| Nifty Fifty Quilters of America |
Copyright 2011Teresa Drummond All Rights Reserved |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
 | |  | |  | |  |
| Follow the Nifty Fifty Quilters |
| Nifty Fifty Sewing Tips Our page is dedicated to successful quilt block swaps. The following instructions are for participants of quilt block swaps and the hostesses. The hostesses are welcome to pass on this quality information to the quilters participating in their swap. Be sure to edit your block size and yardage. Enjoy!! QUALITY CHECK POINTS 1. Fabrics are pre-washed and pressed. 2. Points and seams match up. 3. Block size is 9 1/2" unfinished-the hostess will be measuring!! 4. Seam allowance of 1/4" all around without invading block pattern 5. Seams are straight - whether machine or hand pieced 6. Seams on the back are pressed in one direction and lay flat unless hand pieced. 7. Applique stitching is hidden, unless intended to be visible (i.e. button hole stitch or machine applique). No use of fabric paints and no raw edges allowed. 9. Fabrics coordinate in color and design 10. Press your signature after signing them. 11. Be sure to stitch to the end of the seam 12. Make sure machine is in good working order 11. You had FUN doing it!!!!!!!! SEWING AND YARDAGE TIPS In order for your blocks to be exactly 9 1/2" unfinished you must cut and sew accurately. Almost all quilt pattern books have basic instructions in the beginning of the books, so if you're having trouble getting a block to size, why not go back and review the basics. CUTTING Make sure that you square up your fabric and do a "clean cut" before cutting your strips. Also make sure that you place the ruler on the right cutting line and when you start to cut, don't remove your hand from the ruler, but rather "walk" your hand up the ruler until the cut is finished. There are a few "How To" books on the market that just address how to rotary cut. SEWING 1/4" SEAMS Your seam should actually be a "scant" quarter of an inch, or just inside the 1/4" mark you are using. Before you begin sewing you must check your 1/4" seam allowance because not all machine presser foots mark a true ¼”. Please do so by doing a practice ¼” seam on your sewing machine. Remove your sample and measure it away from the sewing machine. If it is not a true ¼” then adjust it so it is a perfect ¼" and mark this line with several pieces of masking tape along the right side of your machine. Always follow this new guideline. YARDAGE To figure up your yardage for each of your fabrics take the size square you need to cut and figure out how many you can cut from the width of your fabric. For example if your fabric is 44" in width and if you need to cut 6.5 inch squares you divide 6.5 into 44. I round up my inches to make it easier so I would divide 7 into 44. This will give you 6 squares per row. 7 x 6=42. Now that you know you can get 6 squares out of a row then you take the amount of total squares you will need to cut and divide 6 into that amount. So let's say you need 50--- 6.5" squares then you will need to divide 6 into 50 to find out how many rows you will need --- 6 x 9= 54. This tells you that you will need at least 9 rows. Once you get the amount of rows you will need then you take your size block again and multiply it by the rows to find you yardage. 7" x 9 =63" The result is you will need to buy 63 inches of fabric. I always round up so I would purchase two yards. This will give me an extra 9" in fabric and it is always a good idea to always purchase enough extra fabric to be able to cut one extra row in case of mistakes. |
Custom Search
| Click on the lower right arrows to browse through some of our favorite quilting books. |
 |  |  |
 |  |