Posted on Monday, February 2, 2009 | By Deb Hearn | 1 Comment

More Quilting Tips

Dear Quilting Friends:

I enjoy creative thoughts from quilters.  These thoughts are not only on quilt designs but also on  ways to make our sewing and sewing rooms more efficient. Carolyn Evans recently wrote to me with this tip to share with you: 

If you ever had the binding for your quilt get wrapped around your chair or your feet as you sew it on your quilt - here’s a little tip.  As you press your binding - drop it in a small gift bag that has been taped to the end of your pressing surface.  Then take the bag and tape it on the front surface of your sewing table and it will feed out as you sew.  

Carolyn Evans

Also, the last time I wrote on my blog, I shared some great leftover batting tips from Teresa Johnson. Well, Teresa has some more good thoughts and photos to share with us below:

1.  Label your magazines and patterns so they don’t get misfiled in your friend’s closet by mistake.  Use return mail labels sent to you (I have enough to plaster the front of my house).  Simply put a label in the upper right corner of your magazine or pattern (don’t cover up the date/issue #).  Easy shmeezy!  

2.  Quilting room cold?  Get one of those oil filled heaters.  They heat up the quilting space in a snap and fit nicely under a cutting table.  

3.  If you have quilt kits stacked in the closet–or worse yet, still in the bags stacked in your closet, here’s a space-saving eye-popping idea.  Purchase those rolling scrapbooking carts that have six pull-out clear boxes.  In each box you can store quilt kits.  The clear boxes remind you of the color of the project.  Make a label on your computer identifying:  The name of the project, the type of fabric and the size of the project.  These boxes can hold material up to a queen-sized pattern!  The rolling carts are available at a local fabric shop and cost about $45 each.  Need more room?  Stack two on top of each other.  Roll them under your cutting table (holds four neatly without tripping over them).

4.  Do you want a quilt design wall but not sure how to start?  Using a styrofoam block, lag bolts, washers and batting you can create a large design wall for less than $25.  Simply take the measurements of the area you want to cover and buy the following:

**2-1/2″ styrofoam block for the area (buy this at home improvement stores–it comes in large sheets) 

 
** (9) 4″ lag bolts

** (9) 1-1/2″ washers

** Batting for the top (think of it as a quilt top) add 16″ to the top and sides.  (Example:  Top is 48″ x 62″.  You’ll need batting to measure 62″ x 78″)  This allows for the wrap-around needed on the top and sides of the design wall.

** Staple gun

** Clear packing tape

Cut the styrofoam to desired size.  Then cover styrofoam with batting (single layer).  Use clear tape on back to hold it down.  Using a staple gun, staple the batting on all edges.  Next use the lag bolts and washers to bolt the design wall up.  That’s it! 

 5.  Need something to protect your ott lights or magnifying glass?  Or just to keep the dust from accumulating?  Take those extra squares that seem to magically appear at the end of a project to make a drawstring cover.  Here’s how…  

** Using leftover squares, sew them together to create (2) finished rectangles that are 6″ x 14″.  (I used 3-1/2″ squares, 8 per rectangle–four light and four dark with a checkerboard pattern.) 

 
** Since I had a leftover length of fabric (2″ x 28″) that I really loved, I sewed it on the top of each pieced rectangle (14″) then the right side (6″) of each rectangle. 

 
** I had a piece of binding left over from the same project so I used it for “binding” the top or drawstring end.  You will need about 14″ of length.

** Now sew the rectangles together like a pillow case.  Top down, then bottom over along the length (14″). 
Snip a small hole close to the inside seam of the binding on both sides of the open end.  Make sure this is the inside!  Feed a 12″ length of cording into the binding through the small cut holes. 

Wha-lla!  You have a nice cover–costing you nothing but scraps and about 1 hour of time.  

Teresa Johnson