I was quilting a small wall hanging on my sit-down machine last week and got really frustrated when my top thread kept breaking. I was almost done with the project and was quilting the border with a ferny vine pattern, and every few inches of stitching, I had to stop and tie off the broken…
Tag: tools
Bright Sisters: Half-Square Triangle Units
It all starts with two 8″ squares. Bright Sisters has 320 half-square triangle (HST) units (3.5″ unfinished size) — not my favorite unit to cut and piece. Luckily for me, I discovered the Magic 8 Method (thank you, Karen Walker!) before I even bought the fabric for this quilt and I was able to plan…
Bright Sisters: Drunkard’s Path Units
I made 160 curved units without using a single pin. Here’s how: The Long Version Bright Sisters, the colorblock quilt I’m making for my sister, contains 160 curved patches (drunkard’s path units). On these units, the edge of the circle comes within 1/4″ of the edge of the block, meaning that the circle should be…
Bright Sisters: Cutting the first fabrics
The first cut into freshly washed and pressed fabric is both terrifying and thrilling. I get over the terror by focusing on how much I want to make the quilt top. This one took a lot of focus, even though I kept telling myself if I totally screwed it up, the solid fabrics I’m working…
Free download: Fabric Cutting Diagram
I created this fabric cutting diagram for complex quilts, but I might just use it for all my quilts. In the “measure twice, cut once” world a visual representation of what you’re going to cut counts for a lot! Here’s a completed example using one of the fabrics for my Bright Sisters quilt (pictures of…