Quilting a Large Quilt on a Small Sewing Machine

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Lindsay Conner (Craftsy blog) wrote, "Many, many quilters regularly quilt large quilts (queen, king and larger) on a domestic machine.

But how does it all fit within the machine’s small neck? With a little practice and by following the tips on the blog post Nine Tips for Quilting a Large Quilt on a Small Sewing Machine, you should be able to get better results when quilting a bed-size quilt on your small machine."

Tips for Preventing Quilting Injuries

Quilter Erin Russek and certified personal trainer Michael Engman walk through ways to set up your quilting space in order to be comfortable, efficient, and pain-free. Engman focuses on body positioning and posture and the importance of remembering these things while we are cutting, sewing, pressing, machine quilting, and hand sewing.

Triangle Block Cheat Sheet

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Hello Melly Designs takes all the quess work out of making Half-Square and Quarter-Square Triangles for quilt designs.

A free, printable Triangle Block Cheat Sheet can be found here

How to Trim Large Blocks

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Big block quilts can be quick, easy and fun to stitch together, but how do you properly trim the individual blocks if the tools you have on hand are not large enough?

Karen Walker explains how to trim a large block with a six-inch square ruler in a photo tutorial:

How to Trim Large Blocks for Big Block Quilts

Spray Baste a Quilt

Quilting Podcasts

Yes, podcasts are also available for Quilters

You'll find a variety of podcasts on this list of the Best Quilting Podcasts (2018)

Quilt Borders

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Bonnie Hunter shares tips, tricks, and hints on adding borders to a larger quilt. Here's how she measures the borders:

Lay out the quilt on the floor, smoothing as you go so it is straight and flat, but do not stretch...just let it lay flat. Now take your border strip and lay it down the CENTER of the quilt, top to bottom, just smoothing it out. DO NOT STRETCH, just smooth, smooth. Trim it off at the bottom of the end of the quilt. I lay my quilt out on carpet, so I also like to anchor the beginning end of the borders with a couple of long pins stuck into the carpet. It keeps that one border end from creeping as I smooth. Cut the second strip the same way.

It is really important to cut your border strips straight across, or you can compound the problem if that angle is off from 45 degrees. If the angle is too wide, your next border will flare up at the corners. If it is too narrow, it is going to pull the top/bottom border down and your side border will be too short. Keep those angles square when you trim!

If you are doing a square quilt with 4 cornerstones in the corners, you can cut all 4 pieces at the same time.
If you are doing a rectangular quilt with 4 cornerstones, also cut your top and bottom borders across the width of the quilt, measuring through the center before sewing on the side borders.

This has ALWAYS worked for me, because when you are dealing with measuring tapes, they dont drape and lay the way your fabric does....your border fabric is your 'measuring tape' and as you smooth it across the center of the quilt top it will lay the same way as the quilt center with no tension on it. (copied from Bonnie Hunter's Border Hints post)

Bonnie's other border tips and hints can be found here

Ten Charity Opportunities

Lion Brand put together a list of 10 charities where you can share your handicrafts, while also changing the world.

As a knitter, crocheter, or quilter, you know the joy of gifting handmade items to those you love. Creating quilts, afghans, sweaters, or socks for those we care about is meaningful. But, did you know there are other ways you can use your talents to bring joy to others? There are actually several charities that welcome handmade treasures from knitters, crocheters and quilters.

Ten Charities for Knitters, Crocheters and Quilters

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Pre-washing Fabric Tip

Tired of dealing with a tangled and twisted rope of yardage when pre-washing fabric?

Try the tip by Mary Jane Holcomb in Denison, Texas which is shown in the beginning of the following Kaye Wood video.

The tip works for up to 12 yards of fabric. Carole (From My Carolina Home) wrote about her experience with the technique in a post titled, A Brilliant Tip.

How To Spray Baste a Quilt

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Intimidated by the process of preparing a quilt for machine quilting on your home sewing machine? 

To gain confidence in the procedure, check out the comprehensive photo tutorial on How to Spray Baste a Quilt on Cluck Cluck Sew. 

Measuring Tape Cheat Cards

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Sew4Home created printable Cheat Cards based on one of their most popular articles. Their article states, "If you’ve been sewing forever, and work with fractions every day, it may seem crazy to you that someone wouldn’t know how to read a measuring tape. But if you step back for a moment, and look at that tape measure (or ruler for that matter) with the eyes of a new sewer, all those little unidentified marks might seem a bit intimidating."

No doubt you or someone you know would appreciate Sew4Home's free Measuring Tape Cheat Cards. The PDF is free and can be printed on business card cardstock. 

Healthy Sewing

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Sewing and Quilting can be stressful to the body. Allison (Cluck Cluck Sew) provides six tips to prevent sewing-related health issues in her post Healthy Sewing.

Tips for Longarm Rulerwork

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Lisa H Calle shares her insights and tips for using rulers for longarm quilting. "Quilting with rulers, I know the first rulers that come to mind might be rotary cutting rulers. However, I am speaking of quilting rulers or often they are referred to as “templates”. They are implemented for executing those beautiful quilting designs you see magically appear on quilts.

I love teaching beginner classes on quilting rulers to my longarm quilters and yes, even domestic quilters. Usually, I witness students entering my class with the look of apprehension on their faces as if there is no way by the end of our session they will have gained the skills required to use these rulers. Fears such as hitting the template and throwing their machine out of timing is just one of the many “what if’s” I encounter. Just imagine the expression on their faces when they realize that yes it isn’t rocket science and yes they are quite capable of walking out of my class with this skill under their cap. WOW, what a wonderful moment for me and them to behold! So, perhaps you are a novice to quilting, or maybe a seasoned quilter that hasn’t stepped into the world of rulers, if that is the case, I am going to give you my tips for longarm rulerwork."

Lisa's tips on rulerwork can be found here.

Quilting on a Budget

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With the cost of fabric and supplies increasing regularly, it is difficult to justify a quilting hobby.  Cluck Cluck Sew shares 5 simple ways to spend less and quilt within a budget. 

 

Her tips and suggestions can be found here. 

Video Quilting Tutorials

If you learn best by seeing a technique demonstrated, check out the informative step-by-step videos of tools and techniques on Connecting Threads, and take your learning to the next level.

Note that there are three pages of videos available

Activities for Quilters

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Need some ideas of fun activities to do with your quilting/sewing friends? AQS OnPoint shares a long list of ideas to make your time together even more fun.

Quilt Batting 101

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Batting isn’t the most glamorous part of a quilt, but while the batting itself never sees the light of day once your quilt is finished, it is still essential to the look and feel of the finished piece. 

Batting choices are numerous. We All Sew provides information on the many different types, their pros and cons, and much more.

Free Quilt Patterns

Need a source for quilting inspiration or free patterns, check out Connecting Threads' 52 free quilt patterns.

Mitered Quilt Borders

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If you've admired quilts with mitered borders, but were afraid to try it on your own, Fons & Porter provides a photo tutorial to help you master a mitered quilt border.

Try the technique on a small project first to gain confidence.

The step-by-step tutorial can be found here.