. Use a stiletto or other item to keep the units you are stitching together straight as you feed them under the presser foot.

Whether you use a stiletto or not, as you are guiding your fabric through make sure you are not pulling it towards you or holding it too tight because that can cause the top layer of fabric to move slower than the bottom layer is moving across the feed dogs making your seams uneven. 

Pulling or pushing your piece (photo on the right) will also result in seams that don’t measure the exact 1/4″ that you need for your unit or block to measure correctly.

Tip #4: This is a time saving tip… at least for me. I like to get projects done, so I look for time saving tips all the time. The ultimate time saver? Chain piecing! If you have to piece together a lot of the same units for blocks you are making, chain piecing is the way to go… as long as you don’t run out of bobbin thread in the middle of it!

To get your pieces ready for chain stitching, stack them as I show in the photo on the left. You can also stack up block units this way (photo on the right) to chain piece blocks.

Well, that’s it for this week. These tips are in no way all the tips and tricks I use to make my sewing experience more fun and relaxing, but they are ones that I use the most. Let me know in the comments some of your favorite tips.

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Creating Secondary Design

There are several ways to create secondary design in a quilt. You can do it in one block quilts, two block quilts, with sashing and borders and even with the background. Or sometimes with a combination of a few of these. This week, I’ll talk about what secondary design is, how to have fun looking for it and how to actually create it with some of your quilts. So let’s get started!

What is Secondary Design?

First, we need to know what I mean by secondary design before we can move on to the other things I want to talk about. When you look at a quilt and you not only see the actual blocks but you see other designs emerge as you step back, that’s secondary design. Sometimes it’s intentional… and sometimes you just get lucky and two blocks you decide to place next to each other make another design. I like to design these types of quilts because it adds another level of interest. So now I’ll talk about the different ways to achieve this.

One Block Secondary Design

You can create a secondary design with one block quilts. I have done it! The key to doing this is to choose a block that has interesting elements in it with a design has a “movement”. An easy example is this simple block I designed:

It’s a combination of a star with some strips and stitch & flip corners to complete it. Now here is the quilt, Star Struck, that I made with this block:

When I joined the blocks, I turned them so the stitch & flip corners alternated in which direction they pointed in each row. But if you look at the block columns in the quilt, the corners point in the same direction. Those stitch & flip corners create an illusion of flying geese “flying” across the quilt!

Here’s another of my block designs that is simple. A log cabin style block that includes black stitch & flip corners:

Now, when I put four of these blocks together they create a cool “criss cross” design.

Now look at it in the quilt:

Notice the overall criss cross pattern throughout the quilt. But, imagine if you turned all the blocks going in the same direction, you would get a different look! The black “geese” are going in one direction and the color print section of the log cabin blocks move in the other direction. This gives you more movement in this quilt.

Two Block Secondary Design

Next up, another way to achieve secondary design is to combine two blocks to create a design. The simplest of this is a nine patch block and a plain block combined to make the Irish Chain design.

Here’s my quilt, Seaside Cottage, that uses this design:

A bit more complicated is to choose two pieced blocks that, when joined together, will make an interesting design. These next blocks from my Strips & Stars quilt take a little more piecing than the nine patch block above, but still not too difficult:

Now here’s the quilt that they are in. Notice how the blocks combine to make two directional designs.

The nine patch star blocks create a criss cross design and the log cabin blocks create a one-way diagonal frame around alternating sections of the quilt. Your eye keeps moving around the quilt which is the purpose of a secondary design.

Sashing and Borders Secondary Design

You can create a secondary design with sashing and borders. This quilt, Open Windows, is a good example. Here’s a close-up of the blocks:

Between the blocks that are all the same, just in different colors, I did a sashing that included a dark square. This square “plays” with the stitch and flip corners, on 2 sides of each block, to create an alternating monkey wrench design. Here’s the whole quilt:

Also, by turning the blocks in opposite directions in the rows, there’s another design that emerges. It looks like circles!

Here’s another example. In this quilt, Homestead Trail, I did a sashing of nine patches and then built an interesting border design off that into the outer borders of the quilt.

Background Secondary Design

Finally, you can create interesting secondary design with your background. I only have a few of these examples right now, but I want to try more in the future. In these two quilts (below), I made the “plain” block two-tone and, with it on point in the quilt, it creates a subtle stripe effect.

