This post is the first in the 2019 Back to School Blog Hop, and also a tutorial for the Colorblock LOVE QAL!

This is a tutorial for sewing long seams on any quilt.

What’s a long seam? Anything that’s longer than the space you have between the front edge of your machine or table and your needle.

Long seams present an opportunity to introduce stretch into a quilt, and too much stretch is never a good thing. So let’s look a few tips for keeping stretch at bay.

Here’s a quick 10 minute video, and in it I’ve covered all the points below – so you can either read about it, or watch it!

Sewing machine set up

One of the best things you can do to increase your accuracy in general is to expand the bed of your machine. This means get some surface in front of your needle at the same height as the machine bed. You can do this by having the machine in a drop-in sewing table or cabinet, or by adding a supporting table around it. Some machines come with a portable table, and there are some after-market companies like Sew Steady that make them for any machine (in several sizes). Your local sewing machine store will have solutions so pop in and talk to them about it. It’s a solid investment in your accuracy, as I’ll show you a bit further down this post!

Pins

Pinning is ALWAYS a good practice. And by pinning, I don’t mean using clips. Clips are a great solution for really thick things (like the top of a bag or tote with additional layers of batting), but pins are the best solution for precision piecework. Once a pin is in place, it’s very difficult to pull one of the layers out of alignment.

Where should you pin? In all the places that matter: at a minimum, pin each end, and pin the middle. To find the middle, fold the edge where the seam will be in half, and pin or pinch a crease into the middle. Do this on both pieces that make up the seam, and then align and pin the middles once you have pinned the ends.

After that, pin all the places that have to match up, like the points and intersections of blocks.

And then after that, add more pins until you have one every 4 to 6 inches, or about the width of your hand. Yes, this seems like a lot of pins to fuss with, but fussing with pins usually keeps you from fussing with the seam ripper. If you slow down to pin, you seldom need to slow down to rip!

How you hold the fabric

No, this isn’t some secret handshake thingy, it just about having a soft hand with the fabric as it approaches the needle. We often put tension on the fabric as it feeds into the needle – pulling away a bit – but this makes the machine try to grab the fabric while we tug in the opposite direction. And this stretches the fabric.

Instead, line up your work in front of the needle, and hold the layers together in just the space between the edge of your table and the needle, and rather than tugging them away from the needle, hold them down on the table gently as you sew up to your hand. UP TO your hand… not OVER it! And if you didn’t watch the video yet, go do that and this will make more sense!

It’s really frustrating to invest your time and money into making a quilt to have it come out stretched and fitting together poorly. It’s worth taking a few moments to set yourself up for better accuracy because sewing is always more fun when things come together well, and without too much struggle, or seam ripping. Having fun while making things is so important!

Please follow the rest of the 2019 Back To School Blog Hop! Note that these industry peeps are all over the country and world, so be patient if you don’t see their post first thing in *your* morning!

Day 1 – September 1 – Sam Hunter: Sewing Long Seams Without Stretching – huntersdesignstudio.com <<—- you are here!

Day 2 – September 2 – Susan Arnold – Joining Binding the Easy Way – quiltfabrication.com

Day 3 – September 3 – Angie Wilson – Fussy cutting tips and techniques – www.gnomeangel.com

Day 4 – September 4 – Andi Stanfield – No-Mark HST: Let your machine be your guide – truebluequilts.com/blog/

Day 5 – September 5 – Bobbie Gentili – Say YES to Y-seams – geekybobbin.com

Day 6 – September 6 – Mel Beach – 5 Reasons to Say Woo Hoo! to School Glue – pieceloveandhappiness.blogspot.com

Day 7 – September 7 – Laura Piland – 7 Ways to Use a Laser on Your Sewing Machine – www.sliceofpiquilts.com

Day 8 – September 8 – Suzy Webster – How to solve loops in free motion quilting – www.websterquilt.com

Day 9 – September 9 – Tara Miller – Accurate Stitch-and-Flip Corners – quiltdistrict.com

Day 10 – September 10 – Latifah Saafir – Accurate Seams Using Masking Tape! – latifahsaafirstudios.com

Day 11 – September 11 – Sarah Ruiz – The Magic of Glue Basting – saroy.net

Day 12 – September 12 – Jen Shaffer – Ways to stop your ruler from slipping while cutting – patternsbyjen.blogspot.com

Day 13 – September 13 – Cheryl Sleboda – Basics of ruching (a vintage fabric manipulation technique) – muppin.com

Day 14 – September 14 – Raylee Bielenberg – Choosing quilting designs for your quilt – www.sunflowerstitcheries.com

Day 15 – September 15 – Jen Strauser – Accurate and Attractive Machine binding – dizzyquilter.com

Day 16 – September 16 – Jane Davidson – Matching points for all types of intersections – quiltjane.com

