On Facebook, Olfa posted a link that explains the importance of squaring up your fabric with pictures of exactly how to do it. http://www.athreadfromtheedge.com/?p=33
This is valuable advice to anyone new to quilting!
On the banks of the Mississippi River in north central Minnesota (Brainerd lakes area)
This was very simple to understand and it is great advice. Thank you so much for posting this. It helps me out a great deal.
Thank you for posting that Nancy. I always order 'a little extra' just because of this issue. But since I have been doing string quilts I don't mind this 'waste' fabric. In fact, I try to be sure I move the ruler over a little when making that 'squaring up' cut so I have a strip at least 1" wide. I then add that 'waste strip' to a basket of similar cuts. When it gets full, I make a string block. When my stack of string blocks get tall enough I make a quilt top.
Max
I love this tutorial but I am curious... I was taught to square up my fabric by ripping - when you rip you don't seem to waste as much as what she is showing... I only do this though if I am cutting a long long piece for a border piece... I will usually rip and then line up the fabric and cut another 1/16" off to get rid of the ripped look - sometimes I leave it as it will be in the seam anyway.
Does anyone rip besides me? Or am I on a different page.
i rarely let 'er rip. but sometimes, i do, if it looks way off.
thanks for the info nancy
gini in north idaho
Gini - do you prewash like she said in the tutorial... I haven't done that in years - I am thinking of restarting though because of some of the dyes running again... I am using the color catchers when I first wash the quilts and they are turning beautiful shades or red/blue and purples...
I only rip when I am doing that long border piece and want to make sure there will be no ripples... that is miserable when you cut that piece and then find out it is not on grain... hate that...
thea, i prewash everything and check for colorfastness. i still find fabrics that surprise me with the dye running. i expect it of batiks, but not good quilt fabric in general.
Thea:that is miserable when you cut that piece and then find out it is not on grain... hate that...
What I hate even more is when the pattern is printed off grain. Then you have to decide if you are going to cut with the grain or cut with the pattern. If it's a strong directional pattern, it makes a difference.
Chicago, Let me see what instructional info I can find for you. There really isn't a specific pattern for sewing strips of fabric together. I'll post what I find to you.
Thea--I was taught to rip, but gripping and ripping is one of those stupid little things my hands balk at anymore. So I use the tutorial method shown here. Have trouble buttoning buttons, also...solution is pullover tops! Path of least resistance works well.
I wash almost every piece of fabric that comes in my house. I never know what dyes have been used on the fabrics I buy. I also don't know what country they were created in, what pesticides were used around them before and during shipping, how they have been stored, etc, before they come to me. Some of the fabrics I can handle without problems, some just handling them for a few minutes make my hands start to burn and itch. I have a high sensitivity to some dyes, and I am aware of it. Rather than try to figure out which fabrics will bother me, and which one won't, I wash them all.
I recently had a beautiful brown batik that after washing it three times, the last time in hot water, and double detergent, still made my hands burn and turn bright red just handling it. It went into the trash! I was afraid if it did me that way it might do someone else the same way. Since nearly all my quilts go to elderly people, I didn't want to take a chance.
Chicago--
Bonnie Hunter has a great site----quiltville.com
Lots of patterns (some are string quilts) and they are free!
Pat--"Keep Calm and Carry On"
I was taught to rip years ago when I did garment sewing. I haven't with quilting, but several times I have been tempted with fabric that was way off grain.
Also, I am with MNNancy...very annoyed with graphic fabrics printed "off grain"! Maybe we should note that on the "review" list!!!
Winthrop, WA
Donna B:very annoyed with graphic fabrics printed "off grain"! Maybe we should note that on the "review" list!!!
We sure could if particular brands are guilty of that more often than others.
With the rising costs of good quilting fabric I can no long afford to rip and that is what I was taught in home economics in the 6th grade. Of course I already knew that because that is what my grandmother taught me when I could not even reach the treadle on her machine.
Nowhere in this thread have I seen my old method of getting fabric on strait of grain, I snip one edge of the fabric from the selvage and pull a thread across grain and clip as I go. That's how I learned in 6th grade sewing class.
Millbury, MA