The stripe effect is a little more noticeable in Butterfly Garden on the right than it is in Liberty Star Shine on the left since there is more contrast in the two fabrics I picked for that block.

So, next time you go to a quilt show, instead of just looking at a quilt close up, step back and see if you can pick out a secondary design. It’s a lot of fun to do! I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial on design this week. Leave me a comment or ask a question below and be entered into a drawing for my Butterfly Garden quilt pattern. **We have a winner! Congrats, Judy in MO!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Accuracy in Quilting

Last week I gave some tips on fabric buying and cutting. Continuing on to the next logical step, it’s time to piece the units that will eventually create the blocks and the quilt. We talked about accuracy when cutting out the pieces for your quilt project, but you also need to carry that accuracy over to piecing.  This ensures your units and blocks will measure the size required by the pattern to complete your quilt successfully. That’s the topic for this week. Let’s get started!

1/4″ Seam

Everything starts there. Sewing with a 1/4″ seam is required for most, if not all, quilt patterns. If a pattern requires a different width seam, it will note it. So, if there is no notation on width of seam to use, assume it’s always 1/4″. The reason for this is that when pieces are cut out, they are cut with a 1/4 seam allowance figured in. 

This is why you will see descriptions like this in a pattern: 

Your block will measure 12 1/2 x 12 1/2″. The finished size is 12 x 12″.

The finished size is the size the block will be once it is pieced into a quilt.

My number one tips for achieving a 1/4″ seam is to start with a 1/4″ foot and always sew a practice seam before beginning a projects. Here’s my 1/4″ foot:

And here is one of my practice seams I stitched and measured.

If you do not have a 1/4″ foot, you can use the throat plate on your machine as a guide. The mark is usually fairly small (see my photo below) but you can make it more noticable by adding a strip of painter’s tape to extend it a bit.

I used the tape measure to help me place the tape. Once you complete this step, sew another practice seam to make sure you have an accurate 1/4″ seam.

Scant 1/4″ Seam

You’ve seen this in patterns, but what does that mean and why do you want to use that? A scant 1/4″ seam is when you sew a seam with a width that is just a hair UNDER 1/4″.  I use this seam when I am piecing half-square triangles together … making half-square triangle squares (HSTs) the old fashioned way and when I am piecing strips for strips sets. These are two unit types that can be trimmed down to the size needed after piecing.

The scant 1/4″ works even if you are chain stitching the pre-cut squares for HSTs.  Here’s an example:

In the photo on the left, you can see I placed the drawn line on the square aligned with the right edge of the 1/4″ foot. A scant 1/4″ is shown in the photo on the right. I moved the square a hair to the left so the drawn line was under the right side of the 1/4″ foot. This will give me a seam just a hair under 1/4″. That’s a scant!

And then it’s on to trimming with one of my favorite tools: the Quilt in a Day Triangle Square-up ruler.

Now for using the scant 1/4″ for strip sets. When using a scant 1/4″for piecing these sets, each time you add a strip press and trim up the set before adding the next strip. Below are photos showing the first steps of joining 3 strips into a strip set measuring 3 1/2″ wide when done.  I’m beginning three 1 1/2″ wide strips.

Once again, instead of lining up the edge of my unit to be pieced with the edge of the 1/4″ foot, I move it a hair to the left (as shown in the last photo). Once those strips are stitched, the strip set should measure 2 1/2″ wide. To achieve this I press the set, place the ruler evenly on the strip set to trim it to 2 1/2″. The 1 1/4″ line of the ruler should rest on the center seam to be centered for trimming.

Now I add on the next strip with a scant 1/4″ seam, press and then trim. Lay the 1 1/4″ line of the ruler on the new seam and trim. When finished, the strip set measures the 3 1/2″ width as required.

More Piecing Accuracy Tips

Tip #1: Another piecing accuracy tip to go with the seam size is to ALWAYS pin the pieces you are joining. Even if it’s just a short seam.

I confess that I can be in a hurry and skip pinning, but that’s when you get units that don’t measure accurately when you are done. If the pieces you are joining are not pinned, the top or bottom piece can shift while you are stitching the seam and then the unit will not measure correctly.

