The grip of the double pin is bent for Ease in handling. . Marking a sewing line with a pencil - from dot to dot - is optional. Mark your seam allowance on your pattern piece Accurately draw in the seam allowance on your paper pattern piece. It only takes a minute at most to do all of this. Now cut from top to bottom, directly through the center. PRESS - Press all seams as you go, even while sewing together the initial strips. This can feel time consuming, but it's way faster than unsewing! As a general rule, if the size of the squares are more than say 4 or 5 inches wide, I would secure a pin in the middle. Of these three intersections the set up for this block has both rows with the first intersection with one HST coming together on the left side of both HST. Foundation Paper Piecing with Wash-away Paper, 24/7 Access to Premium Quilting Videos, Projects, and Tips, Step-by-Step Instructional Demos, Patterns, and Tutorials, 50% Off Video Downloads Purchased in the National Quilters Circle Shop, 2 Full-Length Video Downloads to Watch Offline, 8 Full-Length Video Downloads to Watch Offline, 3 Full-Length Quilting Classes to Keep for Life, Discounts on Purchase-to-Own Content in the National Quilters Circle Shop. By signing up, your agree to receive email marketing. Thank you! The thing you want to watch is that both layers of he fabric on the right side, going into the machine, are matched up at the right side all the way to the next intersection. It isnt going to get better as you go. Step 3: After backstitching, cut the thread and move along to the next intersection. That's a lot of seams coming together and I'm concerned about the bulk. Im not pressing down enough to hold the fabric from moving. But if you have just stitched something wrong, say your end is totally wonky, it isnt going to get better. I dont just shove a pin into the intersection points, fold it back and push it back out the bottom. Nest your seams. Don't forget to breathe. Its a pity that I didnt learn myself. And frankly, I dont always succeed. 3. Youd think with cutting the same exact size square that everything would end up nice and even. Depending on how consistent you are with your seam allowances, little differences across your quilt blocks can change your block dimensions slightly. Welcome to Quilting Wemple! I LOVE to match up my seams as nicely as I can. You know they are going to match up nicely. Thank you so much for this excellent, descriptive tutorial! I am giving this a try as I always sew my points first and then the rest of the block. You want the two blocks pinned so your one pin is perfectly lining up those two points, right sides together. It "seams" logical doesn't it? Yes, of course, send me a picture and Ill give my suggestions. That's just how quilting is. Now you need to be sure that the strips are pressed in alternate directions. Enter your email below to get notified when it goes live! If your points and intersections are all nice and pretty, this is the part where you can shout your Hallelujahs and press the seam. This is one more step, but a necessary one for a couple of reasons. Create a square with sides that match the calculated size. Hand piecing: Using needle and thread to hand-sew seams while making a quilt top. Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the square, referring carefully to figures for direction. This means that the seams of each row are aligned, and the pieces fit together almost like the pieces of a puzzle. She provides helpful tips and techniques that ensure a great end result for your quilts. 1. Wonderful post Anjeanette! Once you have the first point, put that same pin right through the tip of the point of the second block. If I cant, I will mark the point with something like a disappearing FriXion pen at the very tip so that I know where they are as I am sewing. When your seams are pressed in opposite directions and you place your blocks on top of each other, the seams will nest. I press my rows first with the right side facing up on the pressing board. Thanks Regina! 1 / 3. Thanks for sharing . Also, your fabric should be lining up at about the same place on the top. Once the blocks are sewn together, make sure you press all of the seams to the same side. That means to press the seams of one row to one side and the next row to the opposite side. It isnt that Ive always been able to do this. The starch or even steam can make the fabric shrink. I mean real poo. Ok so there is no doubt, I love making pretty points when sewing my blocks together. Then I cut. I will press the length of all my seams for the block then turn it over and give it one more press from the top. If you dont have it, and I didnt for over 10 years of sewing, just try to leave your needle down if you stop during your sewing while the fabric is still under the presser foot and you are still working on that seam. While this step is not 100% necessary as you get more comfortable, when you are first learning how to match up points, its literally the best trick in the book. Also, remember to watch your fabric feeding into the sewing machine. I hope this helps. This works as theres usually a little bit of bulk where the seams meet near the point. Yet I still couldn't get these intersecting seams to match! Anyway, I thought Id share some of my tips that Ive learned along the way. I have not quilted in a whileguessI went thru a spurt where I make about 20 of them one right after the other, and kind of got burned out on making quilts. Keeping the fabric WITHIN the grid lines allows for the fabric to fold almost automatically and exactly on this line. For example, the top row would all have the seams pressed to the right, and the next row all to the left. This multistep process reduces shifting and can make quilting perfect points an achievable goal. Remember not to push the fabric because you dont want to distort it. Dont push your iron back and forth or you will get a mess under it. Nest your seams. It is a Double Square Star pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company. There is also the "Race" quilt every talks about that you sew long strips together until you get the size you want. She also teaches you a quick basting stitch method for those pesky seams that have points coming from different sides of our patchwork. This allows you to move the entire piece from ironing board to sewing table and then move the piece around the machine as you sew without the worry of it shifting or moving out of place. When multiple seams are converging at one spot to make the point in your block, the turn of the seam when you open it up might be bulkier than you expected. 