My Top Ten Quilting Tips
By Christine Abela So many people have written asking how I manage to get a quilt made a week.So here’s my top ten hints on how I get quilts done! 1. I have a room just for sewing, right next to the kitchen and away fromthe bedrooms. I can dash in there and sew a few seams whenever I find(literally) a minute. I bound a quilt during the commercials on a movie onSunday night - the TV was on in the kitchen, so I knew when to go back. 2. Put your sewing pressing on the ironing board at the end of each sewingsession, alongside your clothes ironing. When you iron some clothes, getyour sewing pressing done too. 3. Put a small table next to your favourite comfortable chair and ALWAYShave some hand-sewing on it. So if you sit down for even a few minutes youcan get a little hand-sewing done without having to hunt for something to dofirst. 4. Make up an attractive bag with a full sewing kit and a small hand-sewnproject in it. This is your “take anywhere” project, and you pick it upwhenever you think there is any possibility that you could be stucksomewhere and can get some hand-sewing done. I keep mine on my small tablenext to my chair, so that I only have one hand-sewing project to worry about at a time. 5. Keep all your sewing tools (scissors, rotary cutter, etc) in a centralplace like a basket (I use a big pencil case). And keep this basket next to you as you sew so that you always put the tools back in it. That way youwill never have to waste time searching for tools. Also, you can grab thisquickly as you rush out the door late for a class! Also, I keep my bobbinsin three separate bobbin cases - marked “polyester”, “cotton” and”quilting”. The plastic bobbins have “p”, “c” or “q” written on them too,so I always know what I have in my hand. 6. Use zip-lock bags to store all the bits and pieces of each project.Even if you have to pack it all away at the end of the day, you won’t wastetime searching for anything. If you are using any special threads, trims,etc, put these in the zip lock bag too. 7. Binding can be almost completely sewn on by machine (sew on the front asnormal, fold it to the back so that the binding overlaps the first seam byabout a quarter of an inch, pin well, then ditch-stitch from the front). Itdoesn’t give as neat a finish as hand-sewing, and you might have to finishoff the corners by hand, but it is quick. 8. When you buy the fabric for the quilt top, or when you start a projectfrom stash fabrics, buy or set aside the fabric for the backing and thebatting as well. Store these with the top while it is in progress. Whenthe top is finished, the next step - without stopping for breath! - is tobaste the quilt and then start quilting. If you pack the top away becauseyou have to go out and get batting and backing you might never get back toit. A quilt is not a quilt until it is a quilt - it is a quilt top and,unless you want to use it for a tablecloth, it is not finished! 9. Keep your tools in good condition. When you put a new blade in yourrotary cutter, buy the next one. Nothing slows you down like a blunt cutter(two cuts instead of one). Have your scissors sharpened regularly. Keepyour different types of pins in different containers so you don’t have tohunt through one big pin tin for the right sort of pin. Change your sewingmachine needles regularly (I use a new piecing needle and a new quiltingneedle for every second quilt). Clean the fluff out of your sewing machineafter every quilt. 10. Look after your patterns. The small zip-lock bag most patterns come inare seldom large enough to keep it all in after you have opened it up andpored over it, and never big enough to hold all the templates and littlescraps of paper you add when it is an applique pattern. Put the pattern ina large zip-lock bag and keep it all together, rather than trying to squeezeit all back in the original bag (trust me - it’s hard enough for me to fitmy paper-hungry patterns in the original bag before you buy it, let aloneafter you have opened it up! ). If you can’t fit all the bits and piecesin the bag you might leave some out and then that wastes time in looking forthem later. Christine Abela Gecko Gully quilts and socks: http://www.geckogully.com Web site development: http://www.geckogully.com/websites Once-A-Month Cooking: http://www.geckogully.com/oamc Gifts: http://www.geckogully.com/gifts Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_Abela http://EzineArticles.com/?My-Top-Ten-Quilting-Tips&id=102553 what which are take todays through best are mortgage both rates you rainbow where mortgage both 11601 by biscayne way boulevard still suite see 100 are miami before fl from best into refinance but mortgage being rate each refinance my home they equity and loan with home too kentucky are mortgage being broker me
