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My Favorite Time Saving Quilting Tips

I have done several posts over the years with time saving tips for quilters, for beginners and experienced. Looking through some of these older posts, I decided to compile here my favorites  that I still use in all the years I have been quilting.

I have arranged my favorites from before you start a project through piecing it. Feel free to share your favorite time savers in the comments below. Let’s get started!

Before You Begin

Tip #1 – Set up a comfortable sewing area. If you like to stitch pieces and press all in one area, you can set up your sewing area to do that in comfort. Here’s a few photos from my area:

 I have my ironing station set up so I can press everything from small joined pieces to entire blocks. Once I get to joining blocks into rows and into a quilt top, I will go to  my large ironing board for more room.

Tip #2 – Keep your tools close. I have a small container that I attached to my sewing table with Command strips to hold my small scissors, pressing stick and small ruler. I also have a magnetic dish I purchased from a auto parts store to corral  my pins.

Tip #3 – This is one of the most  important tips. Make sure your machine is sewing with an accurate 1/4″ seam. Even though I have a 1/4″ foot, I like to test my machine every once in awhile since even using a thread with a different thickness can effect seam allowance.

If you are just starting out, here’s a quick tutorial for this. To check you seam allowance before beginning a project, sew two scrap pieces of fabric together and then measure the seam.

If you  have a 1/4″ foot, practice these seams by lining up your fabric pieces with the right edge of the foot. If your seam is not accurate, you can move a smidge to the left or right. Do this until you know exactly where to position the pieces you are stitching.

If you don’t have a 1/4″ foot, most machines for quilting will have a 1/4″ mark on the throatplate. You can use that as your guide as you test the scrap seams you are sewing.

Once You’ve Picked Your Project

You’ve picked out the quilt you want to make. Here’s some of my tips for this stage.

Tip #1 – Shopping for fabric. When you are buying fabric, I recommend adding at least 1/8 yard to what is stated in the pattern, especially if you are a pre-washer. I already add extra in my fabric requirements on my patterns but not every designer does. This also saves you if you make a cutting error or if you lose some fabric in squaring it up. That extra 1/8 yard can be cut into strips and stashed if you end up not needing it for the current project. 

Tip #2 – Read the entire pattern and make test blocks using scrap fabric. Before cutting into the fabric you just bought, dig through your scrap stash for fabrics of the same colors and make a block. This will familiarize you with the instructions and if you are confused or make a mistake, you’re doing it on scrap fabric and not your new fabric.

You can also do test blocks in various colors before you shop for fabric to help you decide what to buy. Here’s a test block I made in different colors to help me choose what fabrics I like for the project:

Tip #3 – Cut the entire project out at once. This is a good tip because you will know immediately if you are short on fabric. Popular fabrics sell out fast. If you cut later and find out you don’t have enough fabric, you run the risk of not finding anymore at the quilt shop.

Even if you are not ready to piece the project, go ahead and cut it out. You can store it in a bin with the pattern. I use bins like these, shallow and stackable:

Another benefit of this is that if you have a quilt retreat coming up, you can grab a bin and go. No wasted time at the retreat cutting fabric!

Tip #4 – When cutting out the project, label and organize the pieces. I use making tape or painter’s tape. I have never experienced any residue left on the fabric.

The above pieces are organized and stacked by which blocks they will make. This way I can quickly grab the pieces I need as I progress through the instructions.

Time to Stitch

Tip #1 – I recommend you pin everything you are piecing. Even small pieces. There can be even small shifts among the two pieces you are joining that will cause your seam to be off. Pinning also aids in aligning seams of units your are joining together:

The squares I did not pin are on the left in the last photo. It’s only a little off, but if all your pieces are like that you’ll have more difficulty piecing the block accurately. For aligning seams, line those up first and pin, then pin the ends (photos below).

Tip #2 – Chain piecing is a definite time saver, even with the pinning! I like to chain piece small units and also chain piece blocks. Here are both laid out:

This saves time, even with pinning, since you don’t stop and clip threads after every piece or section of a block you’ve stitched.

Tip #3 – Measure units as you go. Once you finish piecing block units, I recommend measuring units to make sure they are the size they’re supposed to be. This will save you time and frustration when you go to piece them into a block.

Tip #4 – Always backstitch at the beginning and at the end of a seam. It takes just a second to do this, but it makes a big difference. All you need is a few back stitches for security. This can also be done while chain stitching without losing time.

The seam on the left was not backstitched, the seam on the right was. You can see the one on the left is easy for me to pull apart with just my fingers. This is a great time saver that will keep your blocks from coming apart.

Tip #5 – Finally, if you have to rip a seam out, here’s my quick way to do it. With a small scissors or seam ripper, I cut through a few stitches as shown (below, left) and then I gently pull the stitched pieces apart while continuing to clip. I’ve found this to work the best for me.

