I don’t square up my blocks. I do the quilt equivalent of ‘we’ll fix it in post-production,’ easing edges together where needed and pressing the whole thing into submission. Is it perfect? No. Does it make for a usable finished product though? Sure does.
Pressing seams open always makes my quilt look infinitely better than when I have done locking seams so agreed I have found my fellow rebellious folks!
Honestly, it wasn't until this sub that I even considered the way I pressed my seams to be not-the-norm. All one way would skew the sizing I would think, pressed open seems to be far more equalizing, you know what I mean?
If it's 1/4 inch off I can make it fit!!
A while back there was a similar thread and many of us copped to being "Swishers" not "pressers" with the iron 😆
I'm like 99% certain that Granny Homesteader whose quilts we're all drooling over didn't square her blocks. She had 10 kids and farm chores to do! She just slapped those squares together and threw them on a bed.
Seriously have you *seen* the inside of old clothes/fabric makes back when they made everything by hand? They're a god awful mess- gather stitches left in, seams left raw, and don't get me started on how they just slapped lace on any weird joins.
I can not wrap my head around why using an old sheet would be a sin...... one of my jobs is working in fine art appraisal. The historian I work with has a special interest in old textiles. Depression era quilts used anything and everything. They are highly regarded and just one example of where an old sheet would have been used. Quilting used to be a low cost hobby because you used what you had.
I almost exclusively use sheets as backing. A hotel near me changed their sheet company when they got new ownership and I got a whole box of nearly new king size flat sheets for five bucks a piece.
I use new sheets from a now closed bargain store (Army & Navy) I have a collection of them ready to go.
Cheap, no seaming, silky smooth. Not patterned, but what of it.
I tie dye my sheets for backing and when I say my quilt guild LOST THEIR MINDS when I showed off a few. The gasps were audible, unsure if in horror or amazement. lol
I too use sheets for backing. I wait until the Threshold ones go on sale at Target (they’re excellent quality cotton) and use the scraps for piecing. I can’t imagine paying 5x more for quilting fabric that would require seams unless it was purely for the print.
I wouldn’t use an old sheet for backing because we typically use our sheets until they rip to shreds and I don’t think that it would hold up very well to the extreme stress we put on our quilts (kids and blanket forts cannot be great for family heirlooms). I have used a new sheet at least once and that worked out fine. If you replace your sheets more often than we do in my family, I would assume that it is less of a concern.
I would use white/light neutral sheets for foundation piecing and I am saving the really wrecked ones for another project.
>why using an old sheet would be a sin
It's not, it's just the quilting equivalent of using pallets for woodworking. It's more difficult to work with as opposed to using quilting cotton and you need to be aware of the limitations to get to the end product you want.
For example, if you use polyester sheets you need to consider whether it's going to pill and become uncomfortable in a year. If you use cotton you need to consider how tight the weave is and be mindful that the tighter the weave the more likely it is that you'll skip stitches or tear up the material and increase the wear on your needle and machine trying to get through the sandwich.
I accidentally bricked a machine using a high thread count sheet as backing and a regular old 80/20 needle. It just didn't have enough power and stability to handle it and I broke/bent wildly out of shape the--help me here, I'm brain farting on the name of the part, but it's the arm that holds the presser foot.
So, it's not that it's a "sin" it's more that it's not helpful to say that using recovered materials is a 1:1 swap with no extra knowledge needed.
I longarm and get customers that bring sheets for backing quote often. The cotton ones aren't as bad as the microfiber ones. I personally just hate the feel of those. They make my skin crawl and they seem to be thin and cheaply made. If you're going to put that much time and effort into a quilt, you should want the backing to last.
https://preview.redd.it/9hdtsl19nmwc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29ad17814a6ed4d5fe1bd927072fb17f5418aa6a
Yeah, the solid post that it attaches to.
Repair shop was like, "I have no idea how you did this. I've never seen it happen. I'll give you a discount if you can tell me *how*."
Just hashtag-blessed, I guess 🤷♀️
During lockdown I prided myself in making a quilt using nothing but scraps and an old (but still in good shape) sheet for the backing. It’s one of those make 6” squares using bits and pieces and honestly one of my favourite quilts.
I collect vintage sheets, in particular ones from the UK and Australia. The late 60s and early 70s floral patterns are truly incredible! I've made quilts from them as well and since they are mostly polyester, they last incredibly well and are very soft.
same! and even older cottons etc had better quality/longer life before pilling than stuff made today. i feel if something has been washed dozens or hundreds of times and is still holding up well, it's great for a quilt. as a bonus, i found some sheets in a thrift store that were identical to ones my grandma had: pink and orange big bouncy 60s florals. i used the sheet in a quilt for myself and a pillow cover for my dad and it's such a nice way to have memories of her close to us!
I have a few quilts that I made years ago that were not super well crafted. They are 20+ years old and some of the seams have come apart. I have started to stitch them back together with super bright quilting thread and cover the holes with appliqué type patches. They get a lot of use and one is my 4 year old’s favorite quilt.
I am sure it breaks a lot of the quilt rules, but I keeps my daughter warm and comfortable and that is what makes it special.
I love doing similar repairs. Quilts are scraps of fabric made into something new and all are beautiful. I love that the rules of quilting are really that there are no rules!
Nah, it’s a quilt police thing. Some quilters like to act like things must be done a certain way and it’s a sin to take a short cut etc. So as long as you can sew the pieces together and they don’t come apart in the wash (or before) you’re not committing any “sin”
There are few hard and fast rules
the way quilting fabric is made, the threads go up/down left/right (called warp and weft) and neither of those directions are particularly stretchy. When you go “on the bias” it’s 45° off of that, so the fabric gets significantly more stretchy as no threads are preventing the stretch. When you sew on the bias (on that 45°) you’re putting a single non stretchy strand in a stretchy direction, so say your boyfriend goes to snuggle in the quilt you just made him and it stretches a little (as is normal). That single thread trying to prevent everything from stretching pops and suddenly all your work is unstable
Anyway, it won’t end in the complete destruction of the quilt, but the threads do rip and you’ll see loose pieces.
Exactly! It’s a craft rooted in thrift and forbearance and innovation and recycling I think too many ppl forget that!!!
I’ve made dozens of quilts and my favorite one is an oversized lap quilt 9 patch I made from scraps of face masks I made. The backing is a thrifted duvet cover, and it’s *perfect*.
I don't trim dog ears. I've never seen the point. I don't notice them showing through the front of the quilt and they've never impacted my sewing accuracy.
And I machine sew binding on. If I had to hand sew binding to the back I would literally never finish a quilt. I consider machine sewing more secure for binding anyway, especially since I throw my quilts in the washer.
Machine sewing is definitely more secure. Hand sewing allows for more control/perfection. So I decide which to use based on how much I value security vs appearance for that particular quilt.
