Quilters World

Clover 18mm Mini Rotary Cutter

The 18mm Clover Rotary Cutter is ideal for cutting delicate pieces and shapes from fabric to use in applique, crafts and patchwork. Slender and easy to hold you can easily cut out a curved pieced - just like drawing a line with a pen.

Lesson on Bindings

Quilt binding is the finishing touch to your quilt. Once your quilt top is pieced and quilted it's ready for you to sew on a binding... or is it? Here are a few steps you'll want to take to successfully bind your quilt.

Trimming Borders after Quilting
When you're finished quilting you should even up your quilt edges, as borders can stretch quite badly during the quilting process. 

Use your long 6½” ruler, lay the edge of ruler in the last seam line and find a measurement you desire to use and mark with marking pencil on outside edge of your quilt.  We recommend the Karisma pencil for marking as it glides smoothly on fabric. Trim back to this pencil line. 

Measuring  Your Quilt
Using a tape measure, measure the length of your quilt in three places – centre, left side and right side. Make a note of these measurements.

Let's pretend we measure a quilt and what we have is: Left = 68 ½”, Centre = 67 ¾” and Right = 68 ¼”. Your binding for the quilt should be the same as the smallest measurement. So you now know you need to make your left and right hand borders 67¾” long.

Next measure the width of your quilt in the same way and write the measurements down. Our pretend quilt has these measurements: Top = 43 ½”, Centre = 43” and Bottom = 44”. This means the binding for the top and bottom needs to be made 43” long.

Adjusting Border
Now that you know what size to make your binding you need to adjust your border. To do so find the half way and the quarter location of your quilt and mark with pins. 

Using a sewing needle and thread, start from the middle. Wrap the thread around the centre pin in a figure 8.  Now run a small gathering stitch to the next pin, unthread needle and re-thread.  Wrap around next pin in figure 8 as before, repeat to end.  Then repeat from centre out in the opposite direction. 

You now use each of these threads to pull your border into the chosen measurement (67 ¾”), repeat on other side.  Repeat on top and bottom until this measurement is 43”.   When you pull up each section, wrap the thread around the pins in a figure 8, this will hold the threads very secure while you stitch the binding on.

Preparing the Binding
Cut your binding 2 ½” wide across the width of the fabric. The length you need is twice the length and twice the width of your quilt plus ten inches. The extra ten inches accomodates all the joins, and the start and finish.

For this example you would have:
67¾”+67¾”=135½” and 43+43”= 86” for a total of 221½”
Plus the additional 10" for a grand total of 231½” of fabric.

How much fabric do I need to buy?
We know we need to make our binding 231½” long. To calculate how much fabric you require, depends on the wide of the fabric. We'll use 42" for our calculation as it is a common width for quality quilt fabric.

Required length divided by width of fabric equals the number of strips you'll cut.  For our example: 231 1/2"/ 42 = 6 strips

So we'll be cutting six strips 2 1/2 inches wide. There's just one more quick calculation to make. The number of your strips times the width of the strip.
6 x 2.5" = 15"

If your quilt shop sells fabric by the meterage you'll want to convert from inches to centimetres. You can use an online conversion tool to do the math for you or multiply by 2.54.

For our example we need 15" of fabric, which is equivalent to 38.1 cm. Therefore we'll purchase 40cm of fabric for our binding.

Making the Binding
Sew all your 2½” strips together into one continuous length, using a 45º angle join. Trim seams and press open.  Fold one end of binding strip over at a 45º angle and fold and press the entire binding fabric in half down the length, wrong sides together. 

Adding the Binding
On most quilts you'll stitch your binding to the top side of the quilt. Begin at the center of one edge of your quilt top. Place the binding so its raw edges meet the raw edges of the quilt.

Stitch through all layers using a ¼” seam. Stitch to a quarter inch from the corner and turn the corner. To do so leave the needle in the down position, lift the presser foot, rotate the quilt, lower the presser foot and backstitch  ¼”, fold the binding back to the corner so that the folded edge is at the top and the raw edge lines up with the raw edge of the quilt. Repeat this process at each corner.

Turn your binding to the back of quilt and hand stitch using a blind hem stitch.  Don’t forget to add a label to masterpiece.

How Do I...

Quilt my first quilt with my sewing machine?

"It's Elementary" Quilt Pattern by Kay Meale

 

Stitching in the ditch is great for beginning machine quilters. To stitch in the ditch you use the walking foot to create long, straight lines of quilting along the seams (or "ditches") of the quilt top.

