10 Quilting Hacks for Everyday Quilting Life

December 20, 2017

Today, it’s all about making quilting easier. Storing away some quilting tips (like what quilting templates help with sewing curves) will certainly make your quiltmaking a breeze—even if you already have a system down. And, while we’re making things easy, here’s a download for one of our free eBooks, Free Quilt Patterns featuring the Easiest Quilts Ever—instantly download four quilts to practice your new skills on!

Always searching for standard sizes for mattresses, batting, and quilts? Bookmark this link for Suggested Quilt Measurements For Common & Standard Bed Sizes on your favorite browser… Never search again!
Ruler to decimal conversions aren’t second nature for every quilter and we don’t always have a calculator on hand. Here’s a handy list of commonly used quilting measurements to refer to when the need arises:
1/8″ = 0.125″
1/4″ = 0.25″
3/8″ = 0.375″
1/2″ = 0.5″
5/8″ = 0.625″
3/4″ = 0.75″
7/8″ = 0.875
(The Quilters “Need-to-Know” Card has this chart along with other extremely helpful calculations!)
Not exactly clear on what warp and weft are or what they mean to quiltmaking? Get the lowdown on Binding A Quilt: Bias Binding Vs. Straight Of Grain Binding!
While on the topic of quilt binding, how about adding some binding with some extra style to your quilts for a change? Here are some great videos on piped binding and flanged binding.
When in doubt, ask an expert. That’s the beauty of having Nancy Mahoney as a quilting buddy! She filled us in on her method of creating mitered quilt borders and was gracious enough to share it with us. Get step-by-step directions from her in Nancy’s Quilting Classroom: Mitered Quilt Borders.
Making quilting easier also means cutting down on time spent preparing for piecing. One way to improve efficiency is to cut several pieces at once, eight at a time, to be precise! Want to learn how? We have a video for that: 8-at-a-Time Triangle-Squares.
Not everyone quilts on a longarm quilting machine, but those of us who do are always looking for ways to improve. Who better to learn from than revered longarmer, ZJ Humbach?! She’s writing a series of articles for The Quilting Company called Longarm Quilting Demystified. At last!
For those of us who prefer quilting on a home sewing machine, what’s faster (and easier) than quilting-as-you-go? There are two great methods for this technique, including quilting tutorial videos, in Workshop Wednesday: Two Quilt-As-You-Go Methods. You’ll definitely want to check those out.
Let’s give some thought to the backs of our quilts… How much yardage do we need? Should it be whole-cloth, pieced with leftover scraps, include pieced blocks and designs so it’s reversible? If you’re not sure how to answer these questions, Sara Gallegos can help. How To Back A Quilt is part of one of our free video series called My First Quilt—it’s chock full of helpful quilting tips.
And, finally, we couldn’t make a list of quilting tips without including something about sewing curves. The archnemesis of many-a-quilter! We have quilting template suggestions, as well as a Sew Easy how-to quilting video, in our Tip Tuesday: How To Piece A Quilt With Curves blog. Don’t miss it!