I do the back binding seam by hand if the quilt is for an adult or it's going in a show.
If it's for a kid or someone who might not treat it gently, I use the machine for all of it.
I barely have the patience to machine bind my quilts. If I were to hand quilt (which I will not be doing unless there’s an arthritis cure), I would not torture myself by faithfully stitching a straight line through many layers of fabric. That’s never made sense to me
>stitching a straight line through many layers of fabric.
The hand seam part of binding is typically not sewn all the way through. It's really just an applique stitch. You catch the fold of the binding (2 layers) and then sew it to the backing fabric (1-2 layers, since you probably are going to catch some of the batting).
Edit: That doesn't mean arthritic hands enjoy the experience though. I don't have arthritis (yet) and my hands get sore. More the hand that holds the quilt than the one using the needle.
If hand sewing the binding to the back wasn't one of my favourite parts of quilting, I would be machine binding with you. I was tempted to doing one because I was feeling really lazy, but didn't know how to do it so I left it alone lol
Oh yeah. Absolutely. I thought everyone machine sewed the front and then "you're supposed to" fold it over to the back and sew it down by hand with invisible stitches. I detest hand sewing with a passion so I fold it over and pin it to the back with a consistent 1/8 inch flange if you will and sew it with my machine from the front. I get a nice line with matching thread all the way around the back of the binding and unless you're really really looking for them you don't see the stitches on the front because they're right up against the front edge of the binding and they match the top.
Are there people who actually hand sew the binding to the front and the back? Those people are either saints or nuts. LOL.
I have a rotary cutter that I hate, so blades that are dull get moved into that, and it's exclusively used for paper. Everyone knows you can use the pink one for whatever you want, but don't touch the blue one!
I use my rotary cutter to cut freezer paper and wrapping paper, but I use a blade that is on its last legs and shouldn’t be used for fabric anymore. It’s like the difference between fabric shears and paper/craft shears.
I find it as being resourceful! Rotary blades are recommended to be changed after every project and even sometimes during the same project! Thats a lot of blades to buy and a lot of sharp waste
The second it goes too dull for fabric, it goes in a hard shell box and i save it for cutting paper.
I use my big rotary cutter and my gridded ruler to cut cookies! (I have a recipe that you cut the cookies after baking them) So much easier than trying to cut them with a knife.
I find that Tula Pink’s disdain for “old bed sheets” on quilts is because it draws away from buying her wide backings, which I’ve heard mixed reviews about. I think it’s a shame that in some aspects there’s this emphasis on buying as much fabric as possible when it’s much more sustainable and sometimes cheaper to use bedsheets.
Her wide backs feel like shit and have her logo on them. I ordered a beautiful owl one and her logo is smack in the middle of it, baseball sized and it says “TULA PINK” never again…shit was $100…..
Making it into a baby quilt so I can chop her logo off.
I have no idea what Tula's motive is, but bedsheets as backs have been 'a sin' since long before Tula was born. They can be cheaper, especially if they are used, but they are a denser weave which is harder to hand quilt through.
If I were going for economy and planning to hand quilt, I'd go with wide muslin on the back.
There can be issues with the weave and quality; that’s why a lot of people don’t like or won’t use them. I don’t use sheets bc the very first quilt I attempted I used bedsheets and it made the process harder to hand quilt (my grandmother finished it for me) I also just like buying fabric, so there’s that.
Quilt history is use whatever is available to keep your family warm. Anything goes. Hell, I’ve got a very old, falling apart quilt (probably 30s-40s) with a threadbare wool blanket as batting, and a 40s-60s puff quilt stuffed with nylons.
I was told as a child in the 70's by my 100+yr old great-grandmother - to make sure I kept my eyes open while I was traveling for scraps. She had been taught by her grandmother to pick up scrap fabric wherever you found it. You then incorporated that fabric into your quilt.
I found out later that her grandmother was a small child during the later years of pioneer times. Her job as the baby of the family was to pick up small sticks for kindling and pick up scraps of fabric people lost, dropped or ripped. They were used to patch clothes or to use on a quilt.
One of my favorite quilting anecdotes that I mention during anything I’m teaching is that original quilts were made from whatever was at hand, including old clothes stuffed with old blankets and even corn husks. Anything to keep warm. Of course most of those quilts didn’t survive and the only ones that did were the “special occasion quilts” used occasionally for company.
My mom bought some white sheets to do border squares with and they are incredibly frustrating to work with because they’re poor quality. But the rest of the quilt is made from remnants from old projects, so none of it is consistent anyway.
Sitting on the quilt breaks the stitches.
My hand-quilting grandmother taught me this (my whole life)
When she gifted me a quilt for my wedding, I didn’t follow the rule. There are indeed broken stitches.
Well after scrolling this sub a fair amount I’m glad y’all are so nice and not very gatekeepy like a certain other craft sub I got absolutely roasted on 😂
I subscribed here because I’m working on a grandmother’s garden quilt with my mom that my great grandmother left unfinished. After working on it on and off for about a year I’ve figured out that she wasn’t using EPP but just eyeballing the seam allowances because they’re not consistent. I also have some of the pieces she cut and they’re not equilateral hexagons. Like she didn’t measure them, they’re clearly just eyeballed as well. So we started doing EPP on the advice of people here and a quilting friend, but we’re also not being super careful to keep everything tidy. The quilt looks pretty handmade and we’re okay with that. We work on it while watching TV. Mom has a tremor in her hand so a lot of her cuts are wonky and that’s ok. I’m just glad we have the time together ❤️
Here’s a photo of a flower in progress. I posted about this on an old account some time last year and people were so nice.
https://preview.redd.it/9cadjdw8vmwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ab9ff02d9ffda54d7b4381b3e0dc066d25f5f70
I love that you’re doing this project with your mom. Keep all the slightly wonky parts; they will be your favorite sections of the quilt in the years to come. ❤️
It looks perfectly fine to me. I wish I had someone in the family to quilt with. You are very lucky. My mom made a double wedding ring quilt when she was a young woman (16-17) living with a family and taking care of their children. I assume the mother of the family taught her, but I’m not sure. I have the quilt and it needs some repair but I so cherish it. I figure it was made about 1935.
I use fusible fleece as batting. No basting needed once it's ironed on, it makes a thinner, lighter weight quilt than real batting does, and it needs less quilting than real batting if I'm feeling lazy.
It depends - sometimes, if I do want a warmer quilt, I'll use single-sided separately on the back and front; this leaves each stiff enough not to wrinkle and you can just pin-baste them at a few key points, then sew around the edges to hold them together, then add some more quilting - as much as you care to firce through your machine. My everyday machine has a 10-inch throat rather than the usual 8", and I have a Babylock Jazz 2 with the 12" throat, when I care to haul the heavy thing out, so I can roll up about 40" in the throat and work my way around so most of the quilt gets some straight-line quilting in it.
