To celebrate Magazine Issue No. 100: Autumn 2008

ONE HUNDRED TIPS FOR QUILTERS

Learning skills and techniques is like practising scales in music, the more you practice the better you are.
If your quilts aren’t quite the masterpieces you see in magazines don’t feel yours are inferior as long as you have made them with care.
Keep an ideas notebook for inspiration and source material as you see them ready to use at a later date.
If your time and energy and quilt making skills are of value to you, then buy yourself the best material you can afford and make your quilt the very best it can be.
For quilting by hand use a between size 8 or 9 and graduate to a 10.
When threading a needle with dark thread, put some white chalk on the last inch.
Try putting a piece of white paper behind your needle’s eye for easy threading.
When cutting quilt pieces keep a box handy for scraps, which could be turned into larger pieces.
When machining attach a small polythene bag to the table with masking tape to slide thread snippets into saves your back later by not having to pick them off the floor.
To keep needles and pins sharp, keep them in a wrapped bar of soap.
To use a strawberry emery sharpener compress the strawberry to compact the emery and rotate the needle.
A thin sliver the end of a bar of soap makes an excellent quilt marking tool.
When hand quilting, place the reel of thread into a zipped plastic sandwich bag and zip it to an inch from the end so that the thread runs freely. Then tape it to the table front or leg of the chair.
Start hand quilting at a pieced seam so that the knot pulls through the seams and stays underneath the patchwork.
A substitute for a light box is a glass baking dish with a flashlight underneath. Stacks of books make a bridge for the dish.
Place your ironing board as far away from your machine as possible and become obsessive about pressing seams. That will keep you moving and ensure that you do not stay in one place for too long.
When doing needle turn appliqué, use a wooden cocktail stick to turn the fabric under – the wood grips the fabric better than a needle.
When hand appliquéing with several colours keep a pincushion handy with needles ready threaded with the colours you will need.
Use a piece of fabric about 1 ½” x 4” as a leader to sew onto first at the start of each machine sewn seam to prevent bobbin jam ups and save thread.
If you don’t have a reducing glass, look at your quilt through your camera lens to spot imbalance.
Consider making a hanging sleeve for your quilt from some of the fabrics that you have used. That way future generations will have a piece of the original fabric should they need to repair.
Soak small fabric leftover scraps in a P.V.A glue and water solution and stick them on flowerpots, or foam balls to make Christmas decorations.
The best way to square a corner on a quilt is not to square it but to round it. Makes the binding much easier.
Be sure to measure patterns that have been photocopied some machines distort.
Put your quilt in the tumble drier occasionally to remove any dust.
To make a perforated stencil for a quilting design glue a tracing to thin cardboard then stitch through the lines with an unthreaded sewing machine (good use for a blunt needle).
Before cutting appliqué patches bond some lightweight iron on Vilene or a new product “Mistyfuse” to the back of the fabric – makes cutting out easier and prevents fraying.
When appliquéing with freezer paper iron several sheets together and draw only the top one before cutting out – makes several templates at once.
If you fuse an appliqué piece in the wrong place use a tumble dryer fabric softener as a pressing cloth to remove it.
Put a rubber band on a spray starch can and slip a small paintbrush under the rubber band so when you need to starch appliqué pieces the brush is right there. Just spray some starch in the can lid.
Before adding binding to the finished quilt, stitch along the edge to stabilise the quilt – makes binding easier.
To display a small quilted wallhanging use a curtain tie back (it has loops at each end) and attach to a piece of dowel.
Travelling on an aeroplane and can’t take scissors – use an empty dental floss container to store needles and thread, it has a built in cutter.
Made an accidental hole in a quilt top? Then cover it with an appliqué piece. A butterfly works very well.
A wooden mug tree is a great place to store tools such as scissors.
To identify the thread on a wound bobbin place a hole reinforcing circle on the top with the make and colour – easy to change when the thread runs out.
To relax the batting in a newly opened pack – run the hair dryer over it.
Before rotary cutting spray limp fabrics with spray starch before cutting.
A plastic tie rack makes a good place to store strips prior to stitching.
A small wallpaper seam roller makes an inexpensive tool for finger pressing.
If you have difficulty threading monofilament thread – colour the end with a permanent marker – this can be cut off after threading the needle.
Always store Bondaweb on a roller – take it to the shop when you are going to buy some and ask them to roll it for you (eg.the inside of a kitchen roll works well).
Scoring the back of fusible web appliqué pieces makes it easier to remove.
Label your tool such as rulers, and rotary cutters with self stick address labels to identify when attending a workshop.
Make name tag loops for scissors with leftover fabric and permanent pen.
If you have difficulty keeping your best scissors from the family. A sound investment is a combination lock set through the handles. That should stop’em!!!.
