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We all have them. You're not a quilter if you don't hold onto every morsel of fabric that could be useful in the future and leftover half-square triangle (HST) units definitely fall into that "could be useful" category. Whether produced as a byproduct of a quilt pattern (It me! I know, Strip Ts makes a bunch of extras.), or from saving all those stitch-and-flip corners in an attempt to waste less fabric, leftover HSTs can really accumulate. But what do you do with them when y

If you write quilt patterns, you've probably heard of a tech editor, if not worked with one yourself. A tech editor is nothing more than an experienced person who reviews your pattern to find any issues before you publish it (read more about what a tech editor does here ). As a tech editor, I see a lot of patterns at a lot of different levels of polish. Some need a lot of work and some are pretty much ready to go when I get a hold of them. Here are 10 general things your tech

So you want to write quilt patterns? Awesome! If you've sought advice from anyone in the industry, someone has probably recommended that you hire a tech editor to review your pattern before releasing it. Good advice, in my opinion. But what exactly is a tech editor and how on earth do you go about finding a good one? After all, if you're going to pay them your hard-earned money to review your pattern BEFORE you make a dime from it, shouldn't you make sure they're actually goo

'Bias' is a dirty word in quilting. I'm always amazed at the lengths quilters go to avoid working with a bias edge. This usually means a lot of extra steps and a LOT of extra work that is at distinct odds with my lazy quilting mentality. It's MUCH easier to just learn to manage the bias stretch. With some easy habits and some practice, you too can master those tricky bias edges. Here are 12 tips to manage the stretch. What is a bias edge? First thing's first, if you're not fa

Let’s talk thread. When I first started quilting, I just grabbed whatever was labeled ‘quilting thread’ off the shelf at my local JoAnn’s and went with it. I didn’t find out until later on that there was a whole host of thread varieties available and then it became very overwhelming. While I am a firm believer that the best way to find your favorite threads is just to experiment, that can be an intimidating and expensive prospect. So, to get you started, I thought I’d share m

The 4th and final section of this series is all about alignment methods: How to get those perfect points. Assuming you've cut, sewn, and pressed relatively accurately, this is the easy part. However, if you haven't cut, sewn, and pressed accurately, all is not lost. I'll be showing where and how to match points to get those perfect intersections every time. FYI: This post is part of a monthly series on precise piecing. If you haven't read Parts 1-3, make sure to check those

I'm a custom quilting fanatic so I had a lot of fun planning out how to quilt the quilts in my Romeo Twins pattern. Both of these quits are very modern and abstract and this lends itself well to what I'll call "outside the lines" quilting. Rather than following the shapes and lines made by the blocks, you create your own shapes and motifs overtop of the piecing ignoring the seams to introduce a whole other layer of design. However, that kind of quilting isn't necessarily for

We all love a good ombre, but sometimes it can be hard to get the colors just right. Since my newest quilt pattern, Romeo Twins, is designed to be an ombre quilt, I thought I walk you through how I go about choosing my ombre colors. Contents: What is an ombre? Monochromatic ombres Analogous (multicolor) ombres Alternative colorways What is an Ombre? First things first, what is an ombre? Ombre is simply a set of colors that transition gradually into one another. They can b

Learn how to press properly so you don't undo all your efforts achieving precise cutting and sewing.

Curved piecing is scary. Somehow you're supposed to sew two curved edges together and end up with a flat piece. There's all this extra fabric and funny shapes. How on earth is this all supposed to work?!? Breath, my quilty friend. This is a case of the imagination being much worse than reality. With a couple of easy guidelines, you'll be sewing curves like a pro in no time. Contents: The general idea Cutting your pieces Trace then cut Straight edge guided cut Universal curv

This month's post is all about sewing precise seams; the second most important element of precision piecing. Almost all quilt patterns rely on a consistent 1/4" seam. Pieces are cut and sized perfectly to accommodate this assumption. But what happens when that assumption is no longer true? Well, things can start to get a little wacky. This is especially true when it comes to more complicated patterns such as those involving smaller pieces, non-90- or 45-degree angles, or wher

Maybe you've heard about it before, or even know what it is, but have never actually sat down and calibrated your scant 1/4" seam allowance. This tutorial will take you through that process step-by-step so you're sewing perfectly accurate scant 1/4" quilting seams. If you've never heard of a scant 1/4" seam, you can read more about what it is and why it's so important for accurate piecing here . First things first: some ground rules There are a couple of really important thin

Personally, I used to hate sewing half-square triangles (HSTs). There are some beautiful quilt patterns made almost exclusively from them, but the thought of sewing then trimming 400+ HSTs one-by-one sounded like agony. You could always just not trim them, but then matching points becomes almost impossible. That's when I discovered HSTs by the strip. While this method has been around for a while, it has never become super popular. Why? I have no idea because I think it's amaz

Acrylic quilting rulers are very smooth. That’s good for a lot of things, but it makes it easy for the ruler to slip when you're cutting resulting in an inaccurate cut, or worse, injuring yourself. Giving your ruler some grip can help immensely with this so you don't have to apply a death grip to your ruler just to make a good cut. There are a number of products out there designed to help with this. Check out this post for more information on other products and tips for makin

Don't you just love it when your points come together perfectly on the first try? It's not critical, but when it happens, it just gives you that little extra jolt of excitement and you feel like a boss! The only problem is that consistently getting precise points usually means slowing down a lot and doing a bunch of extra starching, trimming, and often seam ripping steps all of which zap the fun out of quilting. We'd all love perfect points every time, but the "lazy quilter"

"Quilt as desired" - has there ever been a more useless pattern instruction? I understand why; there are so many different quilting options and it's such a personal decision that including it in a quilt pattern could easily double the length of the pattern. But, when you've just finished a beautiful quilt top and you're trying to decide how to quilt it, "quilt as desired" just doesn't seem to cut it. To remedy that, I offer some inspiration to get your creative juices flowin