Tried & True Favorite Quilting Hacks

“Whenever I do Stitch-and-Flip with a larger square, I mark another line ½” away from the center square and stitch on that line too; it creates not only the stitch-and-flip corner but another Triangle-Square unit as well! With a lot of corners, that adds up to a lot of bonus units! For smaller stitch-and-flip squares, I don’t mark them at all. I use the 0” mark on my sewing machine’s extension table and keep the square corner aligned with that as I sew the seam.”

– Gigi Levsen – Editor, McCall’s Quilting

“My favorite quilting hack is using wash-away glue in a fine-tip applicator to tack the binding to the back of my quilt before hand sewing it to the quilt back. I can sit at a table to apply the glue around the quilt’s perimeter and finesse nice, flat corner seams. The tiny dots of glue dry quickly, and it’s much easier on my hands not to have to hold down the folds as I sew—plus, there are no pins to manage (or accidentally fall to the floor, where you know who would surely step on one!).”

– Valerie Uland – Editor, Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting

 

“After trying every method and tool known to quilters, I finally found a technique to join the ends of my binding that works for me. I leave 10″-long tails at the beginning and the end and about 10″ to 12″ unsewn between them. I cut a small piece from the binding strip and lay it width-wise over the starting tail end, then layer the ending tail over these–and cut that end slightly shorter than the small cut piece directly below it. The strips are opened up, aligned right sides together to form a right angle, and pinned. Then I just stitch diagonally across the two ends. Before trimming off the excess, I check the fit with the quilt. Then the joined seam is pressed open, and I can finish stitching the binding to the quilt. Works every time!”

– Eileen Fowler – Editor | Quiltmaker

“Using a paint roller to smooth out layers when basting, which was a viewer tip!”

– Vanessa Lyman – Executive Producer, Video