a helpful remedy

I don't often wash my quilts right after they are finished, but as I mentioned last week, I washed and dried my broken dishes quilt to get that lovely crinkle. I got the crinkle I was after, but I also discovered that the turquoise dye in one of the quilt blocks bled quite a lot. Ugh. There is a lot of red in the quilt, so I thought that it would be one of the red fabrics that would give me trouble. Nope. I discovered the issue AFTER I had dried the quilt in the drier. Blergh.

I shared a photo with my friend Mary, and she recommended using this method to try to remove the excess dye. I was doubtful that it would help, but I thought I might as well give it a try. At this point, what did I have to lose?

I followed Vicki's instructions, using "All Free and Clear" detergent. I'm very pleased to share that a LOT of the excess dye came out. Woohoo! Thanks so much to Vicki for sharing her methods and Mary for pointing me in the right direction!

I do want to add, that in the first washing I used cold water, 2 color catchers, a cup of vinegar AND I threw in a bath towel to absorb any excess dyes, should there be any bleeding. I also removed the quilt from the washer immediately after the washing, so I thought I was pretty well covered. (That's all my tricks and it still bled!)

I thought I would pass along this information, just in case you are in the same position someday. I hope you find it helpful, too!

a binding tip

This was a new-to-me binding tip that I learned from my friend Kristin not that long ago. I've used it on several quilts and I love the results every single time! When I heard about it, I had one of those "why didn't I think of that?" moments. I also wondered how I have been quilting for 17 years and NOT heard of this. Hmmm. I guess better late than never!

When attaching double fold binding, use a (scant) 3/8" seam allowance to sew it to the quilt. You can see in the photo that I am using a seam guide for this. (I LOVE my seam guide! I picked it up at my local sewing center for about $3.00 several years ago. It's one of the best tools I've purchased!)

When you fold your binding strip over on to the back, there should be just enough fabric to cover the stitch line and your binding will be full. Hand stitching the binding down is a breeze because you don't have to tug and pull the fabric to cover the stitch line. This method is NOT recommended for quilts that have star points, half square triangles, or any points that touch the edge of a quilt that depend on a 1/4" seam allowance. It DOES work very well for quilts that are just plain patchwork, quilts that have borders or any quilt that does not have points touching the edge. I've used it on quilts like this one, and this one, among others.

I should mention that this method works well when using binding strips that are cut 2 1/2" wide.

I hope you find this useful! I've been quilting a long time, and I love learning new things like this.

Also, thank you so much to those of you who have shopped my pattern sale....I appreciate your support more than I can say. xo

gluing, pounding and shrinking (oh my!)

This is kind of a mish mash post, but I wanted to cover a few random things, so we will file this post under tips, tricks and miscellaneous information. How does that sound?

Last week I mentioned that I lined up the stripes on my binding by glue basting. I don't do a lot of glue basting, but there are times when it's quite helpful. Last year a woman came to quilt guild and did a whole demo on this subject, and that's when I bought this super fine tip. It dispenses a very fine line of glue, which you then need to set with a hot iron. Only use washable white school glue for this! It's basically glorified starch....which will come out in the wash. If you want more information, you can google "glue basting" which will yield enough reading information for days! I've also used glue to baste my quilt backing fabric together to line up the repeat. I have to say, the binding strips were much easier...they are much smaller! The super fine tips can also be purchased here. (No affiliation whatsoever, just for your information.)

I'm in a quilt bee with my lovely friends that I retreat with at Gruber's every year. Last month, Michelle asked for a solids version of this bowie block. I don't mind paper piecing, but this one was tricky for me! My friend Cindy counted and there are 14 layers of fabric to sew through in certain points. Well, no wonder I was having problems. Ha! I've seen photos on Instagram of people pounding bulky seams flat with a hammer, so I gave it a try. The block lies much flatter now and it was also good for releasing some frustration. Hahahaha! Someone asked if it damages the fabric, which didn't even occur to me. The integrity of the fabric seemed just fine after the pounding. Weird technique, but it's a good trick for ultra bulky seams.

