BASICS OF QUILTING-PIECING

THAT 1/4" SEAM
Finding and maintaining a perfect 1/4" seam will make your piecing time more enjoyable. Pieces fit together, and ripping is almost nonexisting.

You need to find a reference point on your sewing machine. First mark a line 1/4" from the edge of a piece of paper. Insert the machine needle into the line, and drop the presser foot.
Find an easy sighting at the edge of the paper (edge of the foot, the presser foot opening, etc). You may want to use masking tape or a seam guide. With some machines the needle falls 1/4" away from the sighting you choose. Learn to guide the cut edge of your fabric along this sighting and you won't have to spend time marking your seams.

About that 1/4" seam--make it a scant 1/4." There's a bit of a loft in the fabric at any seam, creating a shortage in the size of that piece It may seem insignificant, but a block with eight pieced seams can end up much shorter than a block with only two seams. Using scant seams allows for this loft. Fig. 1.

A good way to test if you are getting a scant seam is to sew three 2” wide strips together. Press the seams all to one side. If the unit measures exactly 5” wide, your seams are perfect.

TO PIN OR NOT TO PIN
There are people who refuse to sew if they had to pin. Others create metal sculptures of their seams. The majority of us pin only at key places.

In general, a few well placed pins help on any bias seam, set-in-blocks, eight-point-stars, long seams, and matching seams.

Pin across seams, but always remove a pin before you come to it during stitching. Sewing across pins is hard on your needle, weakens the seam, and shifts the fabric at that point. Fig. 2.

MATCHING SEAMS
Always press matching seams in opposite direction.

For perfect matching, pin seams together at the seam line. Stitch up to the pin before removing it.

With practice, most seam can be matched quite nicely by butting them together with your fingers and holding them as close as possible while stitching. Fig. 3.

SET-IN PIECES
Sew each side of the set-in piece as two separate seams. Stitch each seam away from the inside corner.

The first seam is sewn with the set-in piece on the bottom. The last stitch should meet the end stitch of the adjourning seam. Back stitch two or three stitches.

The second seam is sewn with the set-in piece on top. The last stitch should meet the end stitch of the first seam. Backstitch two or three stitches. Fig. 4.

Step 3-Join and press these units as shown. Trim extending corners atr joining points.

Step 4-Insert pin straight through both pieces, at point where all seams meet. Holding this pin straight out, pin 1/8” on either side of center point, as illustrated.. Remove center pin. Fig. 6.

5. Starting about 2” before the center point, stitch a 1/4” seam to about 2” past the center point. Be careful not to stretch the fabric. Sew over the pins slowly, gently pushing heavy thicknesses under the machine foot. (Yes, I know I said don’t sew over pins, but this is an exception). Fig. 7.

6. Stitch entire seam, sewing on the 4” center
seam. Fig. 8.

7. Press seam to one side. If center does not lie flat, restitch center, making a slightly larger seam at the center point.

PRESSING
1-Never press seams open; always press to one side, unless directed by the pattern you are using. Whenever possible, press seams toward the darkest fabric. Exception: when one seam will be matched to another, press them in opposite directions. Fig. 9.

SEWING LONG STRIPS TOGETHER
To sew strips evenly without pinning, match up one end of the strips, sew two inches and sto[p with the needle in the fabric. Without stretching, match the edges of the next 12 to 20 inches. Hold tightly at this point and, pulling slightly, stitch. Stop and repeat to the end of the seam.

If you simply allow the two pieces to feed through without doing this, the two strips will be uneven, causing the unit to curve.

When sewing three or more strips, alternate the sewing direction to prevent the strips from curving. Fig.11.

SEWING CURVES
I will use the curve for the Drunkards Path block to discuss sewing curves.

1-Pin pieces at center point of seam. Short curves can be done by sight. On longer curves, fold the pieces in half to find the center. Fig.12.

2- With the concave (outer) curve on top, flip the pieces apart so the starting corners can be matched and held together. Pin if it helps. Take two stitches and stop with the needle in the fabric. Gathering the excess fabric in your left hand, gently line up the raw edges of the two pieces. Try not to stretch the bottom piece if possible. Sew to the center pin. Fig. 13.