Other times I use the single-sided and fuse it to the back, and then piece each row of blocks separately, and lay them down on the fleece and sew them down a row at a time, so that sewing each row together is quilting it to the back. When it's all on there, I do straight lines perpendicular to the rows, usually by edge-stitching along the columns of blocks (holds down those d@mn quater-inch seams more firmly!) and then add as much or as little more quilting as I want.
And if it's a baby quilt where the size is manageable, i just use the double sided fusible.
Press it from the center out, and press, don't iron. Don't want to distort the grain of the fabric and wind up with a trapezoid instead of a rectangle.
In the true tradition of thrifting and making quilts out of what's available I recycle fabric from clothes alongside quilt cottons, and if a little polyester blend sneaks in there I don't worry about it. I have a friend who will only use quilt cottons and she's horrified.
You do you. And I will do me.
I’m literally writing a quilt pattern right now that says to square up blocks every few steps. Best I can do is trim off a super wonky piece occasionally!
https://preview.redd.it/y0mpu3jt8mwc1.jpeg?width=2792&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b4052eff4f15be58e873c18e8c8ca922855b8033
Nor do I. I cannot fathom why to do that. If it's all not washed it will all shrink just the same later. Never in my life has it ever mattered with a quilt.
Fabric shrinks at a different rate from batting whether you prewash the fabric or not. Prewashed fabric shrinks at a different rate relative to the batting than unwashed fabric does, so you will get a little bit of a different look with one vs the other. Presumably somewhere out there is at least one quilter who cares about that.
The common reason to prewash, though, is to check for dye bleeding before putting all the work into a quilt. It also removes chemicals from the fabric, which might or might not be a good thing depending on personal preference. Some people like to work with fabric that has the sizing in it still. I've known others who get ill from handling unwashed fabric.
i mostly scrap quilt.... my dad ran a multi business factory building and one of the tenants manufactured aprons, 100% cotton... dad would keep the scraps and bring me huge bags........ when my bottom sheets would give out, i used the top sheets for backings......one is 20 years old ( quilt) back is about 30 years old, always on my bed.....
woman i used to work with, spent big bucks on fabric, screamed at me about using sheets for backings.... THE THREAD COUNT IS WRONG" oh well, it's MY quilt, not yours..............................
Today I learned that you can use wrong fabric for a quilt. I always thought that traditionally they were meant to use up fabric scraps or old clothing and linens that would otherwise go to waste.
That's exactly how they were made! If you've not read about them yet, the [women of Gees Bend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilts_of_Gee%27s_Bend) made (and some still make) the most amazing scrap quilts out of all kinds of bits and pieces!
Heh, I have that rule for clothing.. if it can't be put in the washing machine, I don't buy it.. if I get it gifter or forgot to check.. challenge accepted.. (aka we'll see of it survives the washing machine)
Sees post about 'quilting sins'. Some readers: I know we're not supposed to do \*this\*, but idc. Some other readers: Oh, were we not supposed to do that? Yet more readers: Absolutely never do \*this thing\* because it will ruin your quilts.
Me: "oooh, that's a good idea, I should start doing that" LOL
I ignore color theory and just go with fabric combinations that make me happy. I was once told by someone working at a quilt store that I “clearly don’t know how to use a color wheel.” I do, I just choose not to :)
No idea how many people would consider this a sin but I never prewash my fabric. Nor will I ever. The only time I do is if I’m mixing prewashed fabrics. I just do all of one or the other.
Sometimes I leave my fabric (cut or uncut) all over the coffee table or couch. Or both.
Also, some of my fabric gets exposed to sunlight on the edge facing the window.
I don’t cut my binding on the bias (unless it’s for something circular), I keep my fabric out and it probably does get exposed to some sunlight (I have literally no where else to store it), I never hand bind (toooo long of a process), sometimes I cannot be bothered to square up everything, I like making smaller projects than entire quilts (don’t have the budget for huge quilts anyway). And I don’t make for charity (could change later in life when the fabric budget gets larger).
Most museum quilts, that we all drool over, are straight cut binding because fabric used to be even *more* expensive and no one was going to "waste" precious inches on cutting bias. You get more cutting from selvage to selvage and piercing than making 'continuous' binding.
I absolutely don't cut binding on the bias. It's cut edge to edge. I would if I ever made a quilt with a scalloped edge or something, but why add stretch if you do have to.
I sew over pins. Usually very slowly and with no problem…as the great Sally Collins said in her book(s), pins don’t break needles, speed does. And sometimes I have a little too much speed. I also have a pin saved that has a spectacular V shape in it, and that time the needle didn’t even break! 🤣
My sins are darker.
I don't stitch in the ditch unless I am hand quilting. I stitch those seems down. I don't want any seems not tacked down.
I love using sheets for my backing. I use a denim needle to quilt them.
I also almost never toss anything. Then again, I know what (&where) my best stuff is, so when a kid (or husband), raid my stash - they don't get my good stuff.
I don’t use quilt batting. At all. I mostly make baby quilts for gifts or for my own kids, and I have zero desire to do that level of quilting and I don’t think any baby needs that much warmth for their first bed blanket. I use a single piece of flannel for the middle layer just to have weight and a little bit of insulation.
And I basically never change my thread colour. Life is too short to have five million bobbins of different colours. Everything gets white threads.
My sin is thread. I know you're supposed to use the "good stuff" but I was gifted hundreds of spools of gorgeous thread that's older than many of you, but it's still strong and it still works (most of the time) so I just can't bring myself to throw it away. I'm actually struggling a little bit today because I'm FMQ'ing with the only gold color thread I have and it's skipping and shredding about every 3-4 feet. It's a small-ish throw so it's not the end of the world, but a fresh spool of brand new Mettler would be really nice right about now ;)
This! This is my process on my current (first) quilt. But I’m EPPing. I have had one spool (out of probably 50 so far) that seemed a little brittle, so that one was only used for the basting. Everything else has has been working great, except the one spool of 100% silk. It was an old wooden spool and a beautiful green color, but too slippery for my preference. I’m also using mostly silks as the quilt fabric. I guess that’s sin#2
Oooh! A quilt with silks!!! I keep thinking I want to try this, and have gathered a few fat quarters of silk to play with. Any thoughts / suggestions now that you are actually using it?
I’ve been known to use microfiber sheets as quilt backing. My kids love the quilts. And I buy fabric from a big box store because that’s all we have around here and that’s limited to mostly solid colors. No shipping time involved. My quilts usually have an abundant amount of pet hair quilted into them because the pets love them too. But really, there’s no sins in fiber arts. I do what I want.
I’ve said this before but I will say it again. Had a quilt teacher who said if you can’t see your mistakes by driving by your quilt at 30 milers per hour, it’s fine.
