Tuesday Tip – SID Machine Quilting Hint

SID is short for Stitch-in-the-Ditch. The “ditch”, in quilting terminology, is the seam line between two patches on the right side of your quilt top. When quilting the top, stitching in the ditch will make your patches stand out and give crisp and clean lines to the finished quilt. When SIDing, the object is to [...]

Tuesday Tip – MacGyver to the Rescue

Do you remember the 1980′s TV show MacGyver? Richard Dean Anderson played the title character, a resourceful secret agent who could get out of any sticky or dangerous situation with little more than a Swiss Army knife and a roll of duct tape. I attend a quilting retreat twice a year. While the 16 or [...]

Tuesday Tip – “Out Damn’d Spot, Out, I Say!”

Have you ever oiled your sewing machine,  then started sewing on your project again, only to realize that some of the oil has now transferred to your project?? Or had your longarm machine drip some oil where you didn’t want it?? Today’s tip is how to remove sewing machine oil from your quilt. Cover the [...]

Tuesday Tip CORRECTION

I’ve corrected one step I left out in the previous Tuesday Tip – Making Bias Binding Part 2. Please be sure you read again, and understand that in the first photo, where I folded the fabric selvage to selvage, that was only until I trimmed the raw edges perpendicular to the fold. You then need [...]

Tuesday Tip – Making Bias Binding Part 2

First I need to apologize for the quality of the photos. I thought if I used a plaid fabric, it would be easier for you to see what was bias and what was straight of grain. This was a rather small woven plaid, and unfortunately, digital cameras don’t like them very much and make them [...]

Tuesday Tip – Making Bias Binding

Becky asked how to make bias binding. This will be more of a tutorial than a tip, so I’ll break it up into several posts over the next few days. The first step is to determine how much binding to make, and what size square of fabric you will need to start with. To determine [...]

A *REAL* Tuesday Tip

I didn’t want you to feel cheated by the tip in my last post. , so you get a second Tuesday Tip this week: When using fusible web, often times some of the glue ends up on the soleplate of your iron. (Note to self – you really need to check which side of the [...]

Tuesday Tip – Finding More Time to Quilt

On the second Monday of the month we usually have a work night at my shop for Quilts of Valor, a program which gives quilts to wounded soldiers & veterans. Sometimes we stay later than other times, tonight we had a new sewist join us so we got quite a bit done and stayed longer [...]

Tuesday Tip – Which is Which?

I like to prewash my fabrics, both to pre-shrink them and to avoid any surprises from bleeding dyes. I knew there were several chemicals that could be used in the wash to prevent problems with dyes, but I could never remember which one to use when. Synthrapol is a detergent that washes away loose dye [...]

Tuesday Tip – Working With Fusible Applique

I was working on a fusible applique project today. (If you’re new to fusible applique, here’s the short course on how it works – you trace the shape you want on the paper side, then iron that to the wrong side of your fabric. Cut the shape out along the drawn line, then remove the [...]