Special thanks to CJ AKA Homesteadmamma
Material: First we need to take care of the material were going to be using in our tutorial. You all have picked different colors, and you've picked lights and darks. You now will need to get your material ready and I'm going to give you some tips from suppliers of quilting material. I'll add a few tips in that I do, then you can begin working on getting your material ready.
- Pre-wash ALL new fabrics before using them to avoid uneven shrinkage and transfer of colors when the quilt is complete. (Some will not do this, but as your teacher I'm asking you to do this.)
- Unfold ALL fabric before placing it into the washing machine. Again this may seem silly, but you want all the fabric to be soaked and then washed.
- Separate the fabrics into piles of same colored fabrics.
- Soak dark colored fabrics individually in cold water for at least half an hour to set the dyes. Put 1/4 c. salt and 1 c. vinegar in the cold water before you put your fabric in there. This will set your dyes which is very important, especially if you have reds, navy, burgundy or those types of color. After soaking for 1/2 hour, then wash as you would laundry, making sure you don't put a lot of fat quarters or material together. You can put around 6 -8 fat quarters together to wash or a couple yds. of material.
- Soak your light colors also in cold to lukewarm water for 1/2 hr. and wash as you would laundry. If there are any yellows, oranges or light reds, make sure you use the 1/4 c. salt and 1/2 c. vinegar.
- Tumble dry fabrics in a cool dry cycle. To avoid wrinkling, do not put more than six meters of fabric in your dryer at once!!
TIP - Quilts made with both light and dark colored fabrics should only be washed in cold water.
Once material is washed and dried:
- Take each fat quarter or material to a place near your ironing board. I like to have my ironing board near my sewing machine, it makes for much easier quilting.
- Make sure your iron is not on too high, and take each fat quarter or piece of material and press lightly. DO NOT push your iron as you can stretch the material out of shape and you don't want any of that for cutting purposes. (If you want, you can use steam, but for beginners I recommend you don't.) Just lightly press and only a couple of times, no more.
Fold your material in half and get ready for the next lesson.
btw - I know this might seem like extra working and that were starting to slow, but I want everyone to learn the right way to quilt so that once these lessons are finished, you'll be able to quilt anything you want and without getting frustrating.
PLEASE BE PATIENT - It may look like were taking a long time, but trust me on this okay.
Now that the material is washed, we can just put that aside and work on the following:
- 1/4 in. seam allowance
This is the most important thing in quilting as far as I'm concerned. If you don't sew your 1/4 inch seam allowance right, your whole block will be off, thus causing much frustration and re-doing. Plus, the blocks will look "off" in your quilt.
So I want you to figure out where your 1/4 in allowance is on your sewing machine. If your doing it by hand, you need to do the same thing. (If doing it by hand, practise on a piece of old material.)
To find your 1/4 in. seam allowance, you need to go from your needle over to your right hand side by exactly a 1/4 in. You can mark it with masking tape or even put a mark on it with a knife because that is where your material will be in order to sew your 1/4 allowance.
Another way to find a 1/4 inch is if you have 1/4 in. graphing paper. Place the needle on top of one of the lines, then just mark your line the next 1/4 in.
Now that is done, I want you to find some old material and practise sewing a 1/4 in. seam allowance. See how straight you are, whether using a machine or hand sewing. Doing a straight line isn't quite as simple has one might think, especially when you know the line should be straight.
Now that are material is cut, pressed and we've worked on our seam allowance, we are going to trim the selvage edges from our fat quarters.
Selvage edges is the lengthwise edge of the fabric.
Place your fat quarter on your mat and taking your ruler and rotary tool, place it on the fat quarter. Line your ruler up at the bottom of your fat quarter, with your ruler lengthwise, as shown in the picture. With your tool, press firmly and trim. At the same time, do the exact same thing with the rough edges, where the material is frayed from washing.
Have your rotary tool blade against the ruler, with your hand placed as in the picture, always making sure your fingers are not in the way.
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