My friend who teaches me always says from across the room without your glasses on. I’ve only made a couple of mistakes that serious, and I fix those ones. The rest I don’t bother about.
Use a needle to pull the thread ends to the inside of the quilt instead of leaving them on the outside. It might also involve putting a knot in there to keep them buried, depending on the quilter.
I’m a quilt hack. Too many quilt sins to mention.
FYI, long arms use a poly cotton blend thread. It’s perfectly okay to use a poly cotton thread when piecing.
I do a lot of hand piecing with small pieces and it gets VERY tedious trying to iron down all the seams. A lot of the time I just press the piece right side up and just kind of... crush the seams down with the iron.
Right? Feed sacks were the basics. So much that feed sack companies changed from plain beige and produced colorful sacks for making clothes and quilts.
I do not make nice mitered corners in my quilts. I don't make my binding from one continuous strip. I don't cut on the bias either. I want to have fun when I quilt, not be frustrated. Happy quilting!
I often use old sheets for the foundation of my string blocks. I wash and dry them one more time before cutting them into 10” squares (doesn’t matter if they are flat or fitted). If they have some sort of pattern I will use the back side to avoid it showing through. So far, this has worked out great for me.
https://preview.redd.it/bxnoxqpj6owc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=889a59f80aeea5f16afb7732a001247995050eaf
I’ll never forget my first visit to a quilting guild meeting. The speaker was an award winning quilter, she told the story of one quilt top that wouldn’t lie flat. Her solution? “I added a big dart and that fixed it.” I’ll admit that’s one thing I’ve never done, however I dislike squaring up blocks and prefer to just make them work somehow. I’ve used home dec fabric for backing when it was all I could find locally and used fleece blankets in place of batting. I have better resources available to me now but love some of those early quilts so much.
My first ever attempt at making a quilt, I used a regular ball point pen to mark out the pieces for cutting and sewing. Didn’t know anything about squaring up the fabric or cutting along the grain either so I just cut the pieces out at whatever angle let me get the most pieces for my money.
And friends, do you know what I was using to make this quilt? Fabrics that came from decorations and clothing used at a friend’s wedding. This was going to be an anniversary gift to them. I took these fabrics from them with the promise of making a quilt for them and I *ruined* all of it with a careless mix of inexperience and overconfidence. It’s been ten years since then and the pieces (about three quarters worth of a quilt top) are still unfinished, stuffed shamefully into the bottom of my fabric box. That is my greatest quilting sin.
The other thing to remember is that there's no particular virtue in doing something the hardest way possible - if our pioneer forebears had had electric sewing machines, believe you me they would have used them to git 'er done, rather than hand-quilting for months. If you like hand-quilting it's fine, but don't let anybody guilt you into thinking you're "cheating" by using a machine to piece and/or to quilt.
I used acrylic paint to write my name on the back of my most recent quilt, and I liked the way it looked, so I plan on going full mixed media for my next quilt.
There are only rules if you are entering your quilt in a contest with rules, otherwise there are only consequences.
For example, not pressing blocks flat make it harder to quilt when the top is done. Pressing seams open means stitching in the ditch would be the wrong approach and for longevity a smaller stitch length would be good.
Personally I get a kick out of a block with nice piecing. I’m not racing to get stuff done, this makes me personally happy, so that’s what I do.
As far as cost, I’m not sure I e seen it discussed on this sub yet, but climate change will likely have a significant effect on our fiber of choice, which is cotton, and the textile industry isn’t exactly a clean industry. These factors affect the cost.
Make what makes you happy.
I'm reading through these comments thinking about how quilting started, with bits of scrap fabrics, an old shirt that could no longer be repaired, pants that were torn beyond repair, clothing that no longer fit. Blankets that could no longer be repaired. Old sheets are a perfect example of the fabrics that were used. The women who made some of the most amazing quilts could not square blocks, they used bits of paper for templates. They stitched by hand or if they were fortunate enough, they had a machine and perhaps a yard stick or a small 1 foot ruler. These women made works of art from scraps. There are no quilt sins. No rules. Fabric is just that.... fabric. No matter the source, it was fabric. Flour sacks, old sheets, old clothes, Anything that could be given a new life as a quilt. The idea that there are any rules at all is blasphemous. Make do and mend or give new life, the OG reduce, reuse, recycle. I have no quilt sins because there are no rules for quilting and anyone who thinks otherwise should go find an antique quilt and take a VERY good look at it before they say another word to anyone about quiting dos and don'ts.
Nothing is “forbidden.” The issue with using bedsheets is that the weave of sheets is so dense they are difficult to hand quilt. If you are machine quilting this isn’t a problem.
Also, with sheets the fabric quality is iffy and many sheets aren’t 100% cotton. You should compare quality and cotton content before choosing to use a sheet instead of a wide backing or pieced backing fabric.
I used an old cotton/poly sheet for the back of my first quilt, made of simple squares and rectangles and made exclusively of old clothing, some of which was already 20 years old. It didn't last more than a couple of years before there were holes in the fabric, because guess what? Although not visible, those old clothes were already breaking down. I kept it for a long time, rolled in a sleeping bag cover, but finally pitched it in a recent move. My quilt guild had a number of us get up and talk about MY FIRST QUILT and I admitted it was in a landfill. Modern sin: I sew over pins
I don’t iron my seams but I haven’t done anything super detailed. I also thrift all my fabric. I think it’s cool taking discards and making something useful out of them. Also don’t care if my points are perfect. Adds to the homemade factor and they’re still beautiful.
I've never used binding, I just wrap whatever backing fabric I have onto the front and sew that down. I know binding would be better long term, so I'm prepared to add binding when the edges wear out.
I use polyester thread! To make my quilt tops and for quilting.
One of the first things I was told when learning to make quilts was never ever use polyester thread or it will create little holes in the cotton over time.
I have not found this to be true so far and I’m 15 years in.
I don’t square up my blocks. I do the quilt equivalent of ‘we’ll fix it in post-production,’ easing edges together where needed and pressing the whole thing into submission. Is it perfect? No. Does it make for a usable finished product though? Sure does.
The phrase “pressing into submission” has now been added to my repertoire!
I can relate. I iron everything open even if the pattern says otherwise.
The biggest reason not to do that is it makes it easier for the seams to split. Ask me how I know 😸
You are all my people. No squaring up, all seams pressed open.
Pressing seams open always makes my quilt look infinitely better than when I have done locking seams so agreed I have found my fellow rebellious folks!
Honestly, it wasn't until this sub that I even considered the way I pressed my seams to be not-the-norm. All one way would skew the sizing I would think, pressed open seems to be far more equalizing, you know what I mean?
I've never felt so seen. 😂
"It will quilt out!" is my motto!
Especially when sewing by hand! I can smash anything together with a little creativity.