Tip #2: Measure units as you go. It’s easier to un-sew smaller units instead of an entire block when you realize it doesn’t measure correctly. For example, if I am making several flying geese units for a block and they need to measure 2 x 3 1/2″ each so the block comes out the correct size, I measure the geese units (like below) as I complete them. That way, when I am ready to piece the block, I know all the units measure accurately. That, along with accurate 1/4″ seams guarantee my blocks will be the right size!

So that’s it for this week! Share your comments and questions below and I will enter you into a drawing for my pattern, String Star Runners.

This pattern will give you a lot of practice on accurate piecing, especially piecing strip sets. The drawing will be on Monday, February 20th. Good luck! **We have a winner! Congrats, Suzy!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Fabric Buying and Cutting Tips

You’ve chosen a pattern and you want to get started creating that beautiful quilt. Now what? It’s time to buy or pick out fabric and then cut it up into the pieces the pattern requires. Even if you are not a beginner at quilting, it doesn’t hurt to get some tips once in awhile. I shared a few fabric cutting tips in January, but I thought I would expand on the tips this week. Let’s start!

Fabric Buying

Tip #1: Know what you are looking for before going to the quilt shop. This seems like an obvious thing, but I know there’s times I have come home from the quilt shop with the same piece of fabric I already own. What I am getting to is … take an inventory. Shop your stash first for fabric that will work for your pattern. Then, take that fabric with you on your shopping trip so you can find fabrics that coordinate.

Tip #2: This ties into tip #1. If you are interested in using other color combinations for your quilt than the sample on the pattern cover, there are two things you can do:

  • Copy or draw a picture of the quilt block that makes up the quilt and use colored pencils to decide on a color way you prefer.

Coloring can be fun and a great stress reliever too!

  • Making test blocks is the second option. Open the scrap bin and make the block in some different color  ways to help make your decision.

By doing this you can audition different color ways, including backgrounds, to get the look you want. When you are done with these blocks and have bought your fabric for the actual quilt blocks, you can make mini quilts or a colorful scrap quilt from the block audition samples.

Here’s what I did with the audition blocks I showed you above:

Tip #3: Buy more fabric than the pattern requires. I automatically figure in extra fabric when writing my patterns but I have advice for you, especially if the pattern and designer are new to you, add a little extra fabric if it makes you feel comfortable. Here are the reasons I recommend that extra fabric:

  • When squaring up the fabric, it’s possible to lose some of the length if the fabric was wound a bit wonky onto the bolt.
  •  If you like to pre-wash your the fabric, there could be shrinkage.
  •  Finally …. cutting errors. We all have them!

Fabric Cutting Tips

Now onto actually cutting the fabric. Here we want to make sure we are careful because fabric is not cheap! Being careful will cut down on those cutting errors that can cause you to run out of fabric.

Tip #1: Read the pattern completely through to find all the cutting instructions for each of the fabrics. Most patterns have all the cutting instructions on the first few pages, but some patterns may have them spread out into different sections of the pattern.

I recommend cutting out the entire project before you begin sewing so you know right away if you have to make a trip back to the quilt shop. If you wait too long, that fabric you need may sell out.

Some quilters don’t like to cut everything out at once because of a storage issue or fear of losing cut pieces. So what do you do with all those pieces especially if you don’t have a dedicated sewing area? I Store a quilt that is cut out and ready to sew in a bin like this:

This bin is large enough to store all the cut pieces and your pattern. Easy to store on a shelf and it also keeps curious pets from digging through your project pieces… I speak from experience on that one! I have found these bins in craft supply stores like JoAnn’s and Michael’s. You can also find them on Amazon.

Tip #2: Cut the largest pieces required from a piece of fabric and work your way down to the smallest. If the pattern instructs you to cut pieces in a wide variety of sizes from a piece of fabric, start by cutting a strip the width of the largest piece and then cut the amount of pieces needed from that strip. Then, if there is any amount of that strip left, cut it down to the next width to cut the next largest pieces and so on.

For example: the above photo is one of my pattern’s cutting lists. Look at the black fabric cutting instructions. From one of the black prints, I would cut a 4 7/8″ strip first and cut the six squares from that. Then if there is any bit of that strip left, I would cut it down to 2 1/2″ wide and start cutting the 24 squares needed. And so on.

Tip #3: Iron your fabric before cutting and squaring it up.