3- With needle in fabric, remove center pin. Flip pieces again to match corners at the end of the seam. Pin if needed and stitch. Fig.14.

4- Press seams to outer curve. Fig. 15. There is no need to clip curved seams on a quilt because the puckery look will be absorbed in the quilting. This is wonderful. As much as I love the Love Ring. I’d never one if I had to clip all of those little seams.

RECOGNIZING GRAIN OF FABRIC
There will be times when you must sew the bias wedge of a shape thatb appears to have identical edges. Which is the bias edge?
Of course, you could easly tell which is the bias edge by stretching it, but then you’d ruin the piece. Learn the “see the threads” of your fabric and you’ll begin to recognize the bias edges without even thinking about it.
Start by closely examining a light-colored piece of fabric. You’ll see tiny lines running in two directions. You’re seeing the threads that were used to weave the fabric. The direction of these threads is the straight grain. Lengthwise grain refers to the long threads first laid in the weaving loom. These threads are taut, allowing no “give.” Crosswise grain refers to the threads that are woven back and forth across the fabric. They run from selvage to selvage (the woven enge of the fabric). Pull in this direction and you’ll feel the difference from the lengthwise grain. The fabric “gives” quite a bit! This is why some patterns specify the pieces are to be cut on the lengthwise

HAND-PIECING WITH NO MARKED SEAM LINES
Hand-piecing is becoming quite popular again, because it makes quilting a portable hobby and one that’s soothing to the nerves. But drawing seam lines onn the pieces is time consuming and does terrible things to bias edges. So, I devised a method of training yourself to hand-piece perfect 1/4” seams by sight.

All you do is mark the first few seams, than start making these marks lighter and lighteer until you only think you can see them. Now try it with no lines and you’ll find out your’v trained you eye to see the 1/4” mark. Give it a try-it really works!

Using a #10 milliner’s needle (or your own favorite) and a fine quality sewing thread, sew a tiny running stitch1/4” (scant from edges). Try for 16 to 18 stitches per inch. Eveness matters.

Sew only to the seam ends, leaving all seam allowances free. Backstitch at the beginning and end of all seams.

When moving to an adjacent seam, take the needle through
seam allowances at the exact point where the seams meet.
Continue stitching.

ANGLES AND POINTS
After a while, you will become quite good at judging 1/4” areas.
But until then, you may want to mark a few corners woth 1/4”
seams (remember scant). The following are the most difficult to judge:

Step 1-Sewing two different angles.

Step 2- Sewing any seam that must end 1/4” from the edge, as for set-in seams.

Step 3- Matching two angeled seams. NOTE: there are a number
of items available to help with this. Look for them in your quilt shops and catalogs.
To create shape points, clip excess fabric to 1/4” from the point.
Fold points along template edge. Fold seam allowances in. Press.

Step 4- Pin or baste piece in place. For fine appliqué stitches:
     Use a #10 or #12 sharp sewing needles.
     Use fine sewing thread, either silk or silk-finish. To prevent twisting while sewing, use the thread in the direction it comes off the spool.
     For almost invisible stitches, take a small stitch in the backfround. As you come up, catch just two or three threads of the fold of the appliqué piece.
     Start the next background stitch as close as possible to the stitch taken in the fo

HANDLING BIAS
Next to maintaining a scant 1/4” seam, handling bias is the most ignored key to easy piecing.

1- Learn what bias is and form the habit of being aware of it: Straight Grain is the two directions (lengthwise and crosswise) of the threads used to weave the fabric. Bias is any other direction. True Bias is a 45 degree angle to the straight grain.

2- When sewing a bias edge to a straight edge, try to sew with the bias piece on the bottom. If it’s on top, your machine foot will stretch it by pushing the fabric ahead of the needle.

3- when pressing a piece with a bias edge, either set the iron down and pick it up without moving it, or gently move the iron with the grain of the bias piece.

4- All pressing should be done on the topside to eliminate pleats. Use your free hand to position seams underneath. Do not pull or streach
fabric.

5-If you’ve prewashed a fabric that will be cut into triangles, diamonds or other bias shapes. Use a spray-on fabric sizing when ironing.

6-As your project grows in size and weight, learn to handle it flat or folded, rather than picking it up at a raw edge. Otherwise, the weight of the quilt will streach any unstitched bias edge.