Best Practices: Working with 100% Cotton Thread

If you're quilting Jelly Roll Race quilts along with us for QuiltWest, you'll know that I requested participants use 100 percent cotton thread for both the piecing and the quilting.  I have a confession to make:  I pretty much hated quilting with cotton thread until a fellow long arm quilter gave me some tips...

Best Practices: Pin Perpendicular to the Seam

I have a confession to make.  With few exceptions, I am a perpendicular pinner.  Though you may find it counter-intuitive, I am unapologetic.  No matter what your grandma taught you, I'm pretty sure I'll have you converted by the end of this post.

Wanna take that challenge? 

Best Practices: Before you walk away...

Most people sew in spurts:  They work on a project, finish it and store their machines until the next big project comes along.  When you set your machine aside, you can spend three seconds doing three ridiculously simple things to extend the life of your machine and prevent problems.  (I even do this when I walk away from my machine for a few hours...)

Best Practices: Working with Fusible Interfacing

Fusible interfacing can do wonderful things for your sewing.  Depending on the type you choose, it can add stability, structure and even padding to your creation.  The varieties are endless:  Fusibles range in thickness...some are tissue-like and tear easily, some stretch with your knits, yet others have no foundation at all.  Instead, they're little more than glue pressed in a misty weblike sheet used to applique one fabric to another for quilting.  Though most fusible interfacings are manufactured in white, some also come in gray and black. 

As wonderful as fusible interfacing is, it can be a total pain to work with.  Here are some tips for avoiding common pitfalls and making things a little easier...

Best Practices: Changing Your Needle (Secret Tip!)



 



UGH! Changing out your sewing machine needle can be a total pain.  Once you pop that little lance out of the package, it's tough to tell what size or type it is.  That's no problem if you slide a new one in for every new project, as many experts recommend, but some projects are small and don't put much wear on a needle.  I try to get somewhere between 6-8 hours sewing time out of my needles.  (No, I don't keep a stopwatch by my machine.)

Best Practices: Stabilize That Machine!

If you've had the pleasure pleasure of owning an antique machine and then purchased a new sewing machine, you may have noticed one major difference as soon as you picked up the box:  New machines are generally much lighter than their ancestors.  Older machines were typically cast iron beneath the surface, while new machines are filled with many more plastic parts.  Newer machines aren't quite the workhorses that their predecessors were, but if you're taking lessons or classes that require you to drag your machine around, you may not mind so much.  Lightweight = Easier to transport.  However, the first time said machine tips over or your serger goes dancing off the table and crashing onto Rover, you'll see the obvious downside.  (Ask me how I know...)

Best Practices: The Rat's Nest

I only ever had one sewing lesson -- It was the free lesson on how to use my machine that came with my purchase.  I had been cobbling together curtains, throw pillows and tablecloths to outfit our new home for months on my mother's old Singer and a temperamental secondhand serger when SuperHusband said I could have a new sewing machine for my birthday.  We'd been married less than a year, and a $300 gift was no small thing.  (It still isn't -- If anything, we're cheaper since the kids came along.)