I’ve very excited at this time as I’ll soon be publishing my first hardcover book on Amazon!
This book will be a set of Quilting Tips that are good for everyone from beginners to advanced quilters.
Today, I’d love to give you two of the tips that will soon be published in this up and coming book.
Tools of the Trade – Seam Ripper Tool
Welcome to the tool that you will hate to use above all others. But it is essential never the less. The dreaded seam ripper tool.
The function of it is to give you the ability to unpick stitching if you’ve made a mistake. Terrible job to do, but you will get your chance to get good at it.
There are several different styles of seam rippers and here is one area that I would recommend going to a sewing store and just giving some of them a try.
None will be fun to use, but make sure that they hook nicely between fabrics to cut the threads for unpicking.
This is one tool that you should have a couple lying around too. They do go dull and better yet, they do like to hide with the scissors.
Learning how to effectively use a seam ripper tool is crucial to pulling apart a seam without damage to the surrounding material. I recommend that you practice on several types of sample materials and sample stitches.
Also, as you can see in the picture above, there are different types of seam ripper tools available to you. Some are function oriented, but most are preference oriented.
Some you will like the feel of and some you will not like at all. It again comes with experience with using the tool.
What is a ‘Design Wall’
What is a design wall you wonder? A design wall is a board made of cork that you can use to place your blocks on with pins.
The easiest way to get yourself one is to go to the local office supplies store and pick one up.
Alternatively, you can find the supplies to build your own design wall at your local hardware store.
If you do not have space for such a wall in your sewing area, and you really would like the use of one, try using one of those vinyl/ plastic picnic table cloths, drape it over something and have the back side facing you.
That white fluffy fabric on the back serves as a good sticky board to lay out your fabric on as well. If you are not satisfied with that, you can buy various commercial design walls that are even portable.
Be creative.
Other Excellent Quilting Tips
I’m also always on the lookout for other excellent quilting tips from other websites. Today, I’ve found a couple that I think you’d enjoy as well.
The fine folks from www.ctpubblog.com have posted a great article on Stitching in the Ditch. It is a quick article on this technique, but presents great pictures on what you want to see when you are stitching in the ditch and what you definitely don’t want!
Also, I came across an excellent article on Tips About Scrap Quilting from Cherry House Quilts. The author, answers great questions posted by other quilters on scrap quilting.
What is nice is she talks about different tips and techniques you can use with scrap material to do this scrap quilting.