So that’s it for my favorite time saving tips. Share some of yours with me and I will enter you into a drawing for my newest pattern, Town Square:

The drawing will be on Monday, May 11th. ***We have a winner! Congrats, Holly Yingling!***

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Some of My Favorite Quilting Tips

Hi everyone! I hope you’re relaxing on your Labor Day weekend. Since I’m relaxing too, I am doing a simple post this week reviewing some of my favorite tips I’ve shared with you throughout my blogging history. Over the last several years I have done many “favorite tips” posts, so with this one, I’m pulling tips from some of those posts and compiling them here. Enjoy!

Preparing to Quilt – Tips for beginners and experience quilters alike for quilting prep.

Tip #1 – Something I think is one of the most important is to keep your quilting equipment and tools in top shape. The main one is keeping your sewing machine clean so you’re ready to sew.

That collection of lint under the throat plate is actually not a part of the machine! I recommend a yearly tune-up at the shop where you purchased your machine. Between visits, make sure you are cleaning the bobbin compartment, hook race and bobbin case as well as the area under the throat plate. Be sure to drop the feed dogs before lifting off the throat plate. 

Tip#2 – Accurate seams are very important in quilting. Without those, your units, blocks and quilts will not piece together easily or accurately. Use painter’s tape to mark the 1/4″ line on your sewing machine. Even if you have a 1/4″ quilting foot, the tape line gives you additional guidance for your 1/4″ seam. Here’s how I mark my 1/4″seam line on my machine:

The extended line onto the tape helps me line up larger pieces with the marks on my machine’s throatplate.

Also make sure your needle is fresh, especially if you have sewed with it for awhile, and the thread you are using is the right one for the project you are working on.

Fabric Cutting – Now that your machine is ready, let’s move on to tips for fabric.

Tip #1 – Whether you have a dedicated sewing room or you sew on the dining room table, make sure your cutting area is clear of items that can get in your way while you are cutting our your pieces. Also have your rulers close at hand.

Believe me, my cutting surface isn’t always this clean, but it’s a good idea to clean it off after every cutting session so you have a large clear space every time you start a new project. I also have a bulletin board right by my cutting surface to pin up my pattern for easy viewing. 

Tip #2 – The pattern – Always read through the instructions to make sure you understand the steps and to find all the cutting instructions. Most patterns have all the cutting instructions up front before any assembly instructions, but some do not. It’s good to be familiar with the pattern!

Tip #3 – Cutting – Whether you pre-wash or not, always press your fabrics prior to cutting to remove creases, especially the ones created when the fabric is rolled onto the bolt. Then, cut the largest width pieces from the fabric and work your way down.

As you can see above, I list the pieces for cutting from the black fabric starting with the widest width. Once those pieces are cut, you can cut the leftover strip down to the next width needed and continue cutting.

Tip #4 – Organization – The most important for me is this. When I cut out a new pattern, I like to cut the whole thing out. To keep things organized, I label the stacks of pieces with the letters indicated in the pattern. I also stack up the pieces based on which blocks they are for. I think keep them organized in a shallow tub with the pattern so I can pick up where I left off when I have returned to my machine. 

Time to Sew

Tip #1 – Don’t Skip Pinning. If you want seams to align, blocks to measure correctly and crisp points, etc. I recommend you never skip pinning the pieces you are getting ready to stitch. The pins keep the two pieces you are joining from shifting as they are fed through the machine. 

Here’s how to pin units where you want seams to align (photos below): The first thing you want to do is align and pin the seams for the units you are joining and then pin the ends of the units. Yes it takes a minute, but if you stitch without pins you will have unaligned seams that ruin the look of your block. Then you will have to rip out stitches and start over, wasting precious quilting time.

Notice in the last photo that my seams line up nicely!

Tip #2 – Backstitching – When you sew a seam, always backstitch at the beginning and then at the end to lock in the stitches. The photos below show two different units I sewed. One without backstitching and one with.

The one on the left above was not backstitched and it shows. I can easily pull the seam apart with  my fingers, unlike the one on the right.

Tip #3 – Use a leader/ender scrap. I like this because it serves two purposes. It acts as a thread saver and it also is a buffer for machine mishaps.

Any puckering, skipped stitches or snags will happen on the leader/ender scrap instead of on your nice fabric.

Tip #4 – Measure units as you go. I consider this one of the best practices along with using an accurate 1/4″ seam. Measure the units you stitch together as you go. Most blocks are made up of several pieced units that will be pieced together to make a block. In order for your block to measure correctly, all those units need to measure correctly first.

That’s why I keep a small ruler and a pressing stick by my machine (or sometimes a small iron and wool mat). I can quickly press seams and measure a units as I go.

Tip #5 – Keeping block rows organized. Have you ever laid out rows of quilt blocks and then as you transferred them to your machine to sew, you mess up the order? Been there, done that! After all the careful positioning, the last thing you want is to sew a block in the wrong place in a row.

I took some pins and made numbered labels for them with pieces of washi tape (you can also use the painter’s tape). I use these pins to label blocks and rows that I am piecing together so I do not lose track of which block goes where in which row.

So that’s it for some of my favorite tips. Of course there are many, many more I have shared over the years, but these are some of what I think are the best. Let me know what you think. Do you have some tips to share?

Happy Quilting!
Deanne