We all want to quilt more in less time.
I am glad to share a few tips with you; these tips improve my quilting productivity.
1. Learn everything about the sewing machine
Learn how your sewing machine works and use the best tools for it. Find out what are the best needle and thread for any job you have to do.
I know people say PRACTICE is the key. While practice is important, I think the most important thing is the QUALITY of the time you spend sewing. If you have two hours for sewing and you keep adjusting the tension of the threads or changing thread and needles, where is the benefit?
2. Keep your machine clean and oiled
If your machine is not in good condition, you may experience skipped stitches and thread breaking. You will waste a lot of time trying to figure out what causes the problems. Clean the bobbin area often and oil the machine according to your manual.
3. Prewash fabrics
If you prewash your fabrics (which I highly recommend), do it as soon as the fabrics arrive in your house. Press them while still damp (I never do it- oops – but I should!).
4. Use starch
Starching fabrics not only improves the accuracy of your piecing, it makes the pressing easier and faster.
5. Struggling choosing the fabrics for your next quilt?
Buy a few prints from a favorite collection. Choose one of the prints as background and buy more of it. I like to choose tone on tone or light color prints as background. If I don’t have background from that specific collection, I like to use a solid fabric in neutral color (Kona cotton “bone” is one of my favorite colors).
6. Fill bobbins when you start a new project
I hate to interrupt my work (piecing or quilting) because I run out of bobbin thread. So when I start a new project, I fill bobbins with my thread. Also, I use thread in neutral color; if I don’t use all the bobbins for the current project, I know I will use them on the next project (I hate to accumulate bobbins with thread that I will not use maybe for months!).
7. Use thread in neutral colors
White, cream, tan, gray – these are the colors that I always have in my thread box.
Usually, I use just one thread from the start to the finish of a quilt.
I use this thread for piecing – in the needle and in the bobbin. Not having to change the thread often to match it to the fabric saves time.
Most of my quilts are quilted with neutral color thread as well. I quilt in colors only when different colors of thread could enhance the quilt design.
8. Finger-press the seam rather than pressing with an iron
It doesn’t matter if you need to press the seam open and to one side, do it by running your fingernail over the seam.
While a well-pressed seam increases the accuracy of piecing, pressing with an iron might distort the pieces.So if it is not absolutely necessary, I press with an iron only when the block is finished. For all the intermediary steps, I finger press. If I need to press though, I don’t use steam and I avoid touching the outside edges of the piece with the iron.
9. Chain-piece whenever possible
Make a test block first. Cut the fabric and assemble the block. If everything works well, cut the fabrics for all the blocks and start piecing the blocks.
Sew the first pieces of the block. Stop just before you finish the seam. Add the pieces of the next block under the presser foot; do not clip the threads, do not raise the presser foot. Do this for all the blocks. Remove the “chain” from the machine, trim the threads. You are ready now for the second step in sewing your blocks. Repeat it for all the blocks and so on until you have sewn all the blocks.
10. Thread snips
When piecing, use thread snips instead of scissors. No more comments needed!
11. Stickers
Use stickers to label everything that could make your work faster and easier (label blocks, rows or columns or size of patches).
12. Rotary blades
Change the blade of your rotary cutter often, so you don’t have to repeat the cuts!
13. Use adhesive spray for basting
I do this for all my small to medium quilts; I buy the basting spray on wholesale!
14. Grid quilting
Do you have only a few hours to quilt an entire quilt? Use the walking foot and quilt along the edges of the blocks, vertically and horizontally. If the blocks are large, quilt on the center of the blocks too. It is a lovely grid that looks wonderful on baby quilts.
15. Choosing a quilting motif
This task could be very hard, especially for beginner quilters. Do not waste too much time thinking of all the million possibilities! Test your quilt motif by using sealing wrap.
Here is what to do: place it on top of the quilt sandwich and with water soluble marker start doodling different motifs on the sealing wrap. Because it is transparent, you see how different motifs would look on your quilt. Once you have made your choice, remove it and quilt as usual – only through the quilt sandwich.
16. Don’t stress over how far you have to go; be proud of how far you’ve come!
When you have to piece or quilt 121 blocks, it is easy to become overwhelmed! Counting the blocks you still need to finish could be quite depressing, especially if the blocks are complex and need a lot of time to be completed! There is an easy fix to this: shift your focus to the blocks you have already sewn! Find something that works great (I am always happy and grateful when my machine doesn’t break the thread!) and enjoy the process!