Day 17 – September 17 – Teresa Coates – Starch and starch alternatives – teresacoates.com

Day 18 – September 18 – Jen Frost – Benefits of spray basting – faithandfabricdesign.com

Day 19 – September 19 – Sandra Starley – Getting started with Hand Quilting – utahquiltappraiser.blogspot.com

Day 20 – September 20 – Karen Platt – Drunkard’s Path Made Easy – karenplatt.co.uk/blog/

Day 21 – September 21 – Kris Driessen – All Kinds of Square (in a Square) – scrapdash.com

Day 22 – September 22 – Sarah Goer – Planned Improv Piecing – sarahgoerquilts.com

Day 23 – September 23 – Kathy Bruckman – Organizing kits for on-the-go sewing – kathyskwiltsandmore.blogspot.com

Day 24 – September 24 – Cheryl Daines Brown – The Secret to Flat Quilt Tops: Borders – quilterchic.com

Day 25 – September 25 – Cherry Guidry – Pre-assembling fusible applique – cherryblossomsquilting.com

Day 26 – September 26 – Laura Chaney – Getting started with English Paper Piecing – prairiesewnstudios.com

Day 27 – September 27 – Ebony Love – Cutting Bias Strips from a Rectangle – lovebugstudios.com

Day 28 – September 28 – Tammy Silvers – Working with heavier weight threads in your machine – tamarinis.typepad.com

Day 29 – September 29 – Kathy Nutley – Create a perfect facing or frame with 90 degree angles – quiltingsbykathy.com

Day 30 – September 3 – Joanne Harris – Using Leaders and Enders – quiltsbyjoanne.blogspot.com

The post Tutorial – Sewing Long Seams Without Stretching Them appeared first on Hunter's Design Studio.

You’re probably thinking, “Yep, so do I.” But, believe it or not, what we do isn’t ordinary. It’s a TALENT.

Fifty years ago it was rare to find a woman who didn’t sew, but today, we are less common. One of the things that inhibits our ability to earn our worth is the old fashioned idea that everyone sews, and thus it isn’t special. But it is.

Let me tell you a story:

A couple of weeks ago, I went to camp for a long weekend. Camp like when we were kids. Except when I was a kid in England, so we didn’t do that kind of summer camp. But here I was, 53 year old me, going to camp for the first time! It was up in the Catskills in NY, and it was a delightful gig run by Jonathan and Stephanie Fields of Good Life Project. It was part fun, part entrepreneurial business stuff, and 100% soul, with meaningful twenty-second hugs all day long. In many, many ways, it was a life changing experience.

Coming into this, we were told there would be a Talent Show. My talent is sewing. Really. I sew just about every day, and I’m good at it. But how do you show a talent of sewing in three minutes on stage? Without a machine?

Hold that thought…

About three weeks before camp started, Jonathan sent out a message, challenging the campers to find something to do that would fill three buckets in our lives – ones he proposes are necessary to a Good Life – those of Connection, Vitality, and Contribution.

What brings me Vitality is my art. I need to make art like I need air. And I mostly make art with a sewing machine. So I decided to create a signature quilt for Jonathan and Stephanie. Design was easy… I have a great alphabet at my fingertips! Colors were easy too… Jonathan likes ORANGE (kindred spirit!) and gray was great for the signature area. Jonathan often signs his missives “with gratitude…” so I poached his words for the text. I hustled the quilt together and, in true quilter fashion, squeaked out the binding the night before I departed.

When I arrived at camp, as my friends were discussing their Talent Show plans, I was still thinking “How the heck do I show people my sewing talent?” when the lightbulb went on: give them the quilt at the Talent Show.

So with the help of many campers, we got a lot of signatures done before the show without letting the cat out of the bag (the rest were done at breakfast the next day). I’ve made signature quilts before, but somehow this one was very different. Just about EVERYONE that signed it hugged me and thanked me for making it possible for them to participate in something that expressed our gratitude. The depth of their thanks, and so many powerful hugs, made me weepy to the point of giving up on mascara on the second day.

I just didn’t see that coming… Connection, Vitality, and Contribution – all wrapped up in fabric. Let me tell you… fabric is a magical thing. I thought I was “just” making a quilt. Ha!

And then back to the Talent Show. I sew. It’s my talent. So I showed it:

Sewing IS a special talent. It’s incredibly special to make a beautiful thing, one that creates community, one that begets a couple hundred hugs, one that expresses thanks from so many, one that will last a few years and hug its owners tight with love and gratitude. What ever the reason, and however you do it, you are manifesting your talent.

It’s REALLY important that we are seen using our sewing talents, and it’s really important that we OWN that these talents are, indeed, very special.

So say it with me: “I sew. It’s my talent.”

The post I Sew appeared first on Hunter's Design Studio.