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Posted on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 | By Lisa Swenson Ruble | 3 Comments

Confessions of a Lazy Quilter

If I’d been born in the days of template-only and scissors-only quilting (not to mention quilting by hand only!), I might not be a quilter. I love my rotary cutter, rulers, sewing machine and other modern timesavers. I have great appreciation for antique quilts and their makers, as well as incredibly detailed quilts made today, and at some point in my life I may head in that direction as well.

But at this point in my life, I admit that I’m a bit of a lazy quilter. Following is a list of my ”transgressions.”

*After washing my fabric, I press only as I much as I need. The less ironing the better!


*I do my best to avoid quilt patterns with templates and appliqué—not a huge fan of tracing and cutting or of the curvy zigzag stitching.


*I rarely pin as I sew, the one exception being when I’m trying to match seams, say as I’m sewing block rows together.


*If my seams are close but not quite matching when sewing block rows together, I often will just say ”good enough” and leave it. (I am NOT proud of this one.)


*I approximate where my points are and cross my fingers that the points won’t get cut off when I saw blocks together.


*I sew my borders on and trim off the excess rather than easing borders to fit the quilt so as to end up with a more square quilt.


That’s all, or at least all that I’m willing to admit for now! What about you? Any lazy quilting techniques in your repertoire?

Lisa Swenson Ruble

About the Author: Lisa Swenson Ruble

I made my first quilt when I graduated from college and realized that I needed a hobby to fill all those hours that used to be dedicated to homework! Eleven years later, I'm completely addicted to quilting and thrilled that my day job as the managing editor for Quilt, Simple Quilts & Sewing and Quilt Almanac allows me to "play" with quilts and the friendly world of quilters!

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3 Comments

  • Linda says:

    Posted August 3, 2011 at 5:10 pm

    You sound just like me!

  • Gina.S says:

    Posted August 4, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    I sound a lot like you! I made small quilts because i hated the using templates, sissors, and then you want me to HAND QUILT??? LOL. I found out that i like the quilting as you go, everything done at once (I think i’m lazier than you):). I have a friend that i’m trying to teach about sewing just some small stuff and she thinks rotary cutting is to much work, I asked her if she was out of her mind! I’ve told her about back in the day, but it’s like telling a kid that you never had a microwave growing up, they think it’s always been here. But i have learned that who ever get what i make could care less if seams match, or if i lost a point, they are just happy that i made it for them.

  • Lisa Swenson Ruble says:

    Posted August 5, 2011 at 2:23 pm

    So happy to hear I’m not alone! And Gina, your point about recipients being grateful regardless is so true. I was sewing the border strips on my nephew’s quilt the other night and remembered the other lazy thing I forgot to include in my post: When I’m joining border/binding strips lengthwise on the diagonal to make a long strip, I rarely draw the diagonal line to stitch on–I just wing it. Which works well unless you have really wide borders and then it gets a little iffy. (Ask me what made me think of that the other night while sewing border strips…yep, you guessed it!)

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