1.  Rotary Cutting
2.  Machine Piecing
3.  Hand/Machine Piecing
4.  Quilting: Machine or Hand
5.  Binding
6.  Pre-Washing
7.  Marking Fabrics
8.  Freezer Paper
9.  Organize
10.  Useful References
11.  Storing Quilts

The following tips are from information I have gleaned over 30+ years of quilt making. Some were found in books or classes, some picked up along the way from friends, and some learned the hard way: by trial and error. Some are things you may have already heard and others might strike you as just plain common sense. All in all, I hope you find them useful.

1. Cover the part of the fabric you are intending to use with the cutting ruler. When you cut multiple layers, the cutter tends to wobble creating a ragged, serrated edge. If you cover the piece you want to use with the ruler, that piece will be protected and though you may have to trim up the ragged edges or straighten edge if the cutter veers away from the ruler, you will not lose the piece you were cutting.

2. Trust the markings on the ruler not the ones on the mat. Use the lines on the cutting mat for straightening reference only not as a measuring guide. Check that the centerfold on yardage is accurate and true to grain (refold if necessary) and use the folded edge, not the selvedge edge, to measure a true right angle from when cutting strips.

3. CUT BY PUSHING CUTTER AWAY FROM AND NOT TOWARDS YOURSELF, you will have better control, your cuts will be more accurate and there’s less risk of cutting yourself.

4. GET INTO THE HABIT OF CLOSING THE CUTTER BETWEEN USES! I cannot stress that enough! These can be very dangerous tools if handled carelessly. You never know when an accident may happen such as a curious child wandering into your sewing area while you are otherwise occupied, or accidentally sweeping one off a table and onto your bare foot. I had a student whose cat decided it might be a fun plaything to pat around and ended up with a deeply cut paw and expensive vet bill. I’ve also watched quilters in crowded workshop rooms gesturing wildly with open cutters while talking animatedly. Treat a rotary cutter as you would a loaded gun. Put the safety on and never point it at anybody! Last but not least; MAKE SURE YOURS OR OTHER PEOPLES’ FINGERS ARE CLEAR OF THE CUTTING AREA WHEN USING ONE!

2. The weight of the thread you piece with has an effect on your seams as well. Use 50 weight thread for piecing, a heavier thread can throw off the accuracy of your ¼” seams. 

3. Pin carefully and DO NOT STITCH OVER PINS!!! I don’t care how many quilters say they do it all the time with no problem, all it takes is one time of the needle hitting a pin just the right (or wrong, I should say) way to seriously damage your machine or seriously damage YOU if a broken pin or needle flies up into your eye!

4. Before pressing, think of how the unit/strip you are piecing will join to another and press the seams in a direction to facilitate ‘butting’ the intersections whenever possible during final assembly.

5. When pinning sections with intersecting seams, match and pin the intersections first then ease or distribute any bulk along the length between intersections. Do this also when pinning long borders, strips or sashing. Measure and cut pieces carefully so they are all the correct size then fold and pinch to find the center of each. Pin the ends together matching precisely, then find and pin the centers to each other. Pin the remaining lengths between easing the fabrics if necessary to distribute uneven bulk. This bulk can occur even if you measured and cut the fabric correctly if you cut even slightly off the grain or if you are matching a piece cut from crosswise grain (somewhat stretchy) to one cut from lengthwise grain (very stable).

6. ‘Zipper’ ripping is a technique where you use a seam ripper to cut every fifth stitch or so on one side of a pieced seam along it’s entire length, then turn the piece over a grasp the thread on the other side and pull. The thread will ‘zip’ away quickly along the whole seam leaving little bits of thread that will have to be pulled off here and there but it beats picking out each stitch one at a time for those times where you must resort to ‘Frog-stitching’ (you know – rip-it, rip-it, rip-it).

1. Freezer paper tips: while freezer paper and fabric are still warm after ironing, the paper peels up more readily. Therefore, if you are having trouble getting the paper to adhere well, let the two sit awhile and cool before using. If on the other hand, the paper is sticking too well and refuses to peel off cleanly, warm it gently with an iron and it will peel right off.

2. Marking appliqué pieces: if you prefer a method using a template to mark the turning line onto the appliqué pieces, slipping a sheet of fine (400 grit) sandpaper beneath the fabric will help keep the fabric steady and prevent it from stretching and shifting while tracing around the template.  Use a light hand when marking appliqué pieces and make sure the type of marker you select will produce a line that does not rub away too readily before you have finished stitching but that will also wash or rub away thoroughly when desired.

3. Pinning appliqué: when possible, aim pins pointing in the direction you will be stitching. This helps prevent poking yourself excessively and will also lessen the tendency for pins to back out and come loose during the appliqué. If you will be packing up and transporting the work frequently, running each pin through the fabric twice will also help prevent pins from coming loose.

