Remember to soak/rinse your quilt in plain cold water before you wash it! That way, the pen marks will come out. After the quilt is thoroughly rinsed and then washed, the pen marks will never come back at a later date, or after drying.

Some quilters keep a spray bottle of plain water beside them and as they finish a block, spritz it right away. That way they won't forget and it is ready to launder. Some keep a damp paper towel nearby and as soon as they finish a section, dab at the blue marks until they disappear.

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Stains - the Buttermilk Recipe
To remover stains try the "Buttermilk Recipe" - put a quart of buttermilk and a teaspoon of lemon juice in a gallon of warm water. Soak the item. (ok, for an entire quilt you would need to triple or quadruple ) the natrual bleaching agents in the buttermilk and lemon juice will brighten the whites and colors while being gentle with fabrics. This is a great way to brighten old linens and doilies too... If you just happen to be drinking wine while you are quilting and you spill some on your quilt soak up as much as you can with a clean cloth then wash the quilt in cold water and ammonia.

When washing old quilts, minimize handling them when wet.

Removing Blood Stains
If you prick your finger while quilting, you can use your own saliva to remove the blood stain. Just dampen a piece of cloth with your saliva, and rub over the stain. It should disappear. This of course, only works with your own blood.

Washing Fabric
Washing Small Pieces: Place fat quarters of fabric in a mesh lingerie bag to launder. Wash your fabric with other clothing items without losing the fabric and with minimal fraying.

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Paper Piecing Tips

1. 1. Use a size 90/14 needle. The larger needle makes the paper easier to remove.
   
   
2. 2. Use a smaller stitch (18 to 20 stitches to the inch) for easier paper removal and it permits a smaller seam allowance.
   
   
3. 3. Make copy machine copies from an original only. Making a copy from a copy can cause distortions.
   
   
4. 4. Use a small lamp next to your machine to aid in seeing through the paper and the layered fabric for proper placement.
   
   
5. 5. Use a small press board and small iron, no steam, next to your machine.
   
   
6. 6. Cut oversize pieces of fabric to ensure that the fabric covers the area adequately.
   
   
7. 7. Keep the paper intact until the blocks are surrounded by other blocks or fabric pieces.

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• Paper Piecing Paper Ideas

1. 1. Buy newsprint by the ream (lots less money this way). It is about $3.00 for an entire ream! Good place is at Staples, or get end rolls from the local newspaper publisher. You can put it through your copy machine or your home printer, light enough in color to trace pattern through ,and tears away readily from seams. Hint: when using, don't race your machine.
   
   
2. 2. Use tissue-type paper that is used to cover examining tables at your physician's office. This lasts forever! It's lightweight and you can see through it to trace patterns.
   
   
3. 3. Use fax paper (the roll kind, not plain paper) for paper-piecing projects. Just run the original through the fax machine. It enables you to make multiple copies so you don't use up your originals, the paper is very thin so it rips from the seams easily, and the ink/toner is very stable so it doesn't transfer onto the fabric. All in all, it's very easy & cost effective!
   
   
4. 4. The tissue paper that bakeries use for their donuts, or that butchers use for separating hamburger patties, work really well for paper piecing. They're stiff enough to sew on, but lightweight enough to easily tear away. Another plus is they're usually square and a good size (4" to 6") for most patterns. You can get boxes of these from a Restaurant Supply House.
   

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Easily Remove The Backing From Fusible Web
After you have ironed the fusible web to the back of your fabric, fold back a corner (about 1/2 inch), paper-to-paper. When you release the corner, the fabric will spring back, but the paper will stay creased.

Using Steam-a-Seam 2

Pre-wash your fabric to make sure that the chemicals and sizing are removed as these may prevent the fabric from sticking to the steam a seam.

Take your piece of Steam a Seam 2 and cut it to the required size for your appliqué design.

Trace your appliqué design (IN REVERSE) onto one of the Steam a Seam 2 liner.

Peel off the liner you DID NOT draw your appliqué design on.

Stick your Steam a Seam 2 to your appliqué fabric.Cut out the appliqué design from the Steam a Seam and the Fabric.

Peel off the remaining liner.

Stick your cut out Steam a Seam 2 and Fabric appliqué design onto the Background Block Fabric.

Press with a hot iron for 10-15 seconds (time may vary depending on fabric used—this timing is for cotton). Repeat this until the appliqué design is stuck to the Background Fabric securely.

Spray Starch
Spray starch adds body to fabric. It cuts down on fraying, and when used with applique, it stops frayed edges and makes needle turning easier. If applied before rotary cutting, the fabric does not shift, and your 1/4" seams are straighter when you sew. Blocks square up easier and there are less waves when sashing is applied. When machine quilting, the sprayed backing glides smoothly on your work surface and there is less puckering on the back. Bias cuts have less stretch. Pencil marks also wash out easier. Sizing spray is softer than spray starch and works just the same.

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Thread Tips
1. To make thread behave for appliqué or regular sewing - run your needle and thread through a fresh dryer sheet, folded, and magic - no tangles or those tine little nasty knots.

2. Ever wonder why your quilting thread will tangle and knot up sometimes, but cooperates beautifully other times? It matters which end of the thread you put your knot in. For North American-made thread (i.e.. Coats) put your knot in the end that you cut from the spool. For silk thread or European-made thread (i.e.. Mettler) put your knot in the end that you pulled from the spool. This way, you work with the way the thread was twisted when it was manufactured.

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Threading the Needle
If you have trouble threading the eye of the needle, try turning the needle and thread through the other side of the eye. One side of the eye is always bigger than the other.

Try this... Don't lick the thread, instead lick the eye of the needle!

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Fusible Web Appliqué

If you cut the fusible just a hair, like 1/16", smaller than the applique fabric piece, and match the edges when sewing, then the fusible will automatically be pulled to the wrong side when turned so no peeking!