A piece of rubber bath mat cut to the size of your sewing machine foot pedal and placed underneath it will stop it migrating whilst you sew.
When machine quilting place your ironing board alongside your sewing table to support your quilt.
An empty lipstick or Lipsyl tube is a good place to store unwanted needles.
After threading your needle giving the thread a quick tug stops it twisting.
Before pre-washing fabric cut a small triangular piece from each selvedge to prevent ravelling
Keep those pieces to build a colour swatch.
To pre-wash – run hot water over dark fabric in a small basin – this will determine if it will run.
If you have a fabric that ‘bleeds’ give it a vinegar rinse - a cupful of white vinegar to a bowl of hot water.
To keep project templates together either pierce a hole in card ones or punch a hole in plastic ones and put them on a safety pin.
Put both sewing lines and cutting lines on templates making it easier to check for accuracy on a pieced block.
A small piece of masking tape on the back of a plastic template will keep it from slipping.
After cutting plastic templates place them over the original patterns to be certain they match.
When using a blue water-soluble pen to mark your quilt make dots instead of a solid line making it easier to remove.
To remove blue water soluble marker use a fine spray bottle of tepid water.
Keep your marking pencil very sharp to make lines closer to the template – sharpening both ends makes less use of the sharpener.
A sandpaper board will make the fabric stable for marking – sticking two pieces of sandpaper to a file holder can make a simple portable one.
Try to cut all fabric pieces on the straight of grain - if you mix straight of grain and bias the pieces will not fit together as well.
Cutting borders on the lengthwise grain may eliminate ripples.
When sewing a bias edge to a straight edge, make sure the straight edged piece is on top.
When cutting with a rotary cutter try to cut all pieces of the same size at the same time also use the same ruler throughout - that way the width of lines should be the same.
When rotary cutting more than one layer, ironing the layers together first keeps them together.
When cutting points as in leaves and flower buds cut the point across the grain – the fabric lies flatter and is easier to sew.
Use spray on glue on the pattern pieces to hold them in place and you can reposition if necessary.
I keep two rotary cutters – the one with the sharpest blade is for fabric – the other has the old blades from my best cutter to use for paper, plastic and even cardboard.
Bias binding makes excellent flower stems for appliqué.
To hand piece a block whilst watching TV pin all pieces to a pillow case and lay it on your lap.
It is a good idea to make a sample block for a pieced project and then measure each finished block against the sample for an exact match.
Points trimmed away from triangular and diamond corners allow for precise matching of seam lines.
A very small seam allowance 1/8 inch for appliqué means a minimum of clipping so corners and points are nice and smooth.
When you change your machine needle (ie to one for metallic thread) tape the needle case to your machine to remind you to change back to an ordinary needle.
Where possible stack fabric right side together before cutting to reduce handling – pieces are than ready for stitching.
Good pressing is a shortcut to accurate piecework.
Doing a layer appliqué like Sunbonnet Sue stack the pieces in reverse order and run a knotted thread through – makes it easy to transport.
Arrange all pieces in the order in which you will sew them before you begin to piece.
It is a good idea to spray starch and iron it dry before cutting.
Remember to measure twice and cut once.
Threads kept in a plastic beg in the freezer will not develop dry rot.
If you use machine embroidery thread for machine appliqué you will not get puckering.
When joining light and dark fabrics use thread to match the darker –this makes the thread almost invisible.
Use quilting thread when hand piecing it makes the seam less likely to come undone.
Pin hand appliqué from the back- then there will be no tangling of thread.
100% silk thread is perfect for hand appliqué. Use neutral colours and you only need a limited number of colours for it to be invisible.
Use your seam ripper as a stiletto to help fabric under the presser foot when machine piecing.
When quilting in the ditch or through seams keep a bar of soap on the quilt top- occasionally sticking the needle in the soap makes the quilting easier.
If you have difficulty threading your needle (hand or machine) wet the needle, not the thread.
Slivers of soap making good marking tools on dark fabric.
Masking tape is excellent for marking straight quilting lines.
Children’s colouring books are good source of appliqué designs.
Iron a seam the same way as it was sewn before pressing it to one side – it relaxes the seam.
Each person’s saliva has an enzyme that neutralizes proteins in his/her blood. Wet a Cotton Bud with saliva and rub it on the bloodspot to make it disappear.
Baking powder will remove grease spots without harming the fabric. Rub it in gently and then vacuum it out.
To remove rust spots moisten them with lemon juice then hold over steam.
Use alcohol or hairspray to remove marks from a ballpoint pen.
If you have difficulty with a project, leave it for while – when you return to it you will not be nearly as mad at it!!!.

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