The Machine Quilting Adventure Watch every step in making this beautiful quilt beginning with choosing your fabric and ending with signing it so future generations know you made it. |
Here are some tips for sewing triangles for pointy points:
"Thread bunnies" - this will help with all of your chain sewing. A "thread bunny" is a small scrap of fabric that you put under your presser foot to begin and end chain sewing. By sewing the thread bunny before you feeding the first patches in, you are more assured of having a smooth starting edge on your patches. (Translation - your machine is less likely to "eat" the first patch, since it has already had a shot at the thread bunny!) In addition, the thread bunny holds the thread tails. That means that you only cut the threads between the patches, and don't have a bunch of loose threads cluttering up your sewing area.
Sewing bias patches to straight-grain patches - sew these patches together with the straight-grain piece on the bottom. The straight-grain piece will help stabilize the bias piece and reduce stretching.
Mark the corner seam allowances - place a dot in the corner of the triangle where the stitching should be. Then match the dots on your pieces, and pin the pieces together. Watch as you sew to make sure that you are stitching where the dot is. Some templates come with little holes in the corners so you can easily pencil-mark the corners.
Fold seam allowances in opposite directions - this is one of the best ways to get flat triangles, and have the points match. Folding the seam allowances in opposite directions allows the patches to nestle into each other.
Match the points and pin - If you are sewing two triangle patches together, put the point of your pin where the triangle points meet to match your points. Carefully place a pin holding the patches together, making sure that the points are still matched. If you have a choice, stitch on a patch where you can see where the seams cross.
Trim the tips on your triangles - if you trim the tips on your triangles as shown below, the triangle will match up with square patches as well as other triangles, and you will be able to see exactly how it will line up.
Happy Quilting!
Penny Halgren
www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com