Ironing your fabric will remove all the creases that formed as it was wound on the bolt. The most prominent crease being where the fold is. If you do not iron the fabric, a crease can cause your rotary cutter to skip creating strips or pieces that are distorted.

Squaring up fabric is something I have covered in past posts. If you don’t square your fabrics you can end up with distorted strips like the one below on the left:

Notice how that strip on the left bows away from the line on the cutting mat. If you missed my previous post about squaring up fabric, here’s the link to the video again:

Tip #4: Cutting mat & rotary cutter.

Make sure your cutting mat is on a secure surface so it doesn’t shift around when you are cutting. If your mat shifts, you will definitely make cutting errors! Also, turn your mat to get to another side of the fabric instead of moving the fabric. Moving the fabric will require you to reposition it and maybe even having to re-square it. Extra advice: make sure there is no residue on the mat from previous fabric cutting. Something as small as stray threads can cause your rotary cutter to go off course.

As for your rotary cutter:

  • Make sure the cutter is clean with no lint gathered on it.
  • Make sure your blade is sharp. A dull blade will cause skips and cutting errors and can also cause injuries. Once again, I speak from experience! The blade might look good to the naked eye, but if you feel like you have to press down hard to cut through all the layers of fabric, it’s time to change the blade. Also, if you notice “skips” in the cutting, that’s another sign that your blade is dulling.
  • Bonus tip: use an old rotary blade case to store used ones. Once it’s full, it’s a safe way to dispose of these blades in the garbage so no one gets cut from a loose blade.

Tip #5: When cutting a lot of strips from one piece of fabric, avoid sliding your ruler over the fabric to the next measurement. You may not notice it, but you might shift the fabric so it is no longer square. it’s best to lift the ruler up and then place it down on the fabric for your next measurement. After cutting several strips from a large piece of fabric, you should check and re-square the fabric if needed and then continue cutting strips. Even if you aren’t sliding your ruler to the next cut.

Of course these tips are not all the fabric buying and cutting tips there are. These are just some of the ones I consider the most important. If you have any tips you rely on them, please share them below so we can all benefit from learning something new!

As always, 

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Machine Quilting on Your Home Machine – Part 2

Welcome back… I see I haven’t scared you off. If you are joining me today it looks like you are interested in how to machine quilt on your home machine, maybe you even have a sandwiched quilt top after reading last week’s post. If you missed it, read it here. This week I will share tips on preparing to quilt which includes prepping your sewing area and choosing a quilt design. At the end will be one of my mini video tutorials showing the machine quilting technique for the visual learners like me. I also recommend searching for machine quilting tips from other designers. It never hurts to gather more information than you think you need. They may have tips I haven’t covered that will be helpful in your education on machine quilting.

Prepare To Quilt

Step 1: Before you begin it is a good idea to ready your machine and sewing area for machine quilting. If you can, try to have large area to your left and behind your machine (photo below) especially if your project is a larger quilt. This will help to support the weight of the quilt to the side or behind your machine and cause less stress to your arm and shoulder muscles. Also, if you don’t support it, the weight of the portion of your quilt not being stitched can pull on the area you are stitching and create problems with your stitching and design.

If you don’t have a large table where you can set your machine, you can create this extra space by placing another table behind your sewing table or placing an ironing board there, lowered to the same level as your sewing table. 

Step 2: Change your needle. Odds are, you haven’t changed it as often as you should. It’s best to start with a fresh needle when beginning a quilting project so you are assured there will be no fabric snags, larger holes punched in your fabric or snapping thread. All of these things can happen with a needle that has been used too much. I recommend switching your universal needle out with one that is specifically for quilting.

These needles are sharper than the universal needle allowing it to penetrate through the 3 layers of the quilt sandwich.

Step 3: Choose the quilting foot for your machine. I mostly do free-motion, meandering machine quilting. For that, I recommend an open toe darning foot.

With this foot, you drop your feed dogs and move all the layers of your quilt sandwich with your hands. Dropping the feed dogs insures there is no drag on the bottom layer of the quilt sandwich while you are moving it. 

Now this is where you can look for advice from other machine quilters. They may recommend other feet to use. If I want to do straight line quilting, like a grid or stitch in the ditch, I will use the sewing machine’s walking foot. Here’s mine:

Special “teeth” on the bottom of this foot mimic the feed dogs under your quilt to evenly feeds all three layers of your quilt sandwich as you quilt. This helps also to eliminate puckers or rumples on the backing that you could get with just a standard foot on top.

