Quilting Hacks I Learned In My First Year Of Quilting
It’s been about a year since I determined “I shall become a quilter!” after I received a hand made quilt for my son’s birthday and was so inspired to be able to give the same gift to others! It’s such a satisfying craft with the perfect mix of creativity and precision. I’ve since learned there are so many tried and true hacks that make quilting way easier and faster than it seems when you’re first figuring it out and YouTube has so many great tutorials (usually made by the sweetest grandmas haha so they are like the opposite of the usual frantic social media pace). Here are 5 things I wish I knew sooner for anyone else who’s thinking about quilting! It’s not as hard as it looks!
Google “batch quilting hacks!”
You don’t have to cut every single square and stitch every single line individually – there are tutorials to get like 8 blocks out of 2 lines of stitching and other crazy hacks that make it so much faster. Also google “chain stitching”Getting that cute grandma/worn/wrinkly look comes from not pre-washing your fabric, and then washing the finished quilt on high heat, so it shrinks on purpose!
Add a little piece of tape on your sewing machine ¼ inch from the needle so you don’t have to eyeball the seam allowance
Pressing (ironing) everything as you go makes a big difference. There are cute little portable irons and ironing mats if you don’t want to have a big one out all the time
Binding basically cannot look perfect unless you hand stitch. Even the professionals usually just count on the thread blending into the backing fabric so you don’t notice the places it’s not straight