 4. Use 100% cotton or silk thread for hand appliqué.  #60 weight machine embroidery cotton thread will result in finer less visible stitches than #50 weight. Do not use polyester or rayon thread for hand appliqué. Polyester can ‘saw’ through cotton fabrics over time, rayon thread is fragile and will not hold up durably for appliqué.

5. Invisible thread is hard on your machine parts and may actually wear grooves in thread guides and tension discs over time. In addition, many charities that provide quilts for babies and young children are asking that quilters not use this thread for charity quilts. If you must use invisible thread, find one made from polyester one not the nylon one.

6. If you cannot find a perfect thread color to match your fabric, it is better to pick a thread slightly darker rather than lighter than the fabric. It will blend in better.

7. Fabric adhesives have come under close scrutiny as to their longevity. Most that were tested failed in some way or other. If you use an adhesive, assume a maximum life span of 20 years for your quilt, it will not live to be an heirloom.

a. ‘Clover’ Appliqué Pins: these tiny pins are expensive and take a little getting used to but they are invaluable for pinning small or intricate appliqué and have a specially contoured head that helps thread that inevitably gets caught around the pins slip off easily without pulling out the pin.

b. ‘Thread Heaven’ Thread Conditioner: a cube of silicone that you pull the thread through to help prevent tangling or fraying. It will not melt and stain fabric like beeswax can and is acid free and will not harm thread or fabric.

c. ‘YLI’, ‘Clover’ or ‘Gutterman’ 100% Silk Thread: silk thread is wonderful for hand appliqué. It makes stitches that nestle into the fabric and blend in more readily than cotton thread making it less critical that the thread match the fabric exactly. Silk has great tensile strength however it does stretch when wet. Quilts appliquéd with silk thread should be hand washed gently and not thrown into a washing machine for laundering.  Though expensive, using silk thread will reduce the number of different colored spools of thread you need for a project.

d. Milliners’ or ‘Straw’ Needles: these needles are longer and thinner than standard appliqué needles (‘sharps’). The tips taper sharply at the point and straighten out quickly which makes them penetrate the fabrics with less resistance. They take a little getting used to if you have been using standard appliqué needles but are worth the effort for the advantage of the extra length giving you better control and are more useful when it comes to poking, prodding and sweeping raw edges under.

e. Clover Needle Threader: this may seem a pricey gadget but it works far more efficiently than any other threader on the market (if you learn to use it properly). It will only thread needles with oval eyes (not round or elongated like embroidery needles) but as almost all hand quilting/appliqué needles have oval eyes this is not a detriment. With a little practice, you can even thread a needle in low light with this gadget.

Quilting: Whether you are quilting by machine or by hand the following tips will help.

1. When layering, always secure your backing fabric in a frame or on a table or floor with tape or clamps before spreading the batting over it. Batting is clingy and an unsecured back may stick to it and shift intensifying the problem of bunching, rippling and tucks stitched into the back of the quilt Pin or baste thoroughly (hand or machine quilting).

2. Layer a swatch of fabric the same or similar to those in your quilt with the same kind of batting to test the tension settings on your machine and do a little practice stitching on for warm-ups or when trouble-shooting problems with your machine so you won’t have to do as much ripping of stitches from your actual quilt (machine quilting).

3. Buy good quality hand stitching needles and replace a needle at the first sign of bending. Trying to quilt with a bent needle is like trying to drive a car with the wheels out of alignment (hand quilting).

4. Try different brands of threads to find the ones that your machine likes the best. Sewing machines, like pets, have ‘food’ preferences and a happy sewing machine will make your quilting less problematic and yield better results (machine quilting).

5. CLEAN THOSE FEED DOGS! Dirty dogs will cause no end of problems and don’t just brush or blow out the bobbin case housing, take that metal plate off and clean beneath it! If you’ve never done this, you may be shocked at the shag carpet that forms under there very quickly. If you use canned air to blow out the dust, aim the nozzle down at an angle from the top towards the front of the machine; do not blow the lint deeper into your machine where it may clog in belts and gears (machine quilting).

6. Use a special edge hoop, a hoop sock or even a band of fabric stitched to the edge of a quilt to maintain proper tension for hoop quilting the edge of a quilt. If you don’t, the edges of your quilt may buckle and bulge. Using some form of tension, either hoop or frame, will yield better quilting than trying to hold it loose on your lap (hand quilting).

 7. Quilt barefoot or shoeless with socks so that you can feel if the foot pedal begins to get hot.  Some machines overheat easily when subjected to the continuous sewing that machine quilting entails and you could end up burning out your motor if you run it too hard (machine quilting).