If you do not have one for your machine, I recommend purchasing one. It will be worth it as you can use it for quilting and also for attaching binding evenly.

**I have just recently begun to work with the walking foot so I am not in a position to instruct you on this type of machine quilting yet.  If you want some instruction for this type of quilting, there are many expert machine quilters you can find by a simple google search or a search on YouTube. 

Now here’s a few extra tips:

Tip #1: For the type of quilting I do – free motion with a darning foot – I recommend these quilting gloves:

These gloves help me grip and hold taunt the three layers of the quilt sandwich so I can move it as one under the needle.

Tip #2: This is a time-saver tip. Wind several bobbins with the thread you are using on the project so you can quickly change out a bobbing that has run out. 

Time to Quilt – My Tips

Tip #1: Prepare your design ahead of time. To decide what quilt design I want to use, I have a trick. I either print a copy of one of the quilt blocks in the quilt top or draw one out on a piece of paper. Once I do that, I will draw out a quilt design pattern that I can follow on each block! Here’s an example of one of my drawings below:

Once I have the design I like on paper, I use an erasable marking pencil to mark the blocks. The arrows on my drawing (I do not mark those on the quilt) show which direction to stitch to make this design in one continuous pass. You can also just do an overall meandering pattern like this:

The overall pattern above is often referred to as “loops and stars”. So whether you choose a custom design within each block or an overall motif, it’s good to decide before you have the quilt under the needle to save frustration. I have picked out machine quilting stitches before… and it’s not fun!

Tip #2: Practice quilting on a scrap sandwich. I still do this when it’s been awhile since I have machine quilted. Take two scrap pieces of fabric and sandwich them with a scrap piece of batting and use it to practice designs and the flow of the movement of the quilt sandwich with your hands. To make sure there are no skipped stitches, uneven stitches or “eye-lashing” of stitches on curves you need to match your stitching speed (speed of your machine) with your hand movement of the quilt sandwich.

Above is one of my recent practice pieces where I was trying out a “paisley” design.

Tip #3: Start quilting your project from the center, working your way out. That way any fabric that shifts will shift towards the edges of the quilt top and can be adjusted as needed instead of bunching up in the center.

Tip#4: Take breaks when quilting. About every 15 minutes of quilting, I stand up, stretch my shoulders and hands. You’d be surprised how tensed up your muscles get when you are quilting. If you take breaks to stretch, you will not fatigue quite so much. It will also help you not to make mistakes.

Quilting Steps

 I will now describe the quilting steps. At the end of this post will be my quilting mini video tutorial showing these steps.

  • The feed dogs on your machine need to be dropped. See your owner’s manual on how to do that if you have not done it before.
  • Next, pull your bobbin thread to the top of the quilt. To do this, put your threaded needle down in the spot where you want to begin and drop your presser foot. Tap your foot peddle so the needle comes back up, pull on the end of the top thread and this will draw the bobbin thread to the top of the quilt. This is so the bobbin thread does not get caught in the stitching on the back and create a mess!
  • Start with a few small “locking stitches”. Since your feed dogs are dropped, they are not moving the quilt sandwich …. you have to. So to make these small stitches, just move the quilt top slightly while stitching. Since you are only moving it slightly, the stitches will be very small.
  • Once you do these beginning stitches, you can now move on to the motif you have chosen. Be sure to move the quilt top at an even pace matching the speed of your machine. That is how you keep the stitches even (unless you are one of those lucky quilters who have a stitch regulator on your machine!).
  • Once you reach the end of your design or are at a place where you need to stop, end with a few small locking stitches again. Snip the threads as close to the quilt top as you can (be careful!). Now you are ready to move on to the next area!

Mini Tutorial Video

So here it is. My quilting mini tutorial on the steps I described above.

Here are some of my recent quilt motifs:

Well, that is all I have on machine quilting a small project on your home machine. Leave a comment or ask a question below and you will be entered into the drawing for a pair of quilting glove shown above.

