BLOG: Quilt Tutorials

My Secret Weapon to Make Fabric Behave

July 29, 2013

Starch.

Starch!

Simple. Cheap. Old-fashioned. Starch.

It has been crazy humid here this summer.

It’s beyond humid. It’s wet.

We had over 17 inches of rain in the first week of July – and we’ve continued to have heavy rains in the last few weeks. We usually get about five inches for the whole month.

My flour is clumpy. My cereal boxes are soggy. My salt is unsprinkleable. And my applique pieces won’t stay folded!

Aaaaargh!

Five minutes after I press them they look like this.

It’s coming unfolded before I can even press all the pieces for one block!

The solution, my friends, is starch.

Look at the difference.

This is two days after I pressed it.

Starched folds stay folded.

I just use regular spray starch from the grocery store. Nothing fancy or expensive. And I think I’ve been working off this same can for over 10 years.

You can spray it on just before pressing, like I do in this video.

Or you can spray some into a small dish (like a little custard cup), wait for the foam to subside, then paint the liquid starch on with a paintbrush. If you do that you don’t have to paint the whole seam allowance – just make sure you get it right up against the freezer paper. That’s where the fold will be that you’re desperately trying to hold in place while you get the rest of the pieces for the block pressed.

I use both methods interchangeably. It depends on my mood, how many pieces I’m working on, my tolerance for mess that day, and how generally lazy I’m feeling.

If I’m only pressing a few pieces I just spray it on and ignore the mess from the overspray. The extra flakes of starch will brush right off my ironing board and wipe off my iron.

If I’m doing a whole bunch of pieces I’ll actually go downstairs and get a dish, then dig around for a paintbrush and use the paint-it-on method. I actually prefer that, but sometimes I’m too lazy to go to the extra trouble.

If you want to see the details of the machine applique technique I’m talking about here, click here to find all the tutorials about it in one handy dandy place.

But starch isn’t only useful for applique! That’s where I use it most often, but it’s great for holding any pressing. It’s especially useful for hemming – particularly if the fabric you’re trying to hem isn’t a crisp woven cotton. It can be really helpful in making slippery synthetic fabrics behave like a nice, obedient cotton. 🙂

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi

My Favorite Tip for Machine Quilting without Swearing

May 8, 2013

Nothing – and I mean nothing – is more likely to make me curse like a sailor than when my bobbin runs out of thread in the middle of a long row of stitching while machine quilting. You sew and sew and sew, shifting the heavy weight of the quilt over and over again – and then get to the end and realize you just stitched a whole row with no bobbin – so there’s no stitching. Grrrrrrr. . . just thinking about it is making my blood pressure go up.

*breathe*

I had this happen one too many times on my last project – and then I had a little epiphany.

Actually – a big epiphany. 🙂

Wind a bunch of bobbins before you get started. Like – at least ten for a twin size quilt. Pop matching full bobbins into the top (where you’d normally use a spool) and in the bobbin case. The top and bottom stitching should use the same amount of thread, so you can look at the top bobbin at any time to see how much thread you have left in the bottom (secret hidden) bobbin.

Check before you start every row. If it’s close to empty – go ahead and replace both bobbins. You may waste a little thread – but you’ll be saving your sanity. I say choose sanity.

And even if you miscalculate and run out in the middle of a row – you’ll know right away instead of continuing to stitch on in painful, oblivious ignorance.

Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.

Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.

How to Tie a Knot
Hand Quilting Basics – traditional hand quilting
Hand Quilting without Marking
Big Stitch Quilting
How to Quilt All the Way to the Edge

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about binding and finishing your quilt.

Happy quilting!

Video – How to Sew or Quilt Perfectly Parallel Lines

May 7, 2013

How to Sew or Quilt Perfectly Parallel Lines - video

In this video I show you how to install and use the quilt guide – a mysterious-looking tool that comes with most sewing machines. It’s really easy to use and lets you sew or quilt perfectly parallel lines.

