A Beginner's Guide to Quilting
Learn all of the tips, tricks and shortcuts of cutting fabric and sewing blocks in this easy-to-read guide. Unlock the Secrets of creating a beautiful quilt using this simple 9 step system. Amaze your friends with your creativity. |
Learn How to Sew Triangles 
Save time sewing triangles with this DVD! No guessing what to do next, you see all 6 different methods for sewing half-square triangles together. Watch as I sew and share my secrets for success with each of these methods. This one DVD will save you hours of sewing time, will increase the accuracy of your sewing, making your blocks fit together better AND, may save your sanity! Combine this resource with strip piecing, and your blocks will fly together, and your quilts will be finished in no time at all. |
Quilters are known for taking a perfectly good piece of fabric, cutting it into little pieces, and then sewing them back together. Generally these pieces are triangles or squares, but sometimes, quilters will cut strips of fabric and sew them together.
Using "strip piecing," you can design a piece of fabric that can be cut up and used to create some really interesting quilts or wall hangings.
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One of the challenges of sewing fabric strips is keeping the sewn together strips straight. Although this sounds like it would be easy, if you aren't paying attention, you may end up with a curved piece of "new" fabric. Here are some tips to help you sew long strips together and avoid getting curves and/or puckers. Try one or a combination of techniques below: |
| You can sew narrow strips of fabric together to create your own fabric. |
- Set your machine to 18-20 stitches per inch. The smaller stitches will keep the seams from separating
- Don’t tug on your fabric as it is being sewn. Letting the machine do the work of pulling it through will reduce or eliminate any possible stretching of the fabric
- Alternate sewing the strips from top to bottom. Sew the first pair from top to bottom, and then the next pair from bottom to top
- Try using a walking foot
- Sew shorter strips together – either cut the strip in half so you are sewing 20 inch strips instead of 40 inch strips; or begin with fat quarters (which are 20-22 inches wide).
- Sew the length of the fabric (parallel to the selvedge) instead of the width of the fabric (cross grain). The cross grain tends to have more stretch than the lengthwise grain of the fabric.
- Start by sewing pairs of strips together. When you have all of the pairs sewn together, then sew pairs of pairs together (2 sets of pairs, resulting in one piece, 4 strips wide). Next sew pairs of the sets of 4 together. Continue in this fashion until you have as large a piece of "new" fabric as you want.
- try sewing without pinning the strips together
When I am sewing several strips together to create a "new" fabric, I sew two pieces of fabric together, and then sew the pairs together, continuing to sew the new units together until I get the piece of fabric the size I want.
I also alternate sewing from top to bottom and then from bottom to top. It may be a bit tricky if your strips are not all the same length. You can easily trim them to be the same length.
Once you have "new" fabric, you can cut it into strips and sew those strips together to create an even more unique look to your fabric.
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Happy Quilting!
Penny Halgren
©2009, Penny Halgren
Penny is a quilter of more than 27 years who seeks to interest new
quilters and provide them with the resources necessary to create
beautiful quilts.
This article courtesy of http://www.How-To-Quilt.com. You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.