Before I gifted this quilt to my neighbor, I washed it. I measured it after washing, and it shrunk 5" in the width and 6" in the length. I thought that was a lot!!! I'm glad I made it oversized...and I was relieved that it still finished at 66" x 88"...about a perfect twin size! Yay!

That got me thinking, though....did it shrink extra because of the Essex linen that I used? Or is that normal? I don't often measure my quilts before and after, but I became very curious. So, I quickly washed and dried my scrapalicious quilt to compare. This quilt shrunk by almost the same rate....5 1/2"in the width and 7" in the length. (Before washing the quilt was 66" x 86". After washing, the quilt was 60 1/2" x 79".) Both quilts have Quilters Dream batting inside. I thought that was an interesting experiment. It also reminds me that if I want to make a quilt large enough to fit a bed, I need to add an extra row or so!

paper piecing tips from a frugal girl

Happy June! It is my month to choose a block for the Sew Sisters Quilting Bee. It's always SO HARD to choose a block for a bee, so I asked my friend Tara what I should do. She suggested a kaleidoscope block, which I thought was a great idea! (Thank you, Tara!) Rather than use an existing template, I made my own---of course! I really like that it is a paper pieced block, so even though 10 different ladies will be sewing up blocks, the accuracy will still be there!

I love paper piecing for accuracy sake (it's the only reason to paper piece in my mind!), but let's face it....it wastes fabric. And lots of it!

Several years ago, I learned this trick, and I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to share it with you. Today is the day! What is this lovely trick? Make templates for each piece before you piece the block. Templates? Yes, it's an extra step, but for paper piecing, it's totally worth it, if you ask me. I am not going to teach you HOW to paper piece, that's not my job. (hahahaha!) This is just a trick to keep you from wasting fabric and to help keep your scraps tidy WHILE you paper piece. Tidy scraps are very important to me. (And that's no joke!)

Ok, let's get started. First, print off your templates. (For each block, you will need two regular and two reverse templates.)

Cut the template apart on the lines. I keep an older rotary cutter in my craft room JUST for cutting paper. It's fun to rotary cut paper AND it's a good way to use old blades that are too dull to cut fabric. It's accurate, too!

Trace your pieces onto another sheet of paper. You can mark the points of each triangle and then use a ruler or straight edge to connect the lines.

Use your rotary cutter and a clear ruler to cut out each piece, leaving a 3/8" seam allowance around each edge.

Here you have each piece with a 3/8" seam allowance added. Label them with the numbers in the same orientation as your template, so you know which side is up! You technically only need 1/4" all around, but the extra 1/8" gives you a bit of wiggle room. You will be glad you have it! Also, note how I trimmed off some of the long points from each triangle.

When it's time to cut out the fabric, place the template (face down, because everything is reversed an backwards when you paper piece) and cut around the paper using your fabric rotary cutter. Notice, I didn't cut super close to the edge....it doesn't have to be exact, but close is good. Then, paper piece as usual. There is less fabric flopping around, and since your pieces are pre-cut, it's easier to align them!

 Once I pieced my block, these are all the trimmings I had left! Isn't that amazing??

I still have odd shapes leftover from piecing the block, but that's just the nature of the block that I'm making. At least the scraps are all fairly tidy. Still usable for something!

 Here are just a few more examples to see how tidy it is. This is the paper side, before it's trimmed.

 And the fabric side before it's trimmed.

I like to leave the background or the center piece in a square to start off with. This is to illustrate how the first piece looks like before you add the first line of stitching...before sewing.

And after sewing, once it's pressed into place. It's so tidy as you go!

Here are my 4 block sections. Once sewn together, it will make a 10" finished block. I'm not going to sew blocks together until I get all the pieces, so I can easily distribute the colors throughout the quilt. It think it's going to be a super fun and colorful quilt!

I hope that these tips help (and don't confuse) you! If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them in the comments!

Happy Monday to you!