You can do quilting that looks like this. . .

Buttonholes Quilt with parallel line quilting — Buttonholes Quilt with simple parallel lines quilted

Or you can topstitch on plain fabric to give it pinstripes. I did that on this Mighty Casey baseball jersey I made for my husband.

You can click on it to get a closer look.

Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.

How to Tie a Knot
Hand Quilting Basics – traditional hand quilting
Hand Quilting without Marking
Big Stitch Quilting
How to Quilt All the Way to the Edge

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about binding and finishing your quilt.

Happy stitching!

Video – How to Machine Quilt a Big Quilt on a Standard Sewing Machine

May 2, 2013

How to Quilt a Big Quilt on a Standard Sewing Machine - video

I know. You look at that mass of quilt and you look at the space under the arm of your sewing machine and you think, “No way!”

You’d be wrong.

You can totally quilt a big quilt on a regular sewing machine.

I’ve actually quilted king size quilts on my machine – though in this video I’m demonstrating on a twin size.

First, watch this video showing the basics of machine quilting. That video uses a little doll quilt as a sample – easy to see and get a feel for the process – but it doesn’t answer the question you really have about doing the same thing with a bed quilt. That’s what I tackle in this video. So watch it now.

Important! See that little black bit behind the presser foot on my machine? That’s my walking foot. I forgot to mention it in the video – but it’s pretty critical. You really can’t machine quilt without one – it’ll end up all puckery and you’ll be sad. 🙁

And what if you want to quilt lines that don’t follow the seams of the quilt?

Tape – my friends. Painters tape.

On the Flower Beds Quilt I wanted to quilt a diagonal grid over the whole surface. I laid down a strip of masking tape to guide my first line. See how the edge of the tape intersects the corners of the blocks? (That’s what those red circles are showing.) That helps me get a perfectly straight line. Quilt right along the edge of the tape.

Using Masking Tape as a Quilting Guide - detail

Then remove the tape.

You only need to do this for the first row of stitching. After that each row serves as the guide for the next.

I usually just eyeball the distance between rows, but in case you want a little more precision – check out this video showing you a nifty little gizmo to help you stitch perfectly parallel lines.

Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.

How to Tie a Knot
Hand Quilting Basics – traditional hand quilting
Hand Quilting without Marking
Big Stitch Quilting
How to Quilt All the Way to the Edge

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about binding and finishing your quilt.

Happy quilting!

How to Turn a Quilt Block into a Pillow

April 3, 2013

How to Turn Any Quilt Block into a PIllow

So. Let’s say you really like one of my quilt patterns, but you’ve never made a quilt before and you’re kind of freaked out about making the whole thing.

Start with one block. You can make one single block, right? Of course you can! And you can turn that fun quilt block into a pillow. Here’s how.

Make a quilt block.

Any block from any pattern.

How to Make a Pillow Out of Any Quilt Block - a free tutorial from Shiny Happy World

I made this monster block exactly as the pattern specified. It’s a 10 1/2 inch square. Almost all of my applique quilt patterns are 10 1/2″ squares.You could always enlarge the pattern so it fits on the pillow form you want to cover – but depending on the size you’re enlarging it to, that could make things a little tricky. I’ve got a class (Think BIG!) showing how to do giant applique. For now let’s keep things simple and just add some framing to enlarge the block.

Add Frames

My pillow form is 18″ square. That means I need the front of the pillow cover to be 18″ square. (I like my pillow covers to be just a little bit smaller than the pillows so they have a nice snug fit.)

My block is 10 1/2″ square. That means it will finish at 10″ square when I take up the seam allowances. I want it to end up 18 inches square, so I need to add 4 inches on each side of the block.

I could add 4″ frames all the way around, but I want a narrow frame inside a slightly wider frame. So I’m going to add a 1″ frame all the way around, and then a 3″ frame all the way around that. That will add up to the 4″ frame all around.

Start with the sides.

