I’m going to post a video on pressing that is by far the best tip I’ve gotten to improve my piecing in years. The suggestion is this,  press on a piece of flannel. Yep, that’s it.  I’ve bought irons, Steady Betty, Starches, & whatever else is out there to make pressing easier, more accurate & just more fun. I loathe pressing yet I know its a super important part of the process. So if there is one thing you gather from this video, believe the flannel part will change the way you press your pieces. Now watch & you be the judge…just do it!

Thanks to Sharon Blackmore for doing this video.

This pretty braid quilt is a Wedding quilt. It has an embroidered border with the couples names & date on it (I try not to post photos with names). I’m just posting the close ups since its a gift.

The piecer ran into some challenges when making this top that many of us have also faced, fullness and wavy borders. As you can see in the photos, these issues can be overcome and result in a beautiful quilt. Of course it is much easier to avoid the trouble ahead of time if possible.

Most of the quilts I see with surprise challenges result because of bias edges. A braid quilt can be one of them. Even with the closest care, they can easily stretch along the bias edge when sewn. I often see this with setting triangles on quilts where the blocks are put on point. Its the nature of the fabric to stretch on the bias edge. When this happens the best cure is to fix it, take apart the borders & ease in the areas that have stretched & then reattach the borders. I see this a lot on quilts & have had a few of my own. I’m no expert on piecing but I get to see so many quilts laid out flat on a perfectly square machine and am often faced with figuring out how to make a quilt flat and quilt-able. Only so much fullness can be quilted in & its less than many believe.

How can this fullness be avoided? If you know your putting a quilt on point or angle, the best offense I’ve found is to liberally starch the fabric beforehand. Be gentle with handling when piecing. Make sure the presser foot is not too tight where its stretching the fabric when sewing. Also, I suggest making the stitch length a tad longer. Try to always put the solid piece of fabric on the bottom side & the pieced fabric on top when sewing. Finally, do not pull against the fabric when sewing, let it feed itself through or even push slightly the fabric towards the needle.

In the end what everyone wants is a beautiful quilt like shown below. What we all prefer is to not have to take the top apart & have to do a fix. The best option is to anticipate that a quilt has edges that are bias (cut on an angle) and will stretch. Take the extra care up front & save some time in the long run.

Isn’t this just a beautiful braid? The quilting design is PS I Love You, she chose a champaign color thread & provided Warm and Natural batting. I think they newlyweds will love it!!

This is Martha’s Rock the Block 3 quilt from Joe Cunningham’s workshop. The quilting design is Square Dance B2B, taupe thread & Hobbs Wool Batting.

Maralee’s Jelly Roll quilt with Cool Beans design allover, silver thread & polydown batting.

Donna made this beautiful quilt for her husband. The quilting design is called Dandy. The batting is Hobbs Polydown & the thread is gold. The navy circle print fabric is the back.

Jean made this cute coffee themed quilt. Its a snowball quilt. The fabrics are really cute & have coffee cups, birds & newsprint mixed in. The quilting design is Circles, purple thread & Wool batting. Cute!!

Here’s a couple quilts I’m working on today:

I’m finishing up several quilts during the TG holiday then will be calling after the holiday to arrange pick ups.

Enjoy sewing over the holiday weekend

This is Grace’s quilt with baby clamshells allover. The batting is Polydown, thread is pale green. She chose a beautiful fabric for the backing. Clamshells give a lot of texture to the quilt.

Sugar is not my friend, it doesn’t hop me up, just drags me down and keeps calling for more. So why do I keep putting my hand in that bag??  I’m swearing off it today & hope to ignore it’s whispering in my ear.

Now on the quilt front. I’ve got a Round Robin quilt loaded which I cannot share until our group reveal when they are finished. I also am quilting a t-shirt quilt, a Christmas gift. Most of the quilts right now are being gifted so I might have to hold off on the photos and find some other ‘quilty’ bits to chat about.

Have a sew worthy day!

Connie made 2 very similar quilts. They have the cutest Bolivian print for the borders. The quilting design is Tole Painting by Ann Bright, batting is Quilters Dream & this has Rainbows variegated thread.

If you look close at the border print you will find a rainbow color Alpaca.

The second quilt has the same quilting design but a solid yellow thread,  green border & different backing.

Here are some finished photo’s of Bonnie’s quilt. The quilting design is Daisy Delight, the batting is Hobbs 80/20 & thread is white. This is such a cheerful quilt!