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!
I hope these quilting tips make your quilting life simpler so you can spend more time on loving what you do. Enjoy!
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