Sewing Tip Monday

Use a large seashell you've kept from a visit to the beach as a pin catch next to your sewing machine.

 This shape is perfect for pouring pins back into their container after collecting them during the quilting process.

I've also decorated pincushions with shells, and tossed them into my hydrangea bed to alkalize the soil. Since a beach is our family's favorite vacation destination, I never have a shortage of these souvenirs.




Happy Sewing ♥

Sewing Tip Monday - Quilting to Batting

Sometimes I don't want the quilting to show on the inside of a project, such as in a lined bag like the one below.

Also, I really like the crumpled look of quilting on natural cotton batting after it has been washed, but may not want the binding or (in this case) the header to have the pre-washed look.

In either of these cases, I quilt just the top layer to the batting (I use warm and natural 100% cotton batting almost exclusively).  Then I serge around the edge of the quilted item, wash cold, and tumble dry on low heat.  This "weathers" the quilted surface nicely, and the batting holds up just fine.  I don't recommend using this technique on batting without scrim.  Any loose batting would fall apart in the washing/drying process.

From here, I just treat the pre-washed piece like the rest of the fabrics in the project, adding the lining or binding, etc.  I've used this technique with placemats, Christmas stockings, bags, and wall hangings.

If you have a sewing tip that you would like to share, please link up your blog or website post below.  I would love to see them.

Happy Sewing♥

Sewing Tip Monday - Quick Frogging

Okay, I will start with a disclaimer - this is NOT the safest way to rip out a seam, so don't try it if you are accident prone.  I was taught this by a tailor, who I worked with for a short time.  Instead of using a slow (and annoying) seam ripper like this:

Use a craft knife (I admit to sometimes using my rotary cutter too - gasp!) to take out seams.  The trick is to keep your fingers out of the way!

Use a regular seam ripper to cut the first couple of threads.  Then use the razor knife to cut through the rest.  If your knife is sharp, you should barely have to touch the threads before they separate.

Don't use this technique on delicate fabrics, or if you absolutely can't afford to have the fabric damaged. Enough disclaimers yet?

The UP side is that this is a very fast way to take out seams.  And in the years I've done it this way, I haven't gotten hurt, or damaged (much) fabric.

If you have a sewing tip that you would like to share, please link up your blog or website post below.  I would love to see them.

Happy Sewing (ribbet)♥

Sewing Tip Monday - Precut Diagonal Binding Join

A very simple tip this week - precut your angle for perfect joins in your binding. I thought of this while cutting my binding for the final join (see binding your quilt tutorial, last few steps) and realized that a similar technique would work well for doing the rest of the binding.

Here's what I mean (read from left to right):

I don't know about you, but sometimes my two pieces don't line up exactly when I just try and sew a straight line across the angle.  By precutting, I can just run the edge along my 1/4" foot and the join comes out perfectly every time.

If you have a sewing tip that you would like to share, please link up your blog or website post below.  I would love to see them.

Sewing Tip Monday - Anchor Project

You are probably familiar with the idea of using an anchor cloth.

In this technique, you start sewing onto a small piece of scrap fabric, butt your sewing project up to the anchor cloth and sew onto it, and then end your stitching line by sewing off onto the anchor cloth as well.

This keeps your stitch from bunching up at the beginning of your line of stitching, saves thread, and eliminates the need to clip multiple thread tails on your project.

I like to take this tool one step further and use an anchor "project" rather than a disposable piece of fabric.

Here is what I mean....

Doll Quilt

Pincushion, Recycled Envelopes, Quilt Blocks

Here are a few items I've made as "anchor" projects.  A doll quilt with tumbler blocks, a batik strip pincushion, some tag envelopes, and blocks for a Storm at Sea quilt in progress.

Each of these items started as small units that I stacked next to my sewing machine within reach for starting and ending whatever stitching I was currently working on.  Before long, I had an extra project finished.  I call that a "Two-fer"!

I'm sure you can think of other projects you could do using this technique.

Those of us who have been sewing for awhile are sure to have a bunch of scraps we would love to put to good use - maybe in a Chinese Coin quilt?  Hmmmm.......

If you have a sewing tip that you would like to share, please leave a link to your blog or website post below.  I would love to see them.

Happy Sewing ♥

Sewing Tip Monday - When Edges Don't Match

Sometimes when joining pieced edges, the top and bottom layer are uneven - one side is longer than the other.  When this happens, always sew with the longer layer on top.  Line up the edges as they should be, finger pin, and sew a couple of stitches to anchor.  Then finger pin the next intersection as it should line up, and ease the top (longer) layer by slightly stretching the fabric as you stitch until the bottom and top are even.  Do the same thing for each intersection, and at the end of the row of stitching.  I've illustrated the process below.

Pressing is an important step.  As you can see in the first photo below, there is still some fullness on the top layer.  Press seam flat, and then press open.  The second photo shows the resulting matching intersection, and flat seam.

If you have a sewing tip that you would like to share, please link up your blog or website post below.  I would love to see them.

Happy Sewing ♥

Sewing Tip Monday - Design Space

I've wanted a design wall for awhile.  Up until now, I've had to use the guest bed to spread out  quilts in progress.  The walls in my sewing room are covered with paintings, bulletin boards, cross stitch, Hawaiian quilt blocks etc.  You can see in this picture that my clock is actually hung on top of this year's calendar.

However, the back of the door was free.  So I taped up a piece of batting, and a design wall was born.  It is a bit narrow, but perfect for my block of the month project.  

Six blocks of the month

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Make use of what you have. 

Where there's a will, there's a way.  

And so on....

If you have a sewing tip that you would like to share, please link your blog or website post below.  I would love to see them.

Happy Sewing ♥

Sewing Tip

Did you know that a grapefruit spoon makes a great tool for quilters?  I keep this one in my sewing basket for lifting and closing safety pins when I pin baste my quilts.  The many ridges catch the pin wherever it comes out.  It saves my nails and makes the job go more quickly.

Do you have a good sewing tip to share?

Leave a comment, or a link back to a blog post if you like.  I would love to hear them.  

Happy Sewing ♥