Tip Week - Tip # 5

Thanks for staying me with this week for all the tips. National Sewing Month only comes along, oh, once a year I think...so we should celebrate in style!

Tip # 5 - the ultimate tip of all tips...................

Keep sewing - or more accurately - keep doing what you love

If you love sewing, keep sewing, even if it's not perfect the first, second, heck one hundredth time.

If you fall in love with scrappy quilts - do it

If you become smitten with colors - explore

Follow your desires and keep going. I'm glad I do.

Much love to you all!

Tip Week - Tip # 4

Tip # 4 this week comes from a friend.

I posted awhile ago about losing my pins (not marbles). My box of pins had tumbled on the floor and it always causes me some heart palpitations when I have a 3 year old running around at the same time.

Morgan commented that her grandmother used to keep a big magnet next to her sewing machine for such an occassion. A sewing tip has never been as welcomed! Thank you Morgan!

Maybe I can find an antique magnet to go with my antique pins?

Stay tuned for the final tip tomorrow!

Tip Week - Tip # 3

Tip # 3 is...

drumroll....

PRESSING SEAMS!

Ah, yes, the tedious, but sometimes worthwhile venture of getting out the ironing board and iron each time you create a seam. Burn fingers burn! But it really does help, especially when you crate patterned blocks that almost need to lock into eachother. The "locking" or lining up of seams and blocks is much easier when the seams are all neatly pressed down.

It is also beneficial for pressing darker seams away from the potential light fabric counter part. Lets say you sew a piece of white fabric to a piece of black fabric. Press the entire seam over to the black side on the back. Otherwise you'll be seeing the seam through the front forever.

But something I learned was you can do a fingernail press too, just to stave off the iron for a little while. If you don't want to get the iron out at each step, take your fingernail and press the seam down from bottom to top.

But if you do get the iron out, remember, you're PRESSING, not IRONING. So put the iron down and press, don't move the iron up and down like you're ironing a shirt. Don't ask me why, that's just what I've been told. Anyone care to elaborate?

Stay tuned for Tip # 4 tomorrow!

Tip Week - Tip # 2

The second tip for this week is:

Keep a consistent quarter inch seam

(or whatever width seam you're aiming for)

My first few quilts had blocks of all varying sizes because I would start out trying for a 1/4" seam and waver back and forth between 1/2" and 1/8" seam. I had one blue and pink quilt that I had to fill spaces in with extra fabric because the blocks were just so different in size that they would never line up.

Here is a horrible photo of said quilt, but you can see the pink strip on the bottom left hand corner. Yeah, that's a filler.



Beautiful color combo though, right?

Stay tuned for tip # 3 tomorrow!

Tip Week - Tip # 1

So apparently March is National Sewing Month - or at least according to an article by a local quilt shop in the pennysaver.

So in honor of that I'm going to post a sewing tip each day this week. Don't hold your breath for anything magical. I just want to impart some of the first "aha" moments I had when I started sewing.

The very first tip I learned when starting out on this sewing adventure was ACCURATE MEASUREMENTS and ACCURATE CUTTING!!!! It doesn't get any better than starting with the basics. Of course my equipment was limited to sissors and my living room floor (and a general eyeballing technique), but eventually I acquired a cutting mat, straight ruler and rotary blade that greatly aided the entire process. The right tools helped me achieve this accuracy. Maybe this tip should be about the right tools? 

But remember, from the first cut you make to the last, keep accurate measurements.

Square up your blocks as you go and keep checking along the way.

Press down hard on the ruler and focus on a steady hand. Nothing brings a long and tired night to an end faster than letting the rotary blade slip every so slightly off course and ruining a piece of fabric.

Measure twice, cut once

(that one's curtesy of handsome husband)

 Stay tuned for tip # 2 tomorrow!