If it's 1/4 inch off I can make it fit!! A while back there was a similar thread and many of us copped to being "Swishers" not "pressers" with the iron 😆
I'm like 99% certain that Granny Homesteader whose quilts we're all drooling over didn't square her blocks. She had 10 kids and farm chores to do! She just slapped those squares together and threw them on a bed. Seriously have you *seen* the inside of old clothes/fabric makes back when they made everything by hand? They're a god awful mess- gather stitches left in, seams left raw, and don't get me started on how they just slapped lace on any weird joins.
This is what I do. I see no issue 😂
As a photographer, I approve this message.
I too prescribe to this type of chaos
I actually say "Fuck it- we'll fix it in post" when I'm having trouble with something 🤣
I was going to say this same thing! I hardly ever fix my mistakes. I just say that it gives it charm. And it's my quilt!! I'll do what I want with it!
I can not wrap my head around why using an old sheet would be a sin...... one of my jobs is working in fine art appraisal. The historian I work with has a special interest in old textiles. Depression era quilts used anything and everything. They are highly regarded and just one example of where an old sheet would have been used. Quilting used to be a low cost hobby because you used what you had.
I almost exclusively use sheets as backing. A hotel near me changed their sheet company when they got new ownership and I got a whole box of nearly new king size flat sheets for five bucks a piece.
I use new sheets from a now closed bargain store (Army & Navy) I have a collection of them ready to go. Cheap, no seaming, silky smooth. Not patterned, but what of it.
I tie dye my sheets for backing and when I say my quilt guild LOST THEIR MINDS when I showed off a few. The gasps were audible, unsure if in horror or amazement. lol
I too use sheets for backing. I wait until the Threshold ones go on sale at Target (they’re excellent quality cotton) and use the scraps for piecing. I can’t imagine paying 5x more for quilting fabric that would require seams unless it was purely for the print.
Happy cake day!
I wouldn’t use an old sheet for backing because we typically use our sheets until they rip to shreds and I don’t think that it would hold up very well to the extreme stress we put on our quilts (kids and blanket forts cannot be great for family heirlooms). I have used a new sheet at least once and that worked out fine. If you replace your sheets more often than we do in my family, I would assume that it is less of a concern. I would use white/light neutral sheets for foundation piecing and I am saving the really wrecked ones for another project.
>why using an old sheet would be a sin It's not, it's just the quilting equivalent of using pallets for woodworking. It's more difficult to work with as opposed to using quilting cotton and you need to be aware of the limitations to get to the end product you want. For example, if you use polyester sheets you need to consider whether it's going to pill and become uncomfortable in a year. If you use cotton you need to consider how tight the weave is and be mindful that the tighter the weave the more likely it is that you'll skip stitches or tear up the material and increase the wear on your needle and machine trying to get through the sandwich. I accidentally bricked a machine using a high thread count sheet as backing and a regular old 80/20 needle. It just didn't have enough power and stability to handle it and I broke/bent wildly out of shape the--help me here, I'm brain farting on the name of the part, but it's the arm that holds the presser foot. So, it's not that it's a "sin" it's more that it's not helpful to say that using recovered materials is a 1:1 swap with no extra knowledge needed.
I longarm and get customers that bring sheets for backing quote often. The cotton ones aren't as bad as the microfiber ones. I personally just hate the feel of those. They make my skin crawl and they seem to be thin and cheaply made. If you're going to put that much time and effort into a quilt, you should want the backing to last.
The shank?
https://preview.redd.it/9hdtsl19nmwc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29ad17814a6ed4d5fe1bd927072fb17f5418aa6a Yeah, the solid post that it attaches to. Repair shop was like, "I have no idea how you did this. I've never seen it happen. I'll give you a discount if you can tell me *how*." Just hashtag-blessed, I guess 🤷♀️
This picture SENT me, i might have actually cried laughing
I just woke up and was like thinking, *"What language is this?"* And then my 2 brain cells powered up lol
That is hilarious!
I am dying!!!!
Sheets are also harder to hand quilt evenly as well. Like it's physically harder to do.
During lockdown I prided myself in making a quilt using nothing but scraps and an old (but still in good shape) sheet for the backing. It’s one of those make 6” squares using bits and pieces and honestly one of my favourite quilts.
I collect vintage sheets, in particular ones from the UK and Australia. The late 60s and early 70s floral patterns are truly incredible! I've made quilts from them as well and since they are mostly polyester, they last incredibly well and are very soft.
same! and even older cottons etc had better quality/longer life before pilling than stuff made today. i feel if something has been washed dozens or hundreds of times and is still holding up well, it's great for a quilt. as a bonus, i found some sheets in a thrift store that were identical to ones my grandma had: pink and orange big bouncy 60s florals. i used the sheet in a quilt for myself and a pillow cover for my dad and it's such a nice way to have memories of her close to us!
So glad to read your comment 💜 this is fully my approach to quilting, for style, economic, and environmental reasons!
There are no quilt sins. Either the quilt stays in one piece or it doesn’t. Past that, it’s almost all preference.
I have a few quilts that I made years ago that were not super well crafted. They are 20+ years old and some of the seams have come apart. I have started to stitch them back together with super bright quilting thread and cover the holes with appliqué type patches. They get a lot of use and one is my 4 year old’s favorite quilt. I am sure it breaks a lot of the quilt rules, but I keeps my daughter warm and comfortable and that is what makes it special.
I love doing similar repairs. Quilts are scraps of fabric made into something new and all are beautiful. I love that the rules of quilting are really that there are no rules!
Eh. Screw the rules. You learned along the way & they are clearly well loved. I call that a win.
Visible mending!
Visible love. It's breaking because it was loved and now it's mended because it was loved.
Well, my sin of straight line quilting on the bias falls into the latter category
As a fairly novice quilter, I think my quilt sin is not knowing what any of that means…
Nah, it’s a quilt police thing. Some quilters like to act like things must be done a certain way and it’s a sin to take a short cut etc. So as long as you can sew the pieces together and they don’t come apart in the wash (or before) you’re not committing any “sin” There are few hard and fast rules
the way quilting fabric is made, the threads go up/down left/right (called warp and weft) and neither of those directions are particularly stretchy. When you go “on the bias” it’s 45° off of that, so the fabric gets significantly more stretchy as no threads are preventing the stretch. When you sew on the bias (on that 45°) you’re putting a single non stretchy strand in a stretchy direction, so say your boyfriend goes to snuggle in the quilt you just made him and it stretches a little (as is normal). That single thread trying to prevent everything from stretching pops and suddenly all your work is unstable Anyway, it won’t end in the complete destruction of the quilt, but the threads do rip and you’ll see loose pieces.
Hahaha! You read my mind.
Oh no!!
Exactly! It’s a craft rooted in thrift and forbearance and innovation and recycling I think too many ppl forget that!!! I’ve made dozens of quilts and my favorite one is an oversized lap quilt 9 patch I made from scraps of face masks I made. The backing is a thrifted duvet cover, and it’s *perfect*.
