Improvisational Piecing: What’s Hiding in Your Stash?

Written by Diane Harris on March 30, 2017. Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas

Improvisational piecing is putting together a quilt top without a preconceived plan for exactly how it will look. It’s a way of working from intuition, with a sense of adventure and a willingness to explore unknown territory. It’s probably the most fun you will ever have.

And we’re off! This is the first unit I made. The fabrics do not “match.”

Yesterday, on the morning of my website launch, I had an idea. What if I spent the day sewing improvisational units and then posted them on social media thoughout the day, as the quilt progressed? I decided to go for it.

Five Easy Ways to Improve Your Patchwork

Written by Diane Harris on March 29, 2017. Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas

Try these five easy fixes to improve your patchwork.

1. Shorten your stitch length to 2.0 mm, or about 13 stitches per inch. The default stitch length on computerized machines is usually too long for piecing. Learn more about stitch length.

Stitch length of 2.0 or 13 stitches per inch is preferable for piecing.

2. Instead of focusing on the width of your quarter-inch seam allowance, focus on the finished size of your patches, which is what really matters. Learn more about piecing accurately.

Look near the top: The strip section on the right doesn’t match the pinwheel section on the left. If I had measured the sections instead of the seam allowance, I’d have had better results.

3. Use a presser foot with visibility. Check with your sewing machine dealer to see all the options. If you sew on an older machine, there may be add-ons from other brands that will fit.

Use a presser foot that gives you plenty of visibility like these.

4. Keep your rotary cutter blade sharp. If you’re missing threads, it’s time to change. Keep the cost down by buying multi-packs. Some people report good luck with rotary carpet blades from places like Harbor Freight.

A sharp blade means accurate cuts.

5. Use only one brand of ruler. Using several different brands of rulers means decreased accuracy because their cuts can vary.

Use only one brand of ruler. Different brands make different cuts, which means decreased accuracy.

Little things add up to a big difference!

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Understanding Stitch Length

Written by Diane Harris on March 27, 2017. Posted in How-tos and Ideas

It’s important to understand the stitch length settings on your sewing machine. Different stitch lengths are appropriate for different tasks.

Stitch length of 2.0 or 13 stitches per inch is preferable for piecing.

Many machines use the metric system. The setting of 2.0, 2.3, 2.5 and so on tells you the length of each stitch. For example, if you set the machine to 3.2, each stitch will be 3.2 millimeters long.

Accurate Piecing and Your Quarter Inch

Written by Diane Harris on March 27, 2017. Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas

How is it possible to sew an accurate quarter-inch seam allowance and still have patches and units that don’t match up as they should? It’s the quilter’s eternal question, her 99-bottles-of-beer-on-the-wall refrain.

It’s frustrating to measure, cut, sew and press carefully, only to have edges that disagree like Republicans and Democrats. What happens? What goes wrong? Let’s take it apart and see.

Convert Metric Stitch Length to Stitches Per Inch

Written by Diane Harris on March 26, 2017. Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas

I have several sewing machines and if you’re a quilter, maybe you do, too. When it comes to stitch length, some machines use a metric length such as 2.5 or 3.0. This tells you that each stitch is 2.5 or 3.0 millimeters long.

Different sewing machines indicate stitch length differently.

Other machines use an English stitches-per-inch setting such as 12 or 15 or 20. This tells you that in every inch of a seam, there are that many stitches. Setting stitch length to 15 means there will be 15 stitches in every inch.

This post is to explain how you can convert from metric stitch length to stitches-per-inch, or visa versa.

Same Ol’ Same Ol’ (Color): Magic Combinations

Written by Diane Harris on March 6, 2017. Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas

I love using many different fabrics of the same color to generate interest in a quilt. On a recent design, I created red and green pieced borders and I love the way they turned out. They finished off a scrappy quilt quite nicely.

People often ask me about combining fabrics and how I do it. So let’s talk about those greens.

Serpentine Stitch: Can’t Live Without It

Written by Diane Harris on February 20, 2017. Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas

I hope you’ve discovered the serpentine stitch on your sewing machine. I could not do without it.

The serpentine stitch makes a pretty, wavy line. You just sew straight and the machine does all the work. It’s the bomb. I use the serpentine stitch for machine quilting with a walking foot. It’s easy and it looks terrific.