I was watching Love of Quilting a few weeks ago. It was an older episode and Maryanne Fons was actually on it. She made the comment that a quilting instructor once told her that if a quilt isn't working out it was one of three things; cutting, stitching or pressing/ironing.
All the tips and tricks that exist in the quilting world boil down to one of three things. The accuracy of cutting out the pieces. The precision in the stitching, And last but not least the pressing technique.
Cutting - When cutting out fabric it is important to be accurate. The pieces must match up of the block is going to be square. Square is very important when it comes to finishing the quilt. A slightly larger or slightly smaller block makes a big difference. On a more recent episode of Love of Quilting, they were talking about making the blocks slightly over size and trimming them down. Angela Huffman stated that is was perfectly acceptable to waste a little fabric to achieve accuracy.
I often work with precuts. Largely because I bought a bunch of them. For the most part they are great for a quick quilt top. But I when using charm packs from two different manufacturers, I run into size problems. This half square triangle project I am working on for example. I am using 2 charm packs from Robert Kauffman and two charm packs from Moda. The Robert Kauffman charms are bigger by 1/8th of an inch. Which wouldn't be bad but the Moda charm pack were not square. Their size was 5 - 1/8 by 5 inches. I of course didn't notice this before starting the project. Always check the size of your pre-cuts.
Sewing - I think most people who sew occasionally run into issues with sewing a straight even seam. I know I do. I have taken to using a sewing ledge to keep my seams even and straight. I first learned this trick while teaching sewing in 4-H. (I really miss the master sewing training workshops.) Of course I thought I didn't need to use it. After all I've been sewing for years. But I came to the realization that I did in fact need to use one after long arming some quilts with a little bit of extra fullness here and there. The flatter the quilt is the easier it is to quilt. You can learn about sewing ledges from Karen Brown's Video on beginner quilting. Suffice it to say I now have painter's tape in my sewing drawer.
Another issue with sewing can and does arise in group projects. A while back I worked with some women to make a quilt for a family who had helped out our congregation at church. TAtianna and I worked with them to get the cutting as accurate as possible. But the stitching was another story. We had 1/4 inch feet on the sewing machine but no matter how often we explained how to line up the fabric with the feet, we got numerous different sized seams. In the future, when I sew with a group, I will be putting sewing ledges on the machines.
Pressing/Ironing - I once had a good friend explain the difference between pressing and Ironing. Ironing uses movement, heat and pressure to get wrinkles out of clothing. The things is when we iron the fabric we can and often do pull it off grain.
Pressing uses heat but light pressure and no movement. Pressing involves placing the iron on the fabric then lifting it off the surface and placing it again. So when we are working with small pieces and it is fairly easy to just press. But when dealing with yardage it's a little harder. Pressing is a struggle for me. I always want to iron instead of press. Karen Brown's video on ironing technique is really helpful.
The biggest thing about pressing/ironing is to not distort the fabric. So this will take practice and and patience. But I think it is very important to develop this technique. After all it would be really sad to have a perfect cut and seam only to mess it up with bad pressing.
In conclusion, if I am being honest, I am still struggling with all of the areas listed above. Sometimes it is one more than the other. But I think I am getting better at them. Practice Makes Perfect as the saying goes.
What is you downfall in making quilts? Where do you need to improve?
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