DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Weblog

Quilters from all walks of life have embraced twitter.com as a quick and easy way to connect with other quilty friends across the U.S. and world, 140 characters at a time. Use Twitter’s search function to find twitterers with similar interests. By simply typing in search words like “quilt”, “quilting”, “applique”, etc., you’ll meet interesting [...]

There’s no hard and fast rule about matching beading thread to the beads or to the background fabric. Sometimes matching the beads looks best, and sometimes it looks better to match the background fabric depending on the beads, the type of stitch, or the style of the project. Experiment to see what works best on [...]

When you’re stitching two patchwork pieces together and one isn’t quite the same size as the other, if the difference isn’t too large you can ease the two pieces together to match while stitching. Pin the pieces together, matching the edges at each end. Place the bigger fabric piece on the bottom as you feed [...]

When you’re basting your quilt, position the sides of the quilt parallel to the lengthwise grain of the backing fabric. You may save a little fabric yardage by using the crosswise grain instead, but the lengthwise grain has less stretch so your quilt will hang straighter.

I keep a round kitchen caddy (the type with many sections and it spins) on my sewing table to keep my tools handy. I have stitch rippers in one section (very full if they are all tidily away); marking pencils in another, long tweezers and a hemostat in another, screwdrivers, sewing machine oil, fabric scissors, [...]

Need some free motion quilting practice? Purchase small preprinted whole quilt designs or mark your own whole cloth mini quilts on plain fabric. The markings on preprinted quilt tops will wash out with water; if you mark your own, test the marker you plan to use to make sure it can be removed easily. There [...]

Having tension trouble during free motion quilting? Go back to square one. Test the tension during basic sewing (feed dogs up!) with just two pieces of quilting weight cotton fabric without batting between. Use a dark colored thread in the top and a light colored thread in the bobbin so that you can easily see [...]