Ok.... So my mom decided that she was going to do her first quilt and I couldn't be more excited to help her out. Only thing is that she decided to do a challenge quilt that is full of triangles which I have not done many of and I do not consider myself very good at them.
The quilt is by NQC Quilt Block Challenge. It is a nine week challenge and it's free.
There is a huge Facebook community working on this quilt and TONS of people to help. I decided to cover a couple things that new quilters may not know.
First tip is to buy good fabric - I admit that part of the fabric I am using from my stash in this quilt is from Joann's and is not the greatest. I prefer not to use the Joann's brands in my quilts that I give away or ones that I want to last forever. I will try to buy my Kona's there - 60% off is the best time! The other thing is that it does not press well. You can see in the pic below that even though I ironed and steamed there are still wrinkles.
Next thing is to line up the fabric and start with clean edges. I prefer to line up along the top fold and then move my ruler to the left as I make the cuts. Measure twice and cut once.
Make sure you always hold the ruler down firmly so the fabric and the ruler stay in place. As you go make sure you cut off all the selvage. You don't want it to end up in the quilt!
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| Lining up the fabric to start cutting. |
Next tip is to only use pins when doing diagonals. Once pin on either side to keep the fabric from moving as the diagonal is sewed. I use them for making triangles and when I am prepping my binding. There isn't really a need for them any other time.
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| Use pencil on the lighter fabric to draw lines. |
My next reminder for quilting is that there is no need to backstitch. Just make sure you start and finish as close to the edge as possible. Another is to use a 1/4 inch foot if possible. They are not too expensive and you can use 40% off coupons on them! I even leave my 1/4 inch foot on when I sew the triangles. It keeps it a bit straighter and more accurate than the regular foot.
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| Perfect 1/4 inch on both sides. |
Always press your seems to one side - to the dark side - that way if you have a darker fabric next to a light one the darker fabric does not show through. I follow this rule almost always. If I am doing squares that I want to nest seams I will press the direction I want it to go no matter the color.
So this next one seems weird but does help...... You want to make sure that as you are sewing your blocks together the seams stay flat. Flat seams will ensure that your quilt is nice and smooth. Watch the ones on top as well as the ones on the bottom as you sew.
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| Flat seams. |
One of the hardest things it to get the seams to match up. part of this is because as the seams come together the become more and more bulky and do not stay lined up correctly as you sew them. I do not know how to fix this problem yet.... Sorry!!
I always say that as long as you don't have to trim off so much fabric that your quilt looks lopsided or as long as you don't have to add a strip to make it bigger you didn't do to bad!
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| Not perfect, but it will do the trick. |
Again this is a challenge quilt from National Quilters Circle. It's a free challenge and I did put a link above to the first block. Good luck!!
