I’ve shared many time saving tips over the years of my blogging. This holiday weekend, I decided to gather together my favorites in one place. I think these tips are great for both beginners and experienced quilters alike. I hope you get some good ideas from my tips. Also, I’d like you to share some of your tips with me in the comments. We learn something new everyday!
Tip #1 – This is my favorite time saver and also a thread saver. Use a scrap of fabric for what I call a leader/ender.
This is actually a good use of some of those scraps you accumulate from trimming units like flying geese. Start your stitching with this leader/ender scrap first, then stitch how ever many units you have in your stack and then end with this leader/ender scrap.
Along with chain piecing, this is a good thread conservation tip. You’re not pulling a lot of thread when clipping off a stitched piece one by one. It also helps to limit damage to the unit you are stitching because if there’s a snafu, it will happen on the leader/ender. You won’t have to stop your sewing to cut more pieces to replace the damaged ones.
Tip #2 – Pinning your pieces prior to stitching doesn’t seem like a time saver, but it actually is. Skipping this step could cause you to have to rip out stitched units and start over if the raw edges of the pieces or seams aren’t lined up.
Pinning keeps pieces you are stitching together from shifting while stitching. When joining the above HSTs, I want the seams to line up so they create the perfect point. If I didn’t pin the unit once I had everything lined up and just sent it through the machine unpinned, those pieces could shift causing the seams to no longer be aligned.
Tip #3 – So, if you don’t carefully follow tip #2, you may need to rip out seams. Here’s my favorite way to do it since I can be a klutz with the seam ripper. I carefully cut a stitch every 4 or 5 stitches in the middle of the seam and then gently pull apart the pieces. Be extra careful when pulling them apart so you do not stretch the pieces out of shape, especially those units with bias seams. The seam comes apart fairly easy and then all you have to do is finish cutting the threads on each end of the unit.
If you don’t like using a seam ripper, you can use a small, delicate scissors like these to accomplish the task.
The smaller and thinner the better to avoid ripping your fabric.
Tip #4 – This is another of my all time tips that is a great time saver. Measure units as you go when you are piecing units for a block.
If you measure units before piecing them into the blocks, you can be assured that your finished block will measure correctly. To be able to measure by my machine, I like to keep a wood pressing stick and small rulers close by.
Once I press the unit’s seam open with the stick, I can measure it to make sure it measures the size the pattern requires. If I were to get all my units done without measuring for accuracy, the block may be harder to piece if any one or several of the block units aren’t the right size. Then it’s back up to tip #3 for some more seam ripping!
Tip #5 – I like to cut out all my pieces for a whole project before piecing. To keep them organized when it’s time to stitch them into a block, I created these mini design squares.
I have about 20 of them that I have made up so I can set up the pieces for each block, stack them and then go to my machine for a marathon of stitching!
I made this by cutting out squares of card board about 13 x 13″ and then covered them with scrap wool or cotton batting. Here’s what it looks like when you have block pieces laid out:
If you don’t have the cardboard or the time to make these, try a stack of large paper plates.
Tip #6 – If I don’t want to piece blocks individually like in tip #5, I can chain piece them. Chain piecing isn’t just for small pieces while you are making block units. You can chain piece blocks the same way. This comes in handy if you are making several of the same block for a quilt.
Bonus tip …. make sure you have several bobbins wound with the thread you are using so you don’t have to stop and wind while chain piecing! But don’t forget to brush lint out of your machine and oil if needed before popping in the new bobbin.
So, that’s it for this week. I hope you found some time saving tips you like. Feel free to share in the comments some of your favorite tips. You will be entered into a drawing for this fun summer pattern, Old Glory Garden:
The drawing will be on Monday, July 15th. Good luck! ***We have a winner! Congrats, Cyndy F.!***
Happy Quilting!
Deanne
Design boards: I’m going to make more so to have enough for several blocks. Thanks for the suggestion. I use foam board & covered with batting.
Great tips! I use leaders/enders to work on a second small quilt at the same time. And I love my little design boards for laying out and carrying pieces to my machine.
I didn’t think of making design boards for each block. A great tip to avoid confusion.
Love the mini planning board!
Thanks!
The planning boards are great!
I’m a pinner too. My piecing is much better when I take time to pin. With arthritis in my fingers I find it hard to remove pins as I’m sewing so I now use an offset tweezers to grip and remove the pins.
Good idea with the tweezers for extra grip!
I’ve gone back to pinning everything also….
I often cut scraps into the same sized pieces and keep them in a basket next to my machine and use these as my leaders and enders. i.e. pieces 2” x 5” sewn together could be used to make a piano key border. Squares could be used in many ways.
Great idea!
I use a small advertising magnet, with magnet side up, beside my machine to catch the pins as I sew. When done they go back to the big magnet. Makes it faster and easier to have it close.
I do that too. Great idea!
I also square up as I go. The blocks line up much better and the quilt top isn’t so wacky when it’s done.
Good advice!
When a piece in a pattern calls for me to cut
7/8” such as two pieces for a hst unit I round the measurement up to a full inch and after sewing and pressing the units I measure them to the correct size and trim if necessary. This has saved many hours of ripping and resewing.
I like that tip. It really doesn’t waste much fabric at all to round up to the even inch.
All very good hints. thanks so much
Great tips. Love the design boards… super way to layout each block. Also like the tip about brushing out the bobbin case with each newly wound bobbin. Your tips are always spot on! Thank you!
I press the units and measure them while standing up. Makes me move more.
Dianne
Great idea. I do like to stand up and walk around a lot while I am sewing too.
Our quilt show has a scrap dive and someone donated 3 bags of cut-off corners. I have been using them for years as leader-enders. Some day I’ll have a quilt of scrappy HSTs.
As usual lots of great ideas. Thanks.
That sounds like a fun guild activity!
I love the design boards will be doing this!
Thanks for all your great tips! Definitely will use the last two tips. Have left over formcore boards that I can use for the design boards.
That will work great for mini design boards!
Thank you for explaining leaders and enders. I hadn’t given much thought or understood why people would use them. I will definitely give them a try.
I love the idea of the boards. Sounds like the perfect way to use up some batting scraps, and it seems there are always cardboard boxes around here.
Definitely a great use of batting scraps!
I have some larger flat pieces of styrofoam and cardboard that came as packing material that I use a design boards. They are great when laying out multiple blocks at at a time and I am chain piecing between the two blocks.
A lot of my smaller scraps I have precut, then for leaders/enders I grab two and sew, then I throw them in a drawer and eventually press and make into blocks.