That’s a LOT of marking

After I pieced my challenge top…..

….it was time to think about the quilting.

Actually, I had been thinking about the quilting since I started the project, and most of the design was based on how I wanted to quilt it using Concentric Circles.

I quickly realized that I was NOT capable of quilting these large circles without marking them first….

UGH…..I HATE MARKING!!

But, I came up with a solution that made quick work of this onerous task….

Spoiler alert….the quilting was NOT a painless process!!!

Come back tomorrow for that!!!

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Stress Free Block Setting

I love to lay out a quilt on my design wall, spending hours and sometimes days determining the EXACT placement of each block.

But that excitement wanes when I realize that I have to now take the blocks OFF of my design wall to sew them together AND keep them in the right order!

Over the years, I have used numbered pins…..

Using numbered pins

….with some success, but invariably, at least one block gets pieced incorrectly!

As I got ready to piece this quilt……

…..I knew that it was SUPREMELY important that I NOT make any mistakes.

BUT WHAT TO DO!!!

Then I had an epiphany…..

WHAT IF I WRITE THE NUMBERS ON THE BLOCKS WITH A WASH-OUT MARKER???

This quilt will be washed after I finish it so I don’t have to worry about that…..so why not?

I started in the top left corner, marking it 1-1. The next block on that row was 1-2, the next was 1-3. The leftmost block in the second row was 2-1, then 2-2, 2-3, and so forth.

I wrote the number in either the first or second patch on the left-hand side of each block.

Once they were all marked, I was able to stack each row…..

….and head to the machine.

It was SO easy to piece the rows together because I could see at a glance if the blocks were in the right order…..

….or in the WRONG order…..

I did spritz out the numbers as I attached the rows to other rows…..

In no time flat, the top was pieced…..

….AND in the correct order!!

WHY didn’t I think about this before????

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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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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!!

What’s a Compensating Foot

Over the last few months I have heard tons of people talking about a “Compensating Foot”, claiming that they were wonderful for attaching binding.

Since that is one of my LEAST favorite quilting tasks, I decided to get one and try it out.

When it arrived, I was interested to see that one side of the foot is lower than the other….

It is even more apparent when viewed from the front….

The idea being that you can put a fabric under the foot with the edge against the lowered edge….

…..and sew…..

I love that the stitching stays so very close to the edge….without having to control it myself!!

I used the foot when binding a recent charity quilt…..

….and it worked REALLY well…..

My only concern with the foot is that I normally use a walking foot so I have more control over the fluff of the batting.

I will need to try it on a few more bindings before I make up my mind.

If you have one, do you like 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!!

It’s New Blade time

A few days ago, after making FOUR cuts that I had to re-do, I realized that I needed to replace the blade in my rotary cutter…..

This should be a simple process, but I often get the order of the pieces confused or backwards or SOMETHING, so this time I decided to fix that particularly problem!!

I laid out a tissue and carefully dismantled the rotary cutter, placing each part on the tissue in the way that it came off…..

Next I took the blade off and stored it in the “OLD” blade holder….

Next, I did something that I have never done before. I took an alcohol swab and cleaned the screw plate….

YUK!! I am glad that didn’t get onto my fabric!!

I also did the same thing when I pulled out the new blade. It was covered with the grease that they store the blades in and, once again, I didn’t want that oil on my fabric…..