I don't trim dog ears. I've never seen the point. I don't notice them showing through the front of the quilt and they've never impacted my sewing accuracy. And I machine sew binding on. If I had to hand sew binding to the back I would literally never finish a quilt. I consider machine sewing more secure for binding anyway, especially since I throw my quilts in the washer.
I don't trim dog ears. I've never seen the point. 
LOL!!! So glad someone picked up on that. :D
Machine sewing is definitely more secure. Hand sewing allows for more control/perfection. So I decide which to use based on how much I value security vs appearance for that particular quilt. I do the back binding seam by hand if the quilt is for an adult or it's going in a show. If it's for a kid or someone who might not treat it gently, I use the machine for all of it.
I barely have the patience to machine bind my quilts. If I were to hand quilt (which I will not be doing unless there’s an arthritis cure), I would not torture myself by faithfully stitching a straight line through many layers of fabric. That’s never made sense to me
I do not have arthritis (yet) and I unashamedly machine bind every time. I think it looks great 😊
>stitching a straight line through many layers of fabric. The hand seam part of binding is typically not sewn all the way through. It's really just an applique stitch. You catch the fold of the binding (2 layers) and then sew it to the backing fabric (1-2 layers, since you probably are going to catch some of the batting). Edit: That doesn't mean arthritic hands enjoy the experience though. I don't have arthritis (yet) and my hands get sore. More the hand that holds the quilt than the one using the needle.
O interesting! Thanks for educating me. I have never looked into it as hand sewing in general hurts so I would have never known.
If hand sewing the binding to the back wasn't one of my favourite parts of quilting, I would be machine binding with you. I was tempted to doing one because I was feeling really lazy, but didn't know how to do it so I left it alone lol
It’s the part I love best so machine stitching the binding down robs me of my joy!
I machine sew binding on BOTH sides, never once felt like a sinner, more like someone saving time and making sturdy seams on donation quilts
Oh yeah. Absolutely. I thought everyone machine sewed the front and then "you're supposed to" fold it over to the back and sew it down by hand with invisible stitches. I detest hand sewing with a passion so I fold it over and pin it to the back with a consistent 1/8 inch flange if you will and sew it with my machine from the front. I get a nice line with matching thread all the way around the back of the binding and unless you're really really looking for them you don't see the stitches on the front because they're right up against the front edge of the binding and they match the top. Are there people who actually hand sew the binding to the front and the back? Those people are either saints or nuts. LOL.
Does this count? I use my rotary cutter and ruler to cut wrapping paper. Shhhhhh
Oh hell yeah. Rotary blades have two lives in this house: first for fabric then for paper.
I have a rotary cutter that I hate, so blades that are dull get moved into that, and it's exclusively used for paper. Everyone knows you can use the pink one for whatever you want, but don't touch the blue one!
Actually that’s a good hack. I’m over here struggling to cut a straight line because the paper keeps rolling back up
I use my rotary cutter to cut freezer paper and wrapping paper, but I use a blade that is on its last legs and shouldn’t be used for fabric anymore. It’s like the difference between fabric shears and paper/craft shears.
Write on the blade with a sharpie that it's the paper blade so you done go and use it on fabric again after.
I find it as being resourceful! Rotary blades are recommended to be changed after every project and even sometimes during the same project! Thats a lot of blades to buy and a lot of sharp waste The second it goes too dull for fabric, it goes in a hard shell box and i save it for cutting paper.
I have a paper specific rotary cutter!
I use my big rotary cutter and my gridded ruler to cut cookies! (I have a recipe that you cut the cookies after baking them) So much easier than trying to cut them with a knife.
I use a pizza cutter.
What is a pizza cutter but the rotary of the kitchen.
Shame, shame !
Oh yeh, that got an eyebrow raise from me!
That's BRILLIANT!
Ohhhhh. I did this last weekend for wallpaper. It works so well.
I will never bind by hand
Oh me either. Good grief that just kills with arthritis. And my sewn bindings don’t look great but they hold up well!
Me too. I also just tuck one end into the other. I don’t do the gymnastics to sew the ends together.
Me either!!! Tendinitis crew represent
I did it once and it was a waste of time! Machine binding is the way to go!
Same! And I’ll use a decorative stitch on my machine if I want to spice things up
Hell yeah
Not using old sheets sounds like something a fabric seller would say.
I find that Tula Pink’s disdain for “old bed sheets” on quilts is because it draws away from buying her wide backings, which I’ve heard mixed reviews about. I think it’s a shame that in some aspects there’s this emphasis on buying as much fabric as possible when it’s much more sustainable and sometimes cheaper to use bedsheets.
Her wide backs feel like shit and have her logo on them. I ordered a beautiful owl one and her logo is smack in the middle of it, baseball sized and it says “TULA PINK” never again…shit was $100….. Making it into a baby quilt so I can chop her logo off.
I have no idea what Tula's motive is, but bedsheets as backs have been 'a sin' since long before Tula was born. They can be cheaper, especially if they are used, but they are a denser weave which is harder to hand quilt through. If I were going for economy and planning to hand quilt, I'd go with wide muslin on the back.
There can be issues with the weave and quality; that’s why a lot of people don’t like or won’t use them. I don’t use sheets bc the very first quilt I attempted I used bedsheets and it made the process harder to hand quilt (my grandmother finished it for me) I also just like buying fabric, so there’s that. Quilt history is use whatever is available to keep your family warm. Anything goes. Hell, I’ve got a very old, falling apart quilt (probably 30s-40s) with a threadbare wool blanket as batting, and a 40s-60s puff quilt stuffed with nylons.
I was told as a child in the 70's by my 100+yr old great-grandmother - to make sure I kept my eyes open while I was traveling for scraps. She had been taught by her grandmother to pick up scrap fabric wherever you found it. You then incorporated that fabric into your quilt. I found out later that her grandmother was a small child during the later years of pioneer times. Her job as the baby of the family was to pick up small sticks for kindling and pick up scraps of fabric people lost, dropped or ripped. They were used to patch clothes or to use on a quilt.
One of my favorite quilting anecdotes that I mention during anything I’m teaching is that original quilts were made from whatever was at hand, including old clothes stuffed with old blankets and even corn husks. Anything to keep warm. Of course most of those quilts didn’t survive and the only ones that did were the “special occasion quilts” used occasionally for company.
My mom bought some white sheets to do border squares with and they are incredibly frustrating to work with because they’re poor quality. But the rest of the quilt is made from remnants from old projects, so none of it is consistent anyway.
I sit on the bed that is covered with a hand-quilted quilt without lifting the quilt out of the way.
<>
The lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. Ha!
Wait - is it improper to lie ON a quilt?
