Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Quilting 101: Great Hints

Many of us are self taught quilters, or at least we started out that way.  I had my share of mistakes along the way, that's when I decided I wanted to get rid of bad habits and take lessons to improve my quilting.
That was  8 years ago and many many quilts and classes.  I thought a great way to ring in the New Year would be to share important, often overlooked tips with you.

Our First installment, covers your fabric.  I seldom wash my fabric unless it is color fast, in which case I make sure I wash all the fabric... like colors together.Many people like to snip a triangle off the corners of fabric to prevent raveling.  I like to serge my raw edge, before I had a serger I would zig zag it.  It certainly makes it slick to remove from the washer and press, you will want to use some sort of sizing when pressing.  It makes your fabric crisp and easy to work with.  If you don't prepare your fabric in some way, you will likely be trying to detangle the threads from your fabric.

If you are using the fabric for backing, be sure to rip and not cut the fabric, it is the best way to square your backing.  Keep your backing in one piece if you only need one seam.  Make a snip and then rip only one of the salvages off.   Snip and rip both ends off of fabric so it rips all the way across width of fabric on both ends.  Now you should have 3 sides ripped.  Take both ends and butt them up to each other right sides together making sure that fabric is not twisted.  sew down salvage side of fabric to create seam.  Stop about 6 inches short of fabric fold.  Snip on fold and then rip across width of fabric.  Continue to sew down  the seam.  You will now have a backing that is perfectly square.  Rip off remaining salvages.
This is the best way to get a square backing if you only need to piece one seam.
Let me know if you like this technique.... remember to set seam and then press it open.

Have a great Day!

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