With a year of quilting comes a new set of quilting tips learned. The next stage of technique for this girl. So here's round 2 of Blue Bird's Quilting Tips, enjoy!
- When transferring quilting patterns to the top of a quilt sandwich a sharp crease in the fabric works just as well as a 'disappearing' marker and doesn't require another step to get rid of the lines. I used a hera marker for the lone star dahlia and it worked great.
- Take inspiration from the designers and make it your own. Recently I've been embracing the Material Obsession look and adding other background fabrics besides white; loving it.
- Chain piece when ever you can to save time in your piecing. I chain piecing everything!
- When cutting out the multitude of half-square triangles you need to make your favorite designs trim them like this to ensure a proper cut: Line up the rulers 45 degree angle with the diagonal seam, trim the corners on each side. Doing it this way instead of lining up the rulers 90 degree angle sides with the sides of the block ensures corners match and seams line up.
- Clean and service your machine regularly.
- Change your needle. Like right now - especially if you can't remember the last time you did ;o)
- Try something that scares you. Sew a Y-seam, free-motion quilt a top, paper piece a NY beauty, cut out strips for a string quilt. These techniques are not as hard as you imagine and it will only build confidence in your abilities!
- Take a class, even if you think you know all about it chances are someone does it different and can teach you a few things!
This year is half over already and the goals for the next six months is to use these tips combined with the basics to catapult my work into another level. But first I gotta finish up some languishing WIP. A stack of custom work, new plans, quilting tops and HST's are in my future!
What has your quilting experience taught you? Share your best tip with us!
Cheers!
Kelly