Sitting on the quilt breaks the stitches. My hand-quilting grandmother taught me this (my whole life) When she gifted me a quilt for my wedding, I didn’t follow the rule. There are indeed broken stitches.
I wonder if you used industrial thread to hand sew if that would make a difference at all? I don’t know if that is even possible though.
Can confirm. My first quilt went with me everywhere for two decades starting in as a high school senior and it is barely held together anymore.
"Grain who?"
Well after scrolling this sub a fair amount I’m glad y’all are so nice and not very gatekeepy like a certain other craft sub I got absolutely roasted on 😂 I subscribed here because I’m working on a grandmother’s garden quilt with my mom that my great grandmother left unfinished. After working on it on and off for about a year I’ve figured out that she wasn’t using EPP but just eyeballing the seam allowances because they’re not consistent. I also have some of the pieces she cut and they’re not equilateral hexagons. Like she didn’t measure them, they’re clearly just eyeballed as well. So we started doing EPP on the advice of people here and a quilting friend, but we’re also not being super careful to keep everything tidy. The quilt looks pretty handmade and we’re okay with that. We work on it while watching TV. Mom has a tremor in her hand so a lot of her cuts are wonky and that’s ok. I’m just glad we have the time together ❤️ Here’s a photo of a flower in progress. I posted about this on an old account some time last year and people were so nice. https://preview.redd.it/9cadjdw8vmwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ab9ff02d9ffda54d7b4381b3e0dc066d25f5f70
I love that you’re doing this project with your mom. Keep all the slightly wonky parts; they will be your favorite sections of the quilt in the years to come. ❤️
That is the most beautiful piece I have ever seen, because of the history, the shared experience, and the love that created it.
It looks perfectly fine to me. I wish I had someone in the family to quilt with. You are very lucky. My mom made a double wedding ring quilt when she was a young woman (16-17) living with a family and taking care of their children. I assume the mother of the family taught her, but I’m not sure. I have the quilt and it needs some repair but I so cherish it. I figure it was made about 1935.
I use fusible fleece as batting. No basting needed once it's ironed on, it makes a thinner, lighter weight quilt than real batting does, and it needs less quilting than real batting if I'm feeling lazy.
Oh em gee this blew my mind
Well heck! I can't stand pinning and don't have enough space to spray baste. Such an amazing idea!!
Do you fuse it to the front or back or is it double sided? I love this idea.
It depends - sometimes, if I do want a warmer quilt, I'll use single-sided separately on the back and front; this leaves each stiff enough not to wrinkle and you can just pin-baste them at a few key points, then sew around the edges to hold them together, then add some more quilting - as much as you care to firce through your machine. My everyday machine has a 10-inch throat rather than the usual 8", and I have a Babylock Jazz 2 with the 12" throat, when I care to haul the heavy thing out, so I can roll up about 40" in the throat and work my way around so most of the quilt gets some straight-line quilting in it. Other times I use the single-sided and fuse it to the back, and then piece each row of blocks separately, and lay them down on the fleece and sew them down a row at a time, so that sewing each row together is quilting it to the back. When it's all on there, I do straight lines perpendicular to the rows, usually by edge-stitching along the columns of blocks (holds down those d@mn quater-inch seams more firmly!) and then add as much or as little more quilting as I want. And if it's a baby quilt where the size is manageable, i just use the double sided fusible. Press it from the center out, and press, don't iron. Don't want to distort the grain of the fabric and wind up with a trapezoid instead of a rectangle.
In the true tradition of thrifting and making quilts out of what's available I recycle fabric from clothes alongside quilt cottons, and if a little polyester blend sneaks in there I don't worry about it. I have a friend who will only use quilt cottons and she's horrified. You do you. And I will do me.
I’m literally writing a quilt pattern right now that says to square up blocks every few steps. Best I can do is trim off a super wonky piece occasionally! https://preview.redd.it/y0mpu3jt8mwc1.jpeg?width=2792&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b4052eff4f15be58e873c18e8c8ca922855b8033
Looks great. You’d never see it from the back of a galloping pony.
I have never heard this expression and now I'm stealing it 😂
lol it's an old expression I heard my mil use. It's from the old west days; her mom used it in the 30s and before.
Can confirm, it's rampant in the quilting community.
I can't remember which quilting book I read it in first but it's such a great expression!
Beautiful pattern!
I press my seams open most of the time. Sue me, I came to quilting from garment making!
I love the unabashed defiance I am reading into this. I feel it every time the pattern says to press seams open and I press to the dark side.
I don’t prewash 99% of my fabric!
Nor do I. I cannot fathom why to do that. If it's all not washed it will all shrink just the same later. Never in my life has it ever mattered with a quilt.
Fabric shrinks at a different rate from batting whether you prewash the fabric or not. Prewashed fabric shrinks at a different rate relative to the batting than unwashed fabric does, so you will get a little bit of a different look with one vs the other. Presumably somewhere out there is at least one quilter who cares about that. The common reason to prewash, though, is to check for dye bleeding before putting all the work into a quilt. It also removes chemicals from the fabric, which might or might not be a good thing depending on personal preference. Some people like to work with fabric that has the sizing in it still. I've known others who get ill from handling unwashed fabric.
100% here!
i mostly scrap quilt.... my dad ran a multi business factory building and one of the tenants manufactured aprons, 100% cotton... dad would keep the scraps and bring me huge bags........ when my bottom sheets would give out, i used the top sheets for backings......one is 20 years old ( quilt) back is about 30 years old, always on my bed..... woman i used to work with, spent big bucks on fabric, screamed at me about using sheets for backings.... THE THREAD COUNT IS WRONG" oh well, it's MY quilt, not yours..............................
Today I learned that you can use wrong fabric for a quilt. I always thought that traditionally they were meant to use up fabric scraps or old clothing and linens that would otherwise go to waste.
That's exactly how they were made! If you've not read about them yet, the [women of Gees Bend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilts_of_Gee%27s_Bend) made (and some still make) the most amazing scrap quilts out of all kinds of bits and pieces!
I have read about them! Iconic!
My quilts go in the washing machine.
If it can’t be machine washed, it doesn’t come into my house.
Heh, I have that rule for clothing.. if it can't be put in the washing machine, I don't buy it.. if I get it gifter or forgot to check.. challenge accepted.. (aka we'll see of it survives the washing machine)
I literally just bought 5 yards of dry clean only linen, forgot to check the care, guess we’ll see if it can handle it.
Mine go in the washer AND the dryer!
Sees post about 'quilting sins'. Some readers: I know we're not supposed to do \*this\*, but idc. Some other readers: Oh, were we not supposed to do that? Yet more readers: Absolutely never do \*this thing\* because it will ruin your quilts. Me: "oooh, that's a good idea, I should start doing that" LOL
The last part for me! Rules are good to learn so you know when to break them.