The drawing will be on Monday, February 6th.**We have a winner… Congrats, Marsha Thornburg!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Machine Quilting on Your Home Machine – Part 1

Hi everyone! I will be on the road for a bit so I thought I would cover a topic I’ve done before: small project quilting on your home machine. For the most part, I hire out quilting on my quilts that are larger than 48 x 48″. My long-arm quilting friends, who quilt large quilts as a business, definitely do a better job on anything larger than that.

So, this week’s and next week’s posts will guide you through machine quilting those smaller projects yourself. I hope to give you the confidence to give it a try and have fun doing it! Read on for my tips. This week, I will cover how to prepare the quilt top for quilting.

Preparing the Quilt for Quilting

Step 1: To start, you need to make what is referred as a quilt “sandwich” by layering your quilt top with batting and backing. For home quilting, my first tip is to cut the backing and batting about 1-2″ larger on all sides than the quilt top (photo below). This guarantees that the whole quilt top will have coverage to the edges. If you cut the backing and batting exactly to the size of your quilt top and it shifts during the basting and/or quilting process, you can end up with an area along the edge of your quilt that does not have batting and backing. Believe me, you don’t want to pick out machine quilting stitches!

**Extra Tips: For your large quilts you are sending to the long-arm quilter, be sure to ask them how much overlap of backing (and batting if you have to provide that) they prefer. 1 -2″ works for a small quilt top on a home machine, but they generally require more. I cut my backing  6″ larger on all 4 sides for a quilt that will go to my long-arm quilter. Also, if you need to seam together fabric for your backing, be sure to iron the seam open and flat to relieve bulk (photo below). This is a backing tip I received from my long-arm quilter.**

Step 2: To prepare your quilt top to be “sandwiched”, make sure all its seams are pressed flat, whether you press them to to the side or open. Flat seams make for a flat, less bulky quilt top for quilting. Also, remove any stray threads from the quilt top. Especially the ones that are in the seams. When you’re piecing a quilt top, threads often get caught in the seams (see circled areas in photo below).

Step 3: Next make sure your backing is pressed and as wrinkle-free as possible. Find a large table and tape the backing, right side down, to the table top to keep it smooth and tight without stretching it out of shape. Start on one side and make your way to the other side while smoothing out the backing as you go. If you are lucky enough to have a large, hard floor space to do this, that works too.

Once the backing is secured, lay the batting on top, smoothing it out. Be careful not to wrinkle the backing below.

Step 4: Center the quilt top on top of the batting. Smooth carefully so wrinkles are not created in the batting and the quilt top is not stretched out of shape. Use a ruler to make sure you did not stretch it out of shape. To do this, place the ruler on the corners as shown below. If the quilt top has not been distorted, you’ll have a nice 90 degree corner that matches the ruler.

Step 5: The final step in preparing the quilt for quilting is to baste it together to hold everything in place. You can either do that with thread or with safety pins.

  • Thread Basting Method: You can use white thread and a long running basting stitch in a grid pattern. Space the stitching 4 to 6″ apart. Start in the center of the quilt sandwich and work your way out. Since the stitches are long and widely spaced, you can clip and remove the basting from each section you are quilting as you go.
  • Pin Basting Method: This is the method I use. I pin 3 to 4″ apart, starting in the center of the quilt top and working out to make sure the quilt top remains smooth and flat. I also like to stagger the pinned rows and I use curved safety pins made specifically for quilt basting.

So that is how you prepare your quilt for machine quilting at home. Now you are ready to head to the machine and quilt it! Next week, I will share tips on the quilting process and my mini video tutorial that demonstrates it. My main goal with this post and next week’s installment is to make machine quilting on your home machine a bit less intimidating.

Share your questions and tips below in the comments. If you are a home machine quilter, do you have some advice to share? I am going to do a drawing among the commenters for a pair of machine quilting gloves that I like to use.

The drawing will be from comments from this week’s and next week’s posts so it will take place on Monday, February 6th. **We have a winner… Congrats, Marsha Thornburg!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Ditch Bad Habits and Adopt Good Practices!

Since we’re only a few weeks into the new year when everyone is already breaking their New Year’s resolutions (LOL), I thought this would be a good time to talk about some quilting bad habits. We don’t realize it, but sometimes we drift into repeatedly doing something as we are quilting that we actually shouldn’t do. I’ll talk about some things I used to do and what I do now for a “good practice”. As the saying goes “practice makes perfect”. If you work on ditching the bad habits and replacing them with good practices… eventually that bad habit will be gone for good…. we hope!