Cut strips 1 1/2″ wide. (Remember – if you want a 1″ frame you need to cut your strips 1 1/2″ so seam allowance is included.) Sew a strip to each side of your block using 1/4″ seam allowances. Press them flat.

Sew strips to the top and bottom. Press them flat.

The inner frame is done. Now your block is 12 1/2″ square.

Do the same thing for the outer frame, but use 3 1/4″ strips for a 3″ frame.

Once the outer frame is sewn on, your pillow cover front should be an 18″ square. Remember – that will finish at 17″ for a nice, snug fit for an 18″ pillow.

Make the Pillow Back

I like using zippers on my pillow covers so I can take them off for washing. You can add the zipper to the side seam where the front is sewn to the back, but I think that sometimes distorts the look of the pillow. I prefer to add it to the middle of the pillow back.

How to Add a Zipper to a Pillow Back - a video tutorial from Shiny Happy World

This video tutorial shows how to sew a zippered pillow back.

For this monster pillow you need to make a back that is 18 inches square.

Finish Your Pillow Cover

Unzip the zipper at least part way. Don’t forget to do this or you’ll be very sad!

Sew the pillow front to the pillow back, right sides together, all the way around the pillow, using 1/2″ seam allowance.

Turn it right side out through the zipper opening. (See why you left it unzipped a bit?) Slip your pillow form into the cover. Zip it up and toss it onto a chair.

Finished!

One silly monster quilt block made into a pillow. 🙂

Here are several free patterns that work with my basic 10-inch applique squares – no resizing needed!

Here are several free patterns that work with just some simple resizing. This post about making coasters has info about resizing an applique pattern that can be applied to any of these projects.

Free Bib Pattern
Simple Christmas Stocking
Mini Bunny Tote Bag
Turn Any Quilt Block Patterns into Cute Coasters
Cozy Bear Coasters
The Big Bag (applique on the pocket)
Cloth Book for Babies

Return to the main Let’s Make a Quilt Table of Contents.

Happy sewing!

Joining Quilt Blocks and Nesting the Seams – video

March 27, 2013

Want to learn how to make a quilt with an easy online workshop – totally free?

Sign up for Let’s Make a Quilt here. You’ll learn how to get started, the tools and supplies you’ll need, and how to make a quilt from start to finish using Quilt As You Go and applique with fusible adhesive.

It’s the easiest, most fun way to make an applique quilt. You can do it!

When you’re joining rows of quilt blocks together, the seam allowances at the corners can get pretty bulky. You can’t eliminate that bulk altogether, but you can minimize it – spread it out a bit – and that’s what I show you how to do in this video.

See all the quilt lessons here.

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

How to Applique Faux Fur – video

January 29, 2013

Applique with faux fur is the BEST!

Lots of people use fur to make stuffed animals – but did you know you can use it in quilts too?

Yes – you can!

Make shaggy dogs, fluffy cats, and furry monsters.

Or if you don’t want to make the whole critter furry, maybe just a few parts? Like some long, silky fur on a dog’s ears – or excessively shaggy eyebrows on a silly monster.

I’ve already shown you the basics for working with fur to make stuffed animals. This post shows you how to cut and sew faux fur, and this one shows how to applique regular fabric onto the fur. Today’s video shows you how to applique faux fur onto regular fabric. It’s crazy easy.

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Oh – and in case you missed it – here’s info about my favorite source for faux fur.

And if you’re looking for some patterns to try it with, here are a few of my favorites.

Scary Squares is my simplest monster quilt pattern. It has lots of big, easy body shapes that would be easy to do with fur.
Mix & Match Monsters is a little more complex, with lots of additional parts (spots, stripes, horns, etc) where you could use smaller bits of fur.
Lovable Mutts is my easiest dog pattern – lots of big, simple shapes begging for fur.
Cuddly Cats is the equally simple cats pattern.
Bunches of Bears – one more super simple pattern that would work great with applique faux fur.

Here are links to all the posts about choosing fabric.

