Do you CLIP or Do You PIN??

Like most quilters, I LOVE my pin cushion…..

….and when I need to hold something together, I pin it.

But lately I have seen more and more quilter’s moving to these clips…..

Yes, I use those to hold my binding in place …

but I haven’t tried at times when I would normally pin.

So I decided to test it!!

As I was attaching a border to my quilt, I clipped one side and I pinned the other…..

….and I took them to the machine.

First of all, one of the clips got hooked on something and pulled off so I had to re-clip it. NOT a good start!!

As I sewed, I felt that the clips got in my way….

…where the pins were less obtrusive……

And….confession time…. I often sew over my pins so there is no reason to stop on the longer stretches.

I also found that the pin in the corners held much better than the clips did, especially if I had to tug at all to get the border lined up.

In conclusion…..give me pins any day!!

Now I get to learn from you….. what has been your experience?

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How NOT to Baste A Quilt

We always love it when someone messes something up, mainly because it makes us feel better about all of the times that WE have messed something up.

But, in this case, I had it all on film so today you not only hear about my mess-up but you can see it as well.

Let’s go……

How NOT to Baste A Quilt!!

If you are reading on email, you can use this link to go directly to the video….. https://youtu.be/LTVLmEogvb4

The thing that I love is that, even with the issues, the entire basting process took less than 30 minutes!!

As I said in the video, I am ready to start quilting, but first have to decide exactly WHAT I am going to quilt.

Come back tomorrow and we will tackle THAT problem!!

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Achieving the PERFECT seam allowance

Today, I want to talk about the PERFECT SEAM ALLOWANCE…..and yes, it is attainable!!!

I love my “painters tape” method for maintaining the 1/4-inch seam…..

Have you tried it??

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On Tuesdays, I provide a tip, technique, or product review. Please subscribe to the blog to ensure that you don’t miss ANY of them!!

Design Wall Cleaning

I love the design wall in my studio!!

It is made from sheets of insulation board, covered with a layer of batting and a cream colored flannel. I wrote a post about building my previous one and you can check it out here if you are interested…..

There’s a light at the end of the hallway

The biggest problem is that it COLLECTS fabric bits and threads and gets dirty very quickly.

This problem gets even worse when you are making a scrap quilt!!

Here is one small section……

I have tried many methods to clean the board but have found that the easiest and best is to use a lint roller…..

It happily picks up all of those loose threads and fabric bits and I can dispose of them without any mess….

And look…..now it is ready for the next quilt!!

And since the summer’s theme is “SCRAP QUILTS”, you can bet that it will be messy again in no time!!

Keep coming back and see what messes it up next!!

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On Tuesdays, I provide a tip, technique, or product review. Please subscribe to the blog to ensure that you don’t miss ANY of them!!

Tip for Spray basting…

One of the quilting jobs that I hate the MOST is basting quilts for quilting!!

Over the years I have used pins, fusible batting and now Odif 505 basting spray.

One of the things that I have learned from Christa Watson of ChristaQuilts is to use a ruler when you are smoothing out the batting and top as you baste. This makes basting so much faster and is much better than using my hands.

When I started basting my recent scrap quilt (with LOTS of seams)…..

….I discovered that the ruler can be used for another purpose……

….butting the edge of the ruler up against the seam allowance, meaning that the pieced rows stay straight as they are basted…..

Aren’t those straight!!

On this particular top, I found that there needed to be a BIT of a tug in the corners to square them up and, once again, the ruler came to the rescue….