Hints and Tips

There are so many useful things we can do to make our sewing experience more enjoyable. In most instances these items are inexpensive and often in our sewing baskets!

* How do you make Bias Binding?

1. Measure the quilt to determine how many inches of binding you need. Allow 10" extra for turning corners and the closure. Refer to chart to find the size square needed. 

2. Cut the square in half diagonally (see Diagram I). With right sides together, sew the triangles together with a 1/4" seam and press open. 

3. On fabric wrong side long edges, draw lines to make strips of your chosen binding width (see Diagram II). Use a clear acrylic rotary ruler and a pencil or fine-point permanent pen to draw the lines.

4. Bring the short diagonal edges together, forming a tube (see Diagram III). Offset the drawn lines by one strip. With right sides together, match lines with pins at the 1/4" seamline and stitch seam; press open.

5. With scissors, cut along continuously drawn line.

* What size is your double wedding ring block?

The traditional double wedding ring block can be difficult to determine the actual size. This simple illustration gives you the details to determine the size of a double wedding ring block.

* Having trouble pulling your needle through fabric?

Use a rubber finger stall on the first finger of your quilting hand to help pull the needle through. This is much quicker than using a flat rubber needle grabber

* Do you own a strawberry emery?

These are small strawberry shaped bags filled with emery powder. If you have a pin or needle which is barbed simply rub the needle or pin into the emery to improve the pin. If your pin or needle is blunt you will not be able to re-sharpen it with an emery.

I use my emery as a pincushion when every I am sewing, this helps to keep my pins and needles sharp. I return my pins and needles to the containers at the end of each sewing session and now never use a pincushion.

* What needle is in the sewing machine?

Do you forget what needle you have in your sewing machine? Is it a universal, ball point or quilting needle?

A "NeedleTrack" will help you. Simply attach to your machine and slide the indicators to remind you what needle you have in the machine.

*Storing and transporting your quilt.

Sometimes storing and moving our quilts carefully can cause many problems. Consider purchasing a "NOODLE" from your local swimming pool supplier. (These are the brightly coloured, light weight, dense foam sausages approximately 6 foot long used as a pool toy or swimming aid).

Use the noodle to roll your quilt project during construction or storing completed quilts you do not want to fold. The noodles are lightweight and very easy to store.

* Would you like to transfer family photographs onto fabric?

While making my quilt “Forgotten Heroes” I found that there were several products on the market that allowed me to print on fabric. Some very expensive while others did not give the quality of fabric that I required. I then decided to treat my own fabric with Bubble Jet Set and found the results to be excellent.

This is what I did:

• Selected the document I wanted to print onto fabric and prepare that for printing
• Cut pre-treated fabric to the required size (A4)
• Ironed freezer paper to the fabric
• Trimmed the fabric and paper again to ensure that edges were smooth.
• Place backed fabric into paper holder of printer and then printed the required document.

I now sell fabric which has been pre-treated with Bubble Jet Set, saving you the bother of preparing the fabric. The fabric has been treated according to manufacturers instructions and available in A4 sizes.

(You can also purchase your own 200ml bottle of Bubble Jet Set)

View "Forgotten Heroes" in the gallery

*Having trouble sharpening your white, silver and gold pencils?

The solution is very simple. We are all sharpening our pencils using the first pencil sharpener we can find. I have discovered that there is a pencil sharpener for lead pencils and another for coloured pencils.

The angle of the blade in both sharpeners is quite different and affects the amount of wood removed from the pencil during sharpening. For just $1.00 the problem can be solved!

*Don't over sharpen your pencils.

The trick is to sharpen your pencil then create a nice point by having a piece of sandpaper, or an emery board and rub your pencil on it to create a point. Use your pencil to mark your fabric and then when you need to create the point again use your sandpaper. Continue in this manner until you need to sharpen your pencil again.

Keep watching this page for further great tips which will make your patchwork experience great fun.

back to top