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of all the bad habits we quilters acquired. I’d like you to share in the comments something you feel is a bad quilting habit of yours and how you’ve broken away from that (if you have!). Here we go!

Sewing Machine Habits

Many of us quilters spend a lot of money on a good sewing machine. That’s why it’s a good idea to break all bad habits when it comes to your machine. I’ve done posts in the past about machine maintenance and I’ll repeat it here. Clean and oil your machine, especially after each sewing project.

I even use the little brush to clean above the presser foot. Lint collects up there too. If you get into the habit of doing this after every project, your machine will keep humming along. Also, please bring your machine to the shop for a check-up every year. I consider this a “well check” just like when I go to the doctor for a physical. This will help to catch a minor problem with your machine before it turns into something major. When I just started quilting and had an older, less expensive machine, I didn’t follow this advice but I should have. A machine of any price & quality will last longer with good maintenance.

When you are unthreading your machine, never pull it out from the top of your machine. This is something I did not know could cause a problem until it did for me. Pulling your thread out from the top of your machine can cause problems with the tension disks that are located where my finger is pointing on my machine.

The proper way to unthread your machine is to snip the thread at the top of your machine near the spool and then pull the thread out from the needle area:

Two final tips:

  1. My favorite advice to give is for you to pin all your seams for accurate piecing… that’s a must. But, avoid sewing over pins! I know there are really thin pins that people say you can sew over, but, take it from me, doing this can throw off the timing on your machine. Then you will have the take your machine in for a costly repair. This did happen to me.
  2. ALWAYS remove your foot from your foot pedal when your hands are anywhere near your machine needle. Even if you are quickly readjusting something you are stitching. Foot pedals are very sensitive and if you accidentally touch it when your fingers are by the needle, you can send a needle through your finger and end up with a costly ER visit putting an end to your sewing day.

Fabric & Cutting, etc.

Measure twice, cut once is not only a saying used in construction. It’s important in cutting your fabrics for a quilt project. We all know how expensive fabric is, so making it a habit to measure carefully will end up saving you money.

A tip to help with accurate measuring is to use some painter’s tape to mark the ruler line you are currently using. This has saved me a lot of time when cutting many strips of the same width because I am not searching for the line on the ruler before each cut.

Next tip: before cutting pieces for a project make it a habit to press your fabric well to remove creases and be sure to square it up properly. This will also insure accurate cutting, especially of strips. Here’s my mini video on squaring up. 

When I first began quilting, I wasn’t taught to square my fabric and I ended up with a lot of curved strips. Now it’s a habit that I perform, without even thinking sometimes, with every new piece of fabric I pull from my stash.

Speaking of cutting… make it a habit to never leave your rotary cutter open and laying on your cutting table. It’s easy to knock it off and hit a part of your body or you can accidentally grab the blade portion of the cutter if you’re not looking as you reach for it. The cutter has a lock on it for a reason (photo below)! I made it a habit to close and lock my cutter every time I put it down, even as I move my ruler to cut another strip.

Use other safety items and practices when using the rotary cutter. I speak from experience here! I cut off a tip of my index finger several years ago when my cutter skipped across my ruler. Here’s some additional safety practices to make habits:

  • Hold the cutter and ruler correctly while cutting. This will help in avoiding the cutter slipping and hitting your hand. It also helps with cutting accuracy … so bonus!

On the left, by tenting my hand instead of laying flat on the ruler keeps it from shifting. On the right, holding the cutter flat against the ruler instead of tilted out keeps your cut accurate.

And make it a habit to change your blade! If you notice that you have to press down harder to make a cut go through all the fabric thickness or it skips and cuts some areas but not others, that means you blade is dull. A dull blade can also lead to cutting errors and even accidents.

Final Good Habit to Develop

Always clean up your cutting and sewing areas after finishing a project. This is something I am still working on. As you can see …

These are scraps from two projects. I should get these sorted and stored. If you start with a clean cutting area, you will be focused only on the current project, instead of obsessing over the pile of scraps. Also, you need the space to cut! Another bonus to cleaning your space and organizing your fabrics, you won’t buy fabric you already own… unless you want to.

So that’s it for this week. Share with me some of your bad habits or good quilting practices in the comments below. We may all learn something new.

Happy Quilting!
Deanne