8. Choose the right kind of batting for your particular project. Some battings are inappropriate for hand quilting and machine quilting with a batting that is excessively thick can make quilting a large quilt in a sewing machine nearly impossible (hand and machine quilting).

9. If you are proud of your stitching and/or want it to show as a design element, choose a thread that contrasts with your fabrics. If you feel your stitching leaves ample room for improvement or all you want is texture, choose a matching thread to make your stitches less visible (hand and machine quilting).

a. Machingers: these thin light-weight quilting gloves will help you maintain better control of your quilt with less effort sparing your back, neck and shoulders. They are thin enough to allow good dexterity and breathe well preventing sweaty hands.

b. Curved quilters’ safety pins: the curve makes it easier to pin baste. 

c. ‘Kwik Klip’ pin closing tool: provides leverage for closing safety pins when pin basting sparing your fingers.

d. Basting needles: these extra long straight needles make basting a quilt much faster and easier than a short needle.

e. Ott Light: positioning an Ott Light behind your sewing machine will give you better visibility for machine quilting and can help provide good strong light for hand quilting too.

f. 505 basting spray adhesive: the only adhesive product that passed the QNM tests with flying colors. It should be washed out after quilting is completed for the best results however.

g. Acrylic extension table: allows for greater range of motion for free-motion quilting. The more room you have to spread your hands, the better and smoother your control of the quilt. A sewing table that your machine drops flush into works even better.

Binding: Binding can be single (one layer of fabric with both raw edges tucked under) but a French binding (two layers of fabric made by folding strip in half lengthwise, sewing down raw edge to right side of quilt and hand or machine stitching folded edge to wrong side of quilt) is more durable. Binding can be cut on the straight grain or the bias. Following are the advantages/disadvantages of each:

a. Advantages: Stretchy, will contour easily and adapt to imperfect edges and is the only way to bind scalloped or curved edges neatly. Wears better than straight grain on utilitarian quilts as when/if edges begin to fray the fabric will not start to disintegrate into long shreds.

b. Disadvantages: Stretchy, easy to inadvertently distort while stitching yielding a quilt that doesn’t hang straight or true. More chance of fabric stretching while cutting resulting in inaccurate strips. Somewhat wasteful of fabric requiring longer yardages than actually needed unless you don’t mind lots of seams.

a. Advantages: Very stable, makes a quilt that will hang well. Easy to apply without distortion.  Economical use of fabric.

b. Disadvantages: Unyielding, will not contour to uneven or curved edges. Will show signs of wear more readily and fray into long strings when worn through.

a. Clover Chaco Liner. When straightening edges for binding on a hand quilted quilt, instead of cutting through any hand stitching that may begin to unravel, mark the straight edge line on the quilt with a chalk roller and use this line to position the binding. After it has been stitched onto the front along the raw edge, uneven edges may be trimmed away and the machine stitching will hold the hand stitches in place. Finish the binding onto backside of quilt as usual. There is a new pen style model available as well.

b. Binding Clips. To help keep binding folded over edge of quilt in place while hand stitching. This is particularly helpful with bias binding. 

Pre-washing Fabrics: To wash or not to wash, that is the question… Some quilters pre-wash all their fabrics before using; some don’t, preferring the crisp finish that unwashed fabrics have. I recommend pre-washing all fabrics for the following reasons: It is absolutely critical for all quilts that will be laundered because (a) dyes can run staining adjacent fabrics and (b) not all fabrics shrink at the same rate and uneven shrinkage can cause unsightly puckers and distortions. I recommend pre-washing even for wall hangings (though it is less critical here) because of all the excess dye and chemical residues that can remain in fabrics after manufacturing. Some dyes can be caustic and leaving residues in fabric can hasten deterioration and do you really want a quilt hanging on your wall wafting out formaldehyde fumes?

a. Retayne: a mordant that helps set the dye

b. Synthropol: releases excess dye and help rinse it away.

c. Dye Magnet: add to the washer to attract excess dye.

d. Orvus Soap: a gentle soap to wash fine quilts.

Marking Fabrics: There are many types of fabric markers/pencils available. How do you choose the right one? First let me start by saying I don’t trust the blue/purple pens that rinse away or disappear on their own. These are both chemicals that penetrate the fibers of your fabric and I have heard horror stories from too many people about marks that washed out/disappeared only to reappear years later as an ugly brown line. This was more prone to happen if the quilt was exposed to sunlight. Some quilters insist they have used them for years without problems but I’ve heard too many testimonials from those who had problems to dismiss them as a rare occurrence. While those products might be fine for areas that will not be visible on the finished quilt (tracing around piecing or appliqué templates for instance) there are a lot of alternate choices available without the questionable track record.