When you stitch in the ditch you must keep the stitch in the ditch at all times. The ditch is the seam line created when you pieced your blocks together. You should not see the stitches wander away from your seam. Therefore, it is important that your seams all butt up perfectly when piecing your quilt, so that your stitch will be in a straight line.

How you press when you put your blocks together is extremely important when you stitch in the ditch. If you have not done a good job pressing you will have trouble when quilting the seams. Press seams to one side. Make sure there are no pleats that stop the needle from getting as close to the seam as possible. Make sure your blocks are perfectly flat and smooth before layering your quilt.

When stitching in the ditch you need to watch your needle and make sure it is rubbing the seam for every single stitch. It doesn’t matter where your foot is lined up -- just watch the needle. You should always practice first on a small sandwich.

Start quilting with the seam that runs with the batting and lining lengthwise grain to avoid any stretching or distortion. And don't push or shove your quilt through the machine. The walking foot is made to feed the top of the quilt evenly with the backing. Work with the foot -- resist the urge to push and pull.

 

Machine quilting feels awkward at first. It takes practice, practice, and more practice. Don’t give up!

To learn more check out Bev McClune's DVD's on machine quilting.

Patchwork & Quilting in Australia

Aussie Welcome Pattern by Kay Meale

Quilts form an important part of the rich heritage of Australia, beginning with the Aboriginal people who pieced animal skins together to make capes and rugs. The arrival of the Europeans brought  traditional patchwork. During transportation, charitable groups supplied fabric to convict women as a constructive occupation for their time. The only known surviving quilt made aboard a ship during transportation is the 1841 Rajah Quilt held by the  National Gallery of Australia.

What’s a wagga?

Australians have a heritage of “making do”. The wagga is a symbol of the Australian ability to make something out of nothing – a humble type of quilt. The first waggas were made by men (shearers and drovers), from common materials found in sheds, such as jute wheat bags stitched together with twine. The origin of the word wagga is believed to be from the flour sacks of the Murrumbidgee Flour Mill in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.

These Aussie quilts were also known as bluey, bush rug, wogger and Sydney blanket.

Tips You Need to Know for Accurate Machine Piecing

• One trick to achieve accurate piecing is to only use one brand of ruler on your project. Different brands will have slight variations (sometimes more than slight in inferior products) resulting in a different measurement.

• Chain piecing turns your sewing machine into an amazing assembly line. Pile the pieces to be sewn into pairs, with right sides facing. Join the first pair but don’t cut the thread or lift the foot. Keep feeding in a pair of pieces, and sew again. After you have sewn all your pieces, you only need to go back and clip the thread between the pairs.

• When joining two long fabric strips of foundation piecing, sew with a long machine stitch first. If all points align, then sew on your short stitch.

• When sewing long strips together, sew two strips together in one direction and the third strip to the others in the opposite direction. This prevents the strips curving.

• Annoying threads all over the floor? Tired of wasting thread? Do you have problems with the fabric bunching up when starting a seam? Does the thread sometimes tangle underneath? Try this solution for all these problems. Fold a scrap of fabric 1¼” wide by 2” long in half lengthways. Use this to sew onto at the beginning and end of each seam just like chain piecing.

• Don’t forget to trim all threads when piecing by machine. If you do this as you go along you won’t have little snippets of thread poking behind light coloured material in your finished quilt.

• Machine Needles - Don’t make the mistake of using just any needle. When piecing, you should use a size 80 needle. After every six hours of sewing change the needle. Regular needle changes will ensure that your stitches will set into the fabric much better, and not pull threads

• Your ¼” on your ruler should measure the same as the ¼” foot of your sewing machine.

• Pfaff sewing machine, with the built in walking foot (IDT - integrated dual technology) is the ultimate sewing machine for machine piecing. The fabric is “walked through” from the top and the bottom at the same time so there is no fabric slippage. Since the bottom doesn’t strength away from the top you can achieve perfect piecing with ease.

Hints for Accurate Cutting of Fabric

• Using a rotary cutter (with mat and ruler) is an important time saving skill, as it eliminates the need to mark and cut individual patches.
• Fabric responds best if pressed, not ironed. If you iron the fabric you will stretch the grain.
• After pressing the fabric, you need to fold it to get an accurate cut.
• Align your selvages together. Simply slide the selvages across until you get a straight fold. Look at the fold to make sure it is laying flat and has no twist.
Take care at this step. If you are exact with your cutting, the final product will be far superior to what you would achieve if you try to take short cuts. If you cut when there is a twist in the fabric, your strip will not be straight, but have a twist like a dog leg.
• When cutting multiple straight strips the edge of the fabric can stretch.  To achieve the best results, cut a couple of strips, realign a new straight edge and proceed with cutting. After every few cuts, repeat the action.
• To make cutting curves easy, use the Clover Mini Rotary Cutter. The small blade allows you complete accuracy when cutting circles and curves. It is also ideal for foundation piecing when trimming back seams and perfect for cutting around plastic templates as the small blade sits snug against the template.

