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