Quilt How-to Lessons

I do believe I've been reading the About.com Quilting site since the day I started quilting and while navigating through the site recently I came across these "How-to Lessons" again and thought I'd share it for those wanting to read a little more on topics such as applique techniques, quilt design, accurate borders and many more.

To take a more intensive look at any of these lessons, click HERE and make your selection and a lovely weekend to you all.

Joining the ends of a double fold binding invisibly

While reading The Dread Pirate's blog I saw she shared a lovely tutorial to join the ends of your double fold binding invisibly.

I am rather particular on a perfectly joined binding and although I do it slightly different I do believe this method will be equally neat.  To see how it is done or download the PDF file, click HERE.

Sandwiching a quilt

Nancy's Notions just uploaded a video on sandwiching a quilt and I always like to take a look at different ways to do the same thing.  In the video Nancy shows 3 different ways and although I am familiar with 2, the third, using paper backed fusible web was rather new to me.

I guess one will then have to either use a cotton or wool batting and not the polyester blends mostly available over here.  Take a look at this video to see what I am rambling on about.

Fusing tips from Laura Wasilowski

Hope you all had a wonderful Woman's Day.  As someone always working with fused applique which are then decorated with hand stitching I reckoned that no-one would be better on giving tips for fusing that the one and only Laura Wasilowski.

Now get clever by reading her tips over HERE.

Applique - Starch Method

With any one technique you can find many different ways to do it.  On Sew, Mama, Sew's site Joanna from Fig Tree & Co shared her way of doing applique using the starch method.

To see how this is done and the neat results obtained, read all about it HERE.

Machine applique

With time always against us doing applique by machine has long become very popular.  However with any technique it is always good to know some of the pitfalls that might occur during the process.  Elizabeth shared some secrets and a free pattern sheet on Sew, Mama, Sew's site.

To get her expertise on this technique, click HERE.

Choosing colors for a quilt

I often get told by beginner quilters that they don't know how to select colors for a quilt.  The advice I give is that they have to find a pretty printed fabric and then use that as a guide to select colors.  The almost immediate sentence that follows is that most of the fabric they like will be floral and they don't necessarily always feel like using flowers.  Still no problem, you don't have to use the fabric you liked, simply look at the color legend on the selvedge of that fabric and choose your colors from there.

I was reminded of this when I read an article about this on About.com Quilting and if you would like to read more on this and get the instructions to a pinwheel quilt pattern, read all about it over HERE.

PAPER PIECING

Lots of us don’t enjoy paper piecing. I tend to enjoy it as that is the only way I seem to sew straight and all the pieces fit. It’s only the removing of the paper that can be very time consuming. Denise Russel at Pieced Brain has a tutorial on how to paper piece and I think we might get a tip or two from her. Click here to go see the tutorial.

BACKINGS.

Sometimes when you have finished a quilt you made one too many blocks or you feel like making the back of the quilt a bit different. Lynn Brown has some interesting tips to help make the backs more interesting. Click here to have a look at her ideas.

Bias Tape Maker

People are so resourceful and today I'd like to share with you PC's inventive way to use an ordinary household tool to create bias tape.

PC writes the blog MeiJo's JOY and to see how cleverly she uses this tool, click HERE.

Adjust that tension!

I often see the surprise on quilters' faces when I do a free motion class and start fiddling with their tension dials. Some were even told by their dealers never to touch the tension dial.

So for all those who still don't believe me that it is perfectly okay to adjust the tension I found a lovely article by Susan on the Sew-whats-new blog and to add to the explanation on setting the tension lovely illustrations to explain these by Superior Threads.

To read and see these, click HERE...... and adjust that tension.

Binding Tutorial

Many seasoned quilters still struggle with the dear old binding on a quilt and when I found this pictorial from Quilt 'n Queen I just knew I had to share it.

With these lovely explanations it just doesn't get any easier.  Take a look and fear bindings no longer.  To see the step by step instructions, click HERE.

Quilt sleeve

Making a hanging sleeve for any of my quilts only comes to play when I plan to enter a quilt into a competition and yes, for those you will have to abide by the rules of the organizers but what about your other quilts?  I have had a couple of times where I wanted to hang an older quilt just to find out I never bothered to add a sleeve.

Karin brought this way of making a sleeve under my attention and for all future quilts this would be the way my quilts will get sleeves.

To see the full and VERY EASY instructions to make these, click HERE

Single fold binding

I believe most of us use double fold binding for our bed quilts or bigger projects but if you've ever made a really small quilted project you would have found a double fold binding almost impossible to work with.

These tiny projects simply call for a single fold binding.  Our one quilt group once made bookmarks and it was a pure nightmare trying to stitch double fold bindings around those little buggers.

I found this single fold binding tutorial on the Very Kerry Berry blog and I also liked the way she begins and ends her binding.

To take a look at this detailed tutorial, click HERE.

Chevron blanket

I once got this cute chenille cutting tool and didn’t really know what to use it for.  Now look at this ideal project for this cutting tool.

Anneliese first talks about her attempts to make this work and you can read about it HERE

Then she went on and kindly shared a tutorial on how to make one HERE

Padded applique by Sharon Pederson

The lovely feet I showed on the yesterday's post belong to the LAPPOPPE group.  Go to GROUP PHOTOS on the left side of the blog to see these lovely ladies or simply click HERE.  I will post interviews with these ladies soon, so watch this space.  Now on to another interesting story.

I saw this video showing how Sharon Pederson does padded applique and found it rather interesting seeing that I've always used trapunto to make my applique shapes somewhat padded.

To watch this video, click HERE

It does take a while to load so I suggest you click on the link, go make yourself a cup of coffee and then come back to watch this.

Machine binding a quilt

Now I honestly believe there is only one way to finish a binding, the right way......... by hand BUT I know a couple of quilters who prefer not doing anything by hand and are looking for ways to machine bind a quilt.

Amanda-Jean shared her way of doing a binding by machine on her blog over HERE

I hope you find this helpful but then again.... you only finish a binding ONE way, the right way!!

Foundation Piecing tutorial

You either like this technique or you don’t and I don’t.  However this blog is not supposed to be about my personal preferences therefore I will still share this tutorial with you.

This step by step instruction to master this technique with clear photos to go with every step can be found by clicking HERE

Create your own Yo-Yo maker

I sometimes forget that many of our blog readers are still beginner quilters and what some of us by now take for granted as general knowledge, may be totally new to a beginner.  Therefore I’ve decided to occasionally do a post on a basic technique.

Today we take a look at making Yo-Yo’s also known as Suffolk Puffs and Angie Padilla from Angie’s Bits ‘n Pieces wrote this step-by-step tutorial which included different shapes of Yo-Yo’s.  Click HERE  to enjoy this and start making your own.


I found this lovely photo of a single Yo-Yo on Sheri Howard’s blog  and you can even go and read her post about her love for Yo-Yo quilts HERE

 

If you’d like to read a little more about the history of these little fabric pieces, click HERE  

Prairie Points

I can still remember when I first learnt about using Prairie Points in a quilt how I thought it to be almost as neat as sliced bread. However I only used these once and come to think of it I also do not see it on many other quilts in our region.  Maybe people don’t know about it or if your memory is anything like mine maybe just forgot about these little beauties.

Julie Bellingham from Bellaonline  not only offers the instructions to a quilt but also has very clear photos and instructions for making prairie points which can be found by clicking HERE. 

If you scroll down on this page you will find a printer friendly icon which will allow you to print this article for your personal quilt file.

Hope to see more quilts with prairie points soon.