A Yarn about Thread

Depending on the project, you want to quilt, the thread types available each have something special to offer.  The best way to learn about threads is to play with different ones and discover the effects each will have in various situations.

One important tip to keep in mind is you should always be able to break the thread by pulling on it between your two hands.  If you cannot break it, do not use it for quilting!  It is actually too strong and in time will wear and perhaps cut through your quilt.  Put it to use in the garden to support your plants instead.

How To Choose Quality Fabric for Your Quilt

In these quality fabrics the print is aligned with  the selvage. Also the colour goes all the way through to the wrong side of the fabric.

A direct indication of quality is the thread count (number of threads woven into a square inch of fabric). Since it’s not possible to actually count the threads you’re going to need to do some hands on research so you’ll be able to distinguish the quality.

Buy two fat quarters – one from a quilt shop specialising in top quality quilting fabric and one from your local discount chain store. With a bit of comparison you’ll see the difference.

Look past the pretty prints

Keep in mind that to produce fabric at a cost that will appeal to price conscious consumers the manufacturer has to save money in the manufacturing process. This involves using cheap fabric and dyes, or skipping steps in the process. A fabric you see at the discount store might be a “knockoff” copy, a name brand “test print” done on low quality fabric, or a second that didn't meet quality control standards.

Why You Should Choose Quality Fabric for Your Quilt

When creating a quilt, a lot of your choice of fabric is based on colour and print but it’s also important to consider the quality of the fabric you plan to use.

You’ve probably been told before that you should only use quality fabric when making a quilt but if you are like many novice quilters you probably don’t understand why (or if) it really matters.

Some well-meaning people might even tell you that it doesn’t make any difference. Don’t take their word though (or even ours) ... find a quilter who has won an award at a major quilt show, and ask them. Or take a closer look for yourself.

All Fabric is Not Created Equal

You may believe that the fabric you saw in the discount store is just as nice as the material stocked by your local quilt shop, but there is more to fabric than how pretty it appears.

What's the Single Most Important Tool a Quilter Can Have?

At Quilters World we're often asked "what's the best quilter's tool?"

There are so many wonderful gadgets available to make your quilting easier and more efficient that we can't just name one. We're always trying out new products, looking for those that will make quilting easier and faster.

In Stitches – Whole Cloth Quilts

A Whole Cloth Quilt uses one large piece of fabric for the quilt top, instead of an arrangement of patchwork or appliquéd blocks.  The beauty of these quilts comes from the elaborate, quilted patterns that feature on the quilt top.

In a Whole Cloth Quilt, the stitching is the highlight of the quilt. It adds designs through the clever manipulation of the thread to create light and shadow, texture, and dimension. In the past these quilts were made by cultured ladies of wealth and leisure. They used their fine sewing skills and abundant free time to decorate solid coloured material with floral motifs, feathered and geometric shapes.

Perfect Preparation Makes Machine Quilting Easier

Get the best results with the right preparation.

Choosing the backing
How much backing you will need depends on the size of your quilt. It is best if it is 4” larger all the way around than your quilt top. This will require the backing to be 8” wider in width and 8” longer in length than the size of your quilt top. If you are joining two pieces of fabric together for use as a backing, it is best that you make the join on the lengthwise grain.  Sewing the material in this manner will produce the absolute best “environment” for the back of your quilt, ensuring fewer problems when pinning and machine quilting.

Many quilters like to “piece” the backing for their quilt, using up left over fabric.  It is important that you are aware that this can create problems for you when you attempt to machine quilt the quilt.  The possibility of the fabric “swimming” and creating puckering is much higher when the backing has many joins, as they are not always on the straight grain. 

For easier and more successful quilting try to stick to just one join down the lengthwise grain.  Once you have completed pinning your quilt, you do not want to have regrets about a decision made to save a few dollars – one that could end up taking the fun out of quilting. Make wise choices to get the best results.

Tips for Frustration Free Patchwork and Quilting

1. When piecing, as you sew each strip to the strip set, alternate the end at which you begin sewing. 

This helps control the curving or distortion that is so common is strip piecing.  Use a 1.5 stitch length and press stitching line to set threads into balance, then turn to right side and gently press back against the seam.