And here are links to posts about using specialty fabrics.

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Have fun with this technique!

How to Make Half Square Triangle Blocks – video

January 24, 2013

Yesterday I showed you what a half-square triangle block is (and some of the tools you’ll use to make them). Today I’m going to show you how to make one. Actually – two, because with this technique you make them two at a time.

There are a LOT of different methods for making half-square triangles. Some of them make a lot of blocks relatively quickly, but they have a lot of steps that don’t feel very intuitive to me. This method is fast, easy to understand (once you do it once you’ll never need to look at the instructions again), and makes a nice accurate block. That’s all I ask for. 🙂

Update – Ask and ye shall receive! Someone asked for a printable PDF with very basic instructions that she could follow along with away from her computer. What a great idea! I put together a handy dandy cheat sheet on just one page – with photos. 🙂 Here’s the link to download it.

Handy Dandy Half-Square Triangles Cheat Sheet

One more thing. In this video I tell you to cut your initial squares 1 inch larger than the size of the finished block. Most instructions tell you to cut cut 7/8″ bigger and then sew with a scant quarter inch seam allowance. That makes me really nervous. How much smaller than 1/4 inch is a “scant” 1/4 inch seam? If I’m not scant enough my blocks will be just a smidge too small and then I’m SOL. No. I’d rather cut my initial squares 1/8″ bigger, sew with a real (measurable) 1/4 inch seam allowance, and then trim away the tiny bit of extra I end up with. It’s much less nerve-wracking – plus the math is easier. 🙂

The possibilities with just half-square triangles are incredible!

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Intro to Quilting Triangles – video

January 23, 2013

I’ve gotten a lot of emails asking for a help piecing triangles. Your wish is my command!

This video isn’t a how to – that’ll come tomorrow. This one walks you through the two kinds of triangles we’re going to learn – half-square triangles and quarter-square triangles. These are the most common triangles you’ll find in quilting – you could make gorgeous quilts for the rest of your life, never repeating a pattern and never moving beyond these two basic blocks. Learning them is like learning back stitch, split stitch, lazy daisy and French knot – you can embroider any design knowing these four stitches.

In addition to teaching you the difference between the two basic triangle units, I also show you a couple of tools it’ll be handy to have when you start piecing triangles. They’re inexpensive and easy to find and they will make your life sooooooo much easier. Get them.

Here are the lessons. . .

How to Make Half-Square Triangles

How to Make Quarter-Square Triangles

Happy quilting. 🙂

Best,
Wendi

How to Applique ONTO Fake Fur – video

January 22, 2013

I love to use a bit of fake fur in my quilts and stuffed animals, but I get a lot of questions about how to make the eyes and other features work. How do you applique ONTO fake fur?

See the eye on the crazy blue bird monster, above? Or the giant eyeball on this monster made with the Eggheads softie pattern?

Hugh the Egghead Monster from Shiny Happy World

That’s the kind of thing people are asking about.

I get the same question about working with fleece, like the eye on this fleece bird/monster.

Applique using cuddle fleece - so soft and snuggly!

All of these use appliqué onto fake fur or fleece to sew on those eyeballs.

This video showed you how to cut faux fur without leaving your sewing space looking like a Muppet abattoir, and how to sew the pieces together so all the lovely fur ends up on the outside of your softie (without tedious seam-picking).

Now I’m showing you how to appliqué directly onto the fake fur. This is a good way to attach eyes, mouths, bellies, spots, stripes – any smooth surface you want on top of all that fur. It’s surprisingly easy!

Applique onto fake fur. Give it a try!

Then try this video to learn to appliqué faux fur onto regular fabric – great for bushy eyebrows. 🙂

Here are links to all the posts about choosing fabric.

And here are links to posts about using specialty fabrics.

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Happy sewing!

You can totally quilt a big quilt on a regular sewing machine.

Make a quilt block.

Add Frames

Make the Pillow Back

Finish Your Pillow Cover

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