3. A method I have used comes from quilting, too. Nicely done! A little tutorial on making practically perfect points in quilt blocks, Tutorial: Pretty points pieced block | Quilting | CraftGossip.com, Layer Cake Sampler QAL Week 5 {Blocks 9 & 10} | Material Girl Quilts, My favorite way to stitch EPP together | Anjeanette Klinder, A New York Beauty for Riley Blake Classic Caskata Project Tour. The stars seem to float on their backgrounds, therefore there are no seams for the points to get lost in. It's truly magical. Depending on the size needed and the specific project, this could be just one of five panels that you could sew together to make a tote bag. Matching Seams and Points in Quilting. Especially important when hand-piecing, as the seam allowances are unstitched. Print Article Ready for your next project to try this out on? Making sure the pin is running straight in, I put a pin to both the right and left side of the intersection. This almost always screws up my points by moving the bottom layer of fabric out of line. When sewing, let the alignment pin "ride . If you are matching with another point, then place the pin through the tip of the point. I am making a new quilt! You can pretty easily feel the difference between when the two seams are sitting on top of each other and when they fall into line with each other. 2. 4. It's frustrating when it happens. Practically Perfect. When you pull the blocks out of the sewing machine you will have stitching holding the points in place instead of pins. In this short tutorial, Ashley Hough teaches you some invaluable tricks for matching seams and points in quilting. Thinking the whole time about how the directional seams are going to lay flat. Consider the following before reaching for the seam ripper: Stand back and look objectively at your piecing. This works, but when triangles are introduced into our design, bulky seams make this technique not very effective. From an early age Ive had a love of craft and one early memory is spending my school holidays learning how to sew on my Mums sewing machine. Now is the time to stop stressing and put those old rules on a shelf and save for later. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Unlock exclusive member content from our industry experts. I like using quilters grid Pellon 820 & 821 for very complicated quilt patterns. Please check your inbox for your free quilt pattern! If your seams are pressed alternately, you can nestle them together tightly and just pin them together. First, selvages have a tighter weave than the rest of the fabric (quilter's cotton) and have a tendency to act a little wonky and not lay as nice sometimes. Your piece should look like this. You now have beautifully matched up points in your quilt! Match rows right sides together with raw edges aligned. But Ive heard great things about other brands too like Mary Ellens. I hope! Instead Ive made a lap quilt, a wall hanging, a shopping bag with larger 7 squares and now this mug rug. So when I discovered quilters grid I felt like I had won the lottery! On your right end of the rows, match the outside edges and pin both layers together at the end. I put my blocks together into a quilt top the same way Ive described for putting a single block together. Now that you have these parts pinned, you will want to secure the intersections. NOW we can start to sew. Seams can be bulky where many fabrics come together making it difficult for quilting and may wear faster at that point (there are easy methods for flattening these points) Shadowing caused by seams pressed one way add depth and dimension that is part of the feel of a traditional quilt Seams pressed open: Or you might have a seam pressed to the side which hides the point. Im working on my block for this weeks Layer Cake Sampler Quilt Along that my sweet friend Amanda of Material Girl is hosting. Ive never thought about quilters grid with complex patterns I just assumed a really complicated pattern (and your quilt included) could only be accurately pieced using foundation paper piecing. Repeat to make a second unit, with the D CST in the top right corner of P (Fig 1). It is the most simple for me to match up this way. Hand-piecing templates: Pattern shapes used to trace and cut patches for . I use the thinnest pins I can find. I absolutely believe that if you are careful to cut your initial squares or shapes, you sew carefully and you square up your blocks after each block is made, it makes putting the blocks together a breeze. At the center of the joining seam, a scant 1/4" protects the center point of the goose. At the edges you want to create sufficient seam allowance to protect the side points of the goose. Had I had some solid squares for example, in one of the rows instead of HST, that would make me put that row on the bottom. If you use the marking on your cutting mats, they may be marked differently on different mats and that can account for a difference in your sewing. I finally might have the most accurate matching points in the world . (left) In our example, the first pair of stitching lines is shown in red. As you are sewing the rows together also think about the way the seams coming under the presser foot are pressed. You want them to stay where they are so that they lay nicely while you quilt your quilt. Step 1. The last possibility is that intersecting points slide side-to-side and appear misaligned. I go back to my sewing machine and I determine how many points are in each row. Then mark the seams on the right side of the other strip. Remember that while you are pressing the seams open, you dont want to make the rest of your seams all folded and wonky. I go about looking at all the intersections of all my rows and decide how to press them. Holding your fingers over the intersecting seams just helps ensure your seams stay pressed the correct way as you are sewing your rows together. I find it easier to start with the short rows. Once you have the first point, put that same pin right through the tip of the point of the second block. 3. The "Magic" is in the interfacing - specifically, Pellon 820 Quilters Grid. If you only have a few cut-off points in a large quilt, they may not be noticeable to anyone but you. Step 2: Insert a pin from the wrong side (WS) of the top layer. Sometimes diagonal lines need to be aligned to form a straight line between the two blocks. Take your pinned block to the sewing machine and crank up your stitch length to at least a 4. Up to this point Ive discussed the positives of this product however, there is a downside that it worth a mention using an interfacing such as this does alter the drape of the fabric. And no matter how perfect the cut and alignment, if a consistent 1/4 seam isnt sewn then the whole block will look a mess? You can feel a seam is nesting when the seams bump up against each other. If you make a mistake with the pencil, it can be easily erased. 2. Watch even more great videos when you become a National Quilters Circle Member! This is because when you got to the bulk of the intersection, you let the fabric drift away from your 1/4 mark too much to the left. Another secret Ive discovered is in the machine itself. I would never starch after Ive cutuntil I get to the end. Im happy with this. The starch usually shrinks it just a bit. You can either just do a few stitches right where your points are or you can baste the whole seam, either one is fine. Quilting Wemple is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. In the next row, press them to the other side, so that they are nesting again. If a quilts drape or, ability to bend and fold easily (say, for snuggling) is most important then piecing small squares using this grid may not be the best option. For a scant 1/4 inch seam, there will typically be a thread or two within your normal 1/4 inch seam. 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