Freezer Paper: When I bought my first roll of freezer paper around seven years ago or so, I thought “why do they have to sell it in such big rolls, I’ll never use this up in a million years”. I am now almost through my third box and have taken to saving pieces larger than a couple of inches. There are so many uses for freezer paper in quilting covering a broad area of techniques. Just about the only thing I have not done with freezer paper is use it the freeze something. Most people are familiar with its use for appliqué but did you know you could:

Organizing Projects: Whether piecing or appliquéing, keeping your project organized will help you achieve your goal; a finished quilt; more easily and with less wasted time.

1. If you are putting together a very complex pieced block where there is a risk of getting the placement of the pieces confused, it’s helpful to lay the fabric pieces out in the finished configuration and pick up the appropriate pieces as you go. If you have precut a number of blocks worth of pieces and need to set the project aside for a time, you can configure the blocks face down on an ironing board and iron a suitably sized square of freezer paper to each block. The freezer paper will stack your blocks neatly and easily and the fabric pieces will adhere to the paper and not slide around until you are ready to continue the project.

2. For simpler pieced designs, you can stack the pieces for each individual block and thread each stack onto a piece of doubled sewing thread. Tie a knot between each stack and then you need only clip off one knot at a time to piece each block, the pieces for the other blocks will stay securely grouped until needed. This is a particularly good way to transport/store projects where each block is a unique color-way.

3. If you are in the process of laying out a quilt on your design wall that is too complex to move and you need to have an intermediate design area for another project simply pin another piece of flannel on top of the one with the first project. Just remember to pin the first project down to its design wall so that the pieces do not come up with the temporary one when you finally remove it. Also be aware that ‘out of sight’ is ‘out of mind’. You may find yourself putting off completing a project that isn’t staring you in the face.

4. Would that we could find all the fabrics for a project at our favorite quilt shop. In reality, you may have to search several shops to assemble the perfect fabrics. When collecting fabrics for a project, it’s helpful to cut a small swatch or sample of each fabric already chosen and paste it down on a sheet of paper. This paper can be placed in a sheet protector and/or binder along with any notes, designs or pictures of the project, and taken with you when you shop. This will help you match colors and textures, and also prevent you from buying the same fabric twice when assembling a large palette. If done neatly, this sheet can later be included into notebook if you happen to be one of those quilters who enjoy keeping a record for posterity of the quilts you’ve made.

5. If you are a scrap saver, there are a number of ways to sort/organize your scraps. Some quilters like to sort by shape (strips stored separately from chunks if you like piecing Log Cabins), color, type (batiks, Asian, homespun, etc.) or texture. You can use clear plastic shoeboxes that stack easily or zip the scraps into gallon sized freezer bags that allow you to see the scraps readily.  There is also something aesthetically pleasing about having scraps heaped into decorative baskets for you basket collectors. Another approach for those of you who are fabric scavenger hunters is to simply refold the scraps into the remaining yardage pieces. That way you don’t have to go pawing through bins or boxes looking for a particular piece; you simply pull out the entire piece of fabric from whatever storage system you use to organize your larger fabrics and check  to see if it contains a large enough scrap to use before cutting into additional yardage. I have a friend who upon buying a new fabric immediately cuts a 1 ½” selvedge-to-selvedge strip and a 6 ½” square of each fabric which she then stores in their respective boxes for future charm or scrappy strip projects.

Useful Reference Books: There are a number of books available that give everything from quilting tips and cheat sheets to yardage guidelines and fast cutting formulas. 

1. ‘Patchwork Minus Mathwork’ by Linda Causee (American School of Needlework)

2. ‘Quilter’s Reference Tool’ by Harriet Hargrave (C&T Publishing)

3. ‘Quilter’s Quick Reference Guide’ by Candace Eisner Strick (Martingale & Co.)

Storing Your Finished Quilts: Unless you are using every quilt you have ever made right now, you probably have some quilts folded up and put away in the linen closet. You can choose to look at your quilts as utilitarian objects that will wear out when they wear out or obsess over ‘preserving’ them for future generations. There are some common sense storage precautions you can take to make sure your quilts live a long productive life.

4. If shipping a quilt to a show or to someone as a gift, wrap and seal the quilt securely in a plastic bag before placing it in the carton. Most shows will instruct you to do this along with a horror story about someone’s quilt being the unfortunate recipient of dripping oil or paint from another carelessly packaged carton during shipping. Instruct the person receiving the quilt not to leave it stored in the plastic bag for long term keep. Never, ever, give any indication on the package that it contains a quilt; quilts are valuable commodities theses days and thefts of quilts being shipped is on the rise.