2. To avoid stretching, apply a light spray of Crisp Spray Starch to each of your strip sets before cutting into segments.

3. Place a sheet of fine sandpaper under your fabric to keep it from shifting and stretching when you mark sewing lines or when tracing around applique shapes.

The Importance of Fabric Grain in Patchwork & Quilting

There's more to fabric than pretty colours and prints

In patchwork and quilting, understanding fabric grain is helpful in achieving the results you want in your finished quilts.

What exactly is fabric grain?

In woven fabric, threads are what comprise the grain.

The Lengthwise Grain - Warp Threads

Long threads form the lengthwise grain in fabric. These threads are the warp threads and run parallel to the selvage. Fabric has the least give on the lengthwise grain.

The Crosswise Grain - Weft Threads

The shorter threads that make up the crosswise in the fabric are the weft threads. These threads run perpendicular to the warp threads and selvage. Fabric has slightly more stretch on the crosswise grain than on the lengthwise grain.

How to Keep Your Quilts Beautiful

Creating a quilt requires much time and effort. Meant to be cherished and enjoyed, quilts can end up damaged by improper use, cleaning, storage and display. Whether created for every day use or as heirlooms, proper care will ensure that they last to bring the pleasure intended.

Use
When planning a quilt consider the intended use. What fabrics are used, the type of quilting done, etc. – are dependent on the intended use of the quilt. So decide if the quilt will be used as an everyday quilt on a bed or is it meant to be an heirloom and thus displayed but not used. Keep in mind that a quilt for a cot, child or lap quilt definitely needs to be of a fabric that is durable and washable, as it will require more frequent laundering.

Tips for Domestic Machine Quilting

Do you have unfinished quilts that are in need of some attention? Have you been putting off learning to machine quilt? 

Patchwork and quilting is a process of discovery and challenges. The thought of actually quilting your own quilt on your very own sewing machine is one that causes apprehension in many quilters .

You can overcome this fear, just by giving it a go.  Stitching in the ditch is a great place for beginning machine quilters to start. To stitch in the ditch you use the walking foot to create long, straight lines of quilting along the seams (or "ditches") of the quilt top.

You can learn how to quilt your quilts at home with expert advice available on DVD

Tips for Selecting Fabric

1. The best fabric for quilt making is a good quality 100% cotton. Look for fabric that will be easy to sew, not too stretchy or too stiff, creases well so pressing seams is easy, is washable and relatively colourfast.

2. An easy way is to pick a fabric you love, then select the other fabric to co-ordinate with the colour scheme of the main fabric.

3. Keep in mind the purpose of the quilt and for whom you are making it. This should help narrow down selection. You may want to use novelty prints and bright colours for a quilt destined for a child’s room or floral’s for a friend who loves gardening.

Look at the colours of nature for inspiration

Tips for Accurate Fabric Cutting

• Using a rotary cutter (with mat and ruler) is an important time saving skill, as it eliminates the need to mark and cut individual patches.





• Fabric responds best if pressed, not ironed. Use steam and gently press. If you iron the fabric you will stretch the grain.



• After pressing the fabric, you need to fold it to get an accurate cut.

Quilt Making Guidelines for Beginners

1. Don’t choose a king size quilt as your first project. Start small so you can experience the satisfaction of accomplishment sooner.

2. Pick a quilt design that uses simple blocks with straight lines and patches of squares, rectangles and half square triangles.
 
3. A perfect choice is a special sampler quilt designed for beginners, to provide simple blocks but also variety to keep you from becoming bored. You develop your skills by tackling blocks that progress in level of difficulty.

4. Use a selection of dark and light fabrics for contrast. Using shades of one fabric can create confusion for the novice.

5. Select 100% top quality cotton quilt fabric. It is the ideal weave for ease of sewing.

What Tools Do You Need For Beginning Patchwork?

The tools you use can help you enjoy your hobby or cause you to abandon a project before completion. Many quilters spend hours of discouraging drudgery until they discover the tools of the trade, and the proper way to use them.

It is possible to make a quilt with a dull pair of scissors and the measuring tape scrounged from the hubby’s toolbox.  But why would you want to make things so hard for yourself? If you are able to persevere, the resultant quilt will be much less than satisfactory.

There is an endless variety of patchwork and quilting tools available. This can be daunting to the beginner but there are certain “must have” tools necessary to get you started. As you build your experience up you can add to your tool collection.