Patchwork hacks for busy sewers.

I love a good hint or hack that speeds up or makes my sewing easier or tidies my space to make it more user friendly.

I love the way many of the items I am going to share with you were produced for a totally different use.

Hack 1: Freezer paper. When did freezer paper come out of the kitchen and into our craft rooms?  It has two great uses when it comes to patchwork and quilting.  It is great for applique templates and for foundation piecing, my favourite method of patchwork. Freezer paper is readily available through ebay.

Hack 2: File organiser. Designed for office desks to keeps files tidy and organised but perfect for keeping cutting boards and rulers close at hand and ready for use. Officeworks has one at a very reasonable price.

Hack 3: Masking tape. So many uses but my favourite two are as a straight line guide when machine quilting  and to mark my quilting ruler when trimming half-square-triangle block, see Karen Brown’s, Just Get It Done, YouTube. You stick 3 strips of masking tape along the 45 degree line of your ruler creating a channel that sits snuggly against you H-S-T seam. Presto a non-slip ruler. Masking tape, in various widths, is available at hardware stores.

Hack 4: Non-slip matting. This one we are going to use for exactly what it was designed for, to stop things from slipping. Place it under your sewing machine and peddle to stop them from slipping when you are sewing. For $2.80 you can get a roll from Daiso stores.

Hack 5: Hair ties help keep our hair tidy but can also help keep our bobbins tidy.

Hack 6: Small mirrors x 2. Another of Karen Brown’s hacks.   A cheap and quick way to make a “fussy cutting mirror”. The real deal cost around $23 but I bought two mirrors from a Daiso store for $5.60  total, grab some masking tape and tape them together along an edge.

Hack 7: Pencil case. Going away for a couple of days quilting, lucky you, or meeting up with the girls for some sewing? Keep your rotary cutters safe in a pencil case, they will not cut you when you reach into your bag and the blades won’t accidently get nicks in them.

Hack 8: Very small artist easel. When I am sewing one block at a time, so I don’t get confused, I lay out my block on a piece of flannelette, over a board, and place it near my sewing machine, on a very small easel, so I can grab each piece as I need it. Again a $2.80 purchase from Daiso.

Happy sewing.

Margaret

Rules, rules everywhere there's rules.

When I learnt to make patchwork quilts back in the 80’s I was told there where rules that I should never break. OOOPs I have broken them all and continue to break them on an almost daily basis. Here are the top 5.

Rule 1: Never use white fabric in a quilt. I have no idea how this rule came about, maybe it dates back to times when washing was difficult and white showed the dirt to much, who knows. I stuck to this rule for quite some time until I realised that white actually added a bit of zing to a quilt so now I use it in almost every quilt I make.

Rule 2: Always press seams to the dark side. Yes a good rule and I try and stick to it where possible BUT sometimes my points look better if I press the other way or I press the seam open.

Rule 3: Always wash your fabric before using it. Nee, non, nai, no it does not happen in this house. When I buy new fabric I am always in a hurry to get home to start playing with it. I have bought fabrics that have had a little too much sizing and therefore are a little stiff when hand piecing and I bitch and moan about it but still I don’t pre wash. The rule is also about fabric shrinking, I have never found it to be an issue.

Rule 4: Blue and green should not be seen without something in between. Tell that rule to the horizon where green forests meet the blue sky. No more to be said on that topic, Nature has it sorted.

Rule 5: (The most ridiculous rule of all.) Only ever have one quilt on the go at a time ie do not start a new quilt until you have finished the one you are currently working on. How to stifle creativity, spontaneity, passion, enthusiasm and put patchwork shops out of business. I will happily confess to having more UFO’s than I dare to count. Will they all get finished, probably not , my kids can deal with that issue when I am gone. Did I enjoy starting them, yes. Was I enthusiastic about them at the start, yes. Did I learn something along the way, yes. Did starting a new quilt spark my creativity, yes. So what does all that tell you? That starting something and not finishing it straight away, or ever, is not a totally bad thing, there are positives in there.

So the over-riding message today is : yes there will always be rules no matter what aspect of life you look at and some should never, never, ever be broken BUT some are just crying out to be broken.

Happy sewing