17. Binding
Prepare the binding right after the quilt top was finished. Don’t wait until the quilting is done! Read my thoughts on this matter here.
18. Do not work on too many projects at once
Starting too many projects and not having enough time to finish them is a sure way to stress yourself. Having drawers full of unfinished projects is not fun. From time to time I check my UFOs and if I think I am not able to finish some projects, I donate them to friends who could do it.
19. Floor of the sewing room
For years I worked in a sewing room which floor was covered with carpet. Now I removed the carpet and I can’t tell you how happy I am! Cleaning the floor and the entire sewing area is much easier!
20. Stop dreaming and start doing!
I think we all need to hear this from time to time! Blame Pinterest, if you want, but start sewing!
Do you want to download this list and keep it handy? Click below.
Do you have a tip that simplifies your quilting life and makes you more productive? Please share it with us!
Happy quilting!
Thanks for taking the time to help us improve out sewing time..
I have a small tip. Keep a large trash can by your cutting table.
Yes! I have a little bucket that I keep near the sewing machine; and I use it all the time, because it is very pretty! Thank you for sharing, Linda!
Thank You. Great tips!
Great article. I suggest a 3 ring binder to hold a design and dimensions sheet for every quilt you make. Detail how many of what. As you progress jot down dimensions that will keep you from having to measure over and over for borders, batting binding, etc. Plus you’ll have all the info to make another one later.
Great idea, Linda, thank you for sharing!
This was a great tip and I agree with them all. Unfortunately I am one of those that has many projects on the go and most are getting to be years old. This is because I enjoy different types if quilting, hand and machine. I went through everything in my sewing room and put the projects I wanted to finish in project boxes – clear plastic ones. Everything that I need to work or finish that project goes in the box. Specialty ruler, pattern, thread, what needs to be done to finish it, etc. Now I can just pull out a box and work on a project when I’m in the mood for it. My room stays fairly tidy and I’m getting projects accomplished.
As long as you still enjoy the projects, it doesn’t matter if it takes more time to finish them! It’s harder when you look at a project and say: “what was I thinking??”. Great organizational tips, Ingrid, thank you for sharing!
I like thiis idea very much and will start organising my projects now instead of waiting for my laundry/quilting room to be completed. Can’t wait to get back into my stash. Thank you very much
Thank you for your tips and inspiration.
I often work scrappy quilts. I have only a small area to use to quilt, not enough room to lay a whole quilt out for very long. Mostly each block gets put away as soon as it is finished until time to put the whole quilt together. To keep track of dark/medium/light colours I have used in my quilt I snip off the dog ears/triangles of each block as I go and put them in a jar. Every now and then I give the jar a little shake and I get a good impression of what colours I am using too much of or whether I need to lighten or darken the quilt a bit.
It works and helps a lot, if like me, you tend to spend too much time worrying about making the ‘perfect’ fabric choice.
This is a BRILLIANT idea, Nerida! I know so many quilters love to sew scrappy quilts, this is very helpful!Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Geta! Great Tips! And thank you so much for your wonderful blog – it is an inspiration!
Even though I’ve only been learning for going on four years, I have come to realize that I need to enjoy the process and not to be in a hurry to finish it. Somehow, I had gotten the impression that getting finished quickly was important, it isn’t. I am becoming much more confident because I am enjoying every step now, even the seam ripping when needed. LOL.
JUST RELAX & ENJOY IT!
Oh, I almost forgot to mention this. Most all of the organizational tips have to do with the actual quilting materials that are used but don’t often mention the paperwork that starts to accumulate. I am beginning to keep paper templates, plastic homemade templates, freezer paper templates, patterns, etc. in envelopes that I attach to the printed out class/project instructions, I just staple the envelope to another page to keep them all together. Much easier to find, especially when applique method is being used. Some are pretty tiny!
When I need a particular template, it is easier for me to think which project it was connected with and I look for the project/class in the folder. Many times I have used them for other projects that I am designing and not just the original one.
Good point, Pegi!
SO TRUE, Pegi! We use to see the seam ripper as an enemy, when in fact, it is one of our best friends! I am glad that I understood this too; it took me 10 years, though!! Now I am not afraid to use it intensively; I used it once for 4 days ( for ripping out stitches I quilted in 4 hours). It made all the difference for that quilt ( actually, I think it brought me a big award!).
Thank you for reminding this important thing to us, Pegi!
Hi Geta
Great tips! Thank you very much for sharing.