Silk Thread Appliqué
For those who use Silk Thread when they do appliqué but get frustrated because the thread keeps slipping out of the needle, try this. After you thread the needle, pull the thread through so one end is only about 4" from the eye of the needle and tie a double knot immediately behind the eye of the needle. (I use the old boy scout reef knot as it doesn't slip). You will find that it will not hinder your appliquéing as the knot is still smaller than the end of the needle.

Pinning your Appliqué
Pin your appliqué pieces in place on the underside, that way as you are appliquéing the piece in place your pin won’t keep catching on the thread.

Appliqué Thread Color
Always use the color thread that matches the appliqué piece not the background color. Also when using the needle turn method of stitching eliminate pins use a small dab of stik glue in the center of flower or appliqué piece.

Easier Appliqué
Use a Bounce fabric dryer sheet to run down the thread a couple of times after it is threaded. It sure makes the thread flow through the cloth a lot easier with less drag and the thread doesn't knot as easy.

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Sore Finger
Keep clear nail polish in your sewing basket (tightly closed, of course.) Paint a layer or two on whatever area of your finger that usually gets sore from needle pricks (the finger under the quilt for many of us.) Do this before you get pricks in your finger as the polish will sting if you already have needle pricks.

Thimble hints - Save that Finger
Dropping a dime into the tip of a leather thimble will give you the strength and protection of a conventional metal thimble along with the conforming comfort of leather.

Labels
Baste the label in place on the back of the quilt and quilt through it, so the label will be very difficult to remove and will look great!

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Measuring fabric for continuous binding.

Add up the total inches around the quilt, divide that by 40 (the standard width of the fabric), round that number up to a whole number and multiply that by the width you cut your bindings.

EXAMPLE:
If your quilt measures 46" X 46"
46 x 4 = 184
divide by 40 =4.6
Round up to 5, you will need 5 strips for the binding. Now if you cut your bindings 2.5 inches, you will need 12.5 inches. So 1/2 yard would be more than enough.

Binding Tips
1. Make your double fold bias binding at the time you finish sewing the quilt top together while you still have your sewing machine and fabric out. Wrap the binding around an empty toilet paper tube or 8x10-inch cardboard piece (so it doesn't crease), This insures that you won't accidentally use the binding fabric for something else.

2. Sew your binding on before you trim your edges. Then trim your edges with the binding attached. I have trimmed, then sewn and missed the backing sometimes. This assures you will not miss the backing since it is larger than the quilt top.

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Rippled Edges
If the edges of your quilt are slightly rippled, baste around the quilt with stitches about 1/8 inch long. Then lay the edge on a flat surface and gently gather it until it lies flat. Stay stitch by hand or machine to hold the gathers in place and to keep the edges flat.

Adhesive Remover
To remove a fused appliqué without getting adhesive on your iron, set your iron on warm and iron with aluminum foil covering the appliqué. You can remove any remaining adhesive by placing the foil directly over the fusing-adhesive material and ironing again. You can use this method to remove any fusing-adhesive material that has been mistakenly ironed onto the ironing board, too.

Batting Leftovers
When you use part of a package of quilt batting, write the dimensions of the leftover batting on the package. That way you will know at a glance what size batting You have available.

Making Straight Blanket Stitches
To make a long row of evenly spaced blanket stitches, first machine-baste a visible line 1/4" from the edge of the fabric. Using this basting line as a guide, make one blanket stitch per machine stitch, which yields a row of perfectly spaced blanket stitches. I might recommend 6 stitches to the inch.

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Ironing Tips
Secure a thick, heavy, white, bath towel to your ironing board for use as a pressing aid. You can press appliqués face down on this napped surface and press the seam allowances in quilt blocks without having them "mark" the right side of the fabric. The towel also prevents slipping and distortion as you press.

Storage Tips
If you buy several yards of paper-backed fusing-adhesive material at a time, keep it from getting torn or creased by rolling it up and sliding it into an inexpensive cardboard mailing tube. Just label the tubes and you are all set.

Marking Quilt Tops
When using a pounce with powder to mark a quilt top, temporarily set it by using a quick spray of hairspray. It won't brush off, but it will wash out when you're done with the quilt.

Scissor Tips
Put knitting needle point protectors on the sharp ends of your small scissors. This will protect you from getting poked each
time you reach into your sewing bag and will also protect your sewing bag lining.

Cotton or Poly Blend?
Burn Test: To identify fabric content, burn a corner of a piece of scrap fabric and extinguish it in a bowl of water. Cotton will feather with a light ash as it's burned; poly blend will feel like plastic when it is burned.

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Raggy Flannel Quilt Tip
After you get all your clipping done and you are ready to wash your rag quilt, take your vacuum hose and ruffly vacuum your clipped seams. The suction will loosen the threads and suck them up instead of going into your washer.

Coping Strips for adding pieced borders
How do you properly add pieced borders to a quilt?

First determine the size of the pieced border you want to add. Then add a coping strip to bring the quilt up to size.

For instance: If the quilt measures 25 inches, and you want to add a border of 6 inch blocks, you need to add coping strips to bring your quilt up to 30.5", 30 being the next number that is evenly divisible by 6.

So you need to add 5.5" to the size of the quilt. Write down the FINISHED sizes of the quilt and the two coping strips you will add:

3" coping strip
24.5" quilt (finished size)
3" coping strip
------------------------
30.5" total

The quilt already has its 1/2" seam allowance. To cut the coping strips add 1/2 seam allowance, cutting two strips 3.5" wide by 25" long. Add those to opposite sides of the quilt. Cut two strips 3.5" wide by 30.5" and sew these to the two remaining sides.

Your quilt is now 30.5 inches square.

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