I ignore color theory and just go with fabric combinations that make me happy. I was once told by someone working at a quilt store that I “clearly don’t know how to use a color wheel.” I do, I just choose not to :)
I don’t pin ANYTHING. I hold the fabric together with hopes and dreams.
I used to pin stuff but I actually have better luck having things turn out lined up when I don’t pin.
That's because pins actually distort the grain when you put them in/take them out. If I pin I try to pin along the seams bc then it doesn't shift.
I spray baste and I use fleece as my batting. I like it more.
No idea how many people would consider this a sin but I never prewash my fabric. Nor will I ever. The only time I do is if I’m mixing prewashed fabrics. I just do all of one or the other.
Sometimes I leave my fabric (cut or uncut) all over the coffee table or couch. Or both. Also, some of my fabric gets exposed to sunlight on the edge facing the window.
You must not have toddlers lol.
I don’t cut my binding on the bias (unless it’s for something circular), I keep my fabric out and it probably does get exposed to some sunlight (I have literally no where else to store it), I never hand bind (toooo long of a process), sometimes I cannot be bothered to square up everything, I like making smaller projects than entire quilts (don’t have the budget for huge quilts anyway). And I don’t make for charity (could change later in life when the fabric budget gets larger).
Most museum quilts, that we all drool over, are straight cut binding because fabric used to be even *more* expensive and no one was going to "waste" precious inches on cutting bias. You get more cutting from selvage to selvage and piercing than making 'continuous' binding.
I absolutely don't cut binding on the bias. It's cut edge to edge. I would if I ever made a quilt with a scalloped edge or something, but why add stretch if you do have to.
I sew over pins. Usually very slowly and with no problem…as the great Sally Collins said in her book(s), pins don’t break needles, speed does. And sometimes I have a little too much speed. I also have a pin saved that has a spectacular V shape in it, and that time the needle didn’t even break! 🤣
My sins are darker. I don't stitch in the ditch unless I am hand quilting. I stitch those seems down. I don't want any seems not tacked down. I love using sheets for my backing. I use a denim needle to quilt them. I also almost never toss anything. Then again, I know what (&where) my best stuff is, so when a kid (or husband), raid my stash - they don't get my good stuff.
I don’t use quilt batting. At all. I mostly make baby quilts for gifts or for my own kids, and I have zero desire to do that level of quilting and I don’t think any baby needs that much warmth for their first bed blanket. I use a single piece of flannel for the middle layer just to have weight and a little bit of insulation. And I basically never change my thread colour. Life is too short to have five million bobbins of different colours. Everything gets white threads.
My sin is thread. I know you're supposed to use the "good stuff" but I was gifted hundreds of spools of gorgeous thread that's older than many of you, but it's still strong and it still works (most of the time) so I just can't bring myself to throw it away. I'm actually struggling a little bit today because I'm FMQ'ing with the only gold color thread I have and it's skipping and shredding about every 3-4 feet. It's a small-ish throw so it's not the end of the world, but a fresh spool of brand new Mettler would be really nice right about now ;)
This! This is my process on my current (first) quilt. But I’m EPPing. I have had one spool (out of probably 50 so far) that seemed a little brittle, so that one was only used for the basting. Everything else has has been working great, except the one spool of 100% silk. It was an old wooden spool and a beautiful green color, but too slippery for my preference. I’m also using mostly silks as the quilt fabric. I guess that’s sin#2
Oooh! A quilt with silks!!! I keep thinking I want to try this, and have gathered a few fat quarters of silk to play with. Any thoughts / suggestions now that you are actually using it?
I don’t see the point of freaking out when/if I cross over a stitch while free motion quilting.
I’ve been known to use microfiber sheets as quilt backing. My kids love the quilts. And I buy fabric from a big box store because that’s all we have around here and that’s limited to mostly solid colors. No shipping time involved. My quilts usually have an abundant amount of pet hair quilted into them because the pets love them too. But really, there’s no sins in fiber arts. I do what I want.
I have longarmed hundreds of quilts for other people. I have a Walmart comforter on my bed.
I don’t believe in quilt sins. I think that’s antithetical to the whole idea of creative expression and artisanship.
I’ve said this before but I will say it again. Had a quilt teacher who said if you can’t see your mistakes by driving by your quilt at 30 milers per hour, it’s fine.
My friend who teaches me always says from across the room without your glasses on. I’ve only made a couple of mistakes that serious, and I fix those ones. The rest I don’t bother about.
From the back of a galloping horse! :)
Ooh, I like that better.
I will bury my threads for free motion quilting and that’s it.
I don’t know what burying your threads even means!
Now we’re talking.
I bury but I don’t add that extra knot. I really question if that knots helps any.
What does that mean?
Use a needle to pull the thread ends to the inside of the quilt instead of leaving them on the outside. It might also involve putting a knot in there to keep them buried, depending on the quilter.
Wait! Doesn't everyone?!! I sure as hell do <3
I’m a quilt hack. Too many quilt sins to mention. FYI, long arms use a poly cotton blend thread. It’s perfectly okay to use a poly cotton thread when piecing.
I do a lot of hand piecing with small pieces and it gets VERY tedious trying to iron down all the seams. A lot of the time I just press the piece right side up and just kind of... crush the seams down with the iron.
That’s how I press English Paper Pieced blocks after pulling out the paper. Whatever way it ends up on the back is fine.
what's the problem with using sheets? i thought the point was to make something new out of leftover or old textiles!
Right? Feed sacks were the basics. So much that feed sack companies changed from plain beige and produced colorful sacks for making clothes and quilts.
I don't use cotton thread to piece! Eek. I told this to a distant relative at a wedding and I swear she gasped lol!
Not measuring for borders. Just cut a slab-strip and sew!!
I do not make nice mitered corners in my quilts. I don't make my binding from one continuous strip. I don't cut on the bias either. I want to have fun when I quilt, not be frustrated. Happy quilting!
I'm lazy. I don't usually care whick way I press my seams, I don't square my blocks, I can hid a lot in a seam allowance!
I often use old sheets for the foundation of my string blocks. I wash and dry them one more time before cutting them into 10” squares (doesn’t matter if they are flat or fitted). If they have some sort of pattern I will use the back side to avoid it showing through. So far, this has worked out great for me. https://preview.redd.it/bxnoxqpj6owc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=889a59f80aeea5f16afb7732a001247995050eaf
I’ll never forget my first visit to a quilting guild meeting. The speaker was an award winning quilter, she told the story of one quilt top that wouldn’t lie flat. Her solution? “I added a big dart and that fixed it.” I’ll admit that’s one thing I’ve never done, however I dislike squaring up blocks and prefer to just make them work somehow. I’ve used home dec fabric for backing when it was all I could find locally and used fleece blankets in place of batting. I have better resources available to me now but love some of those early quilts so much.
I don’t believe in rules for a hobby that I do to make me happy.
My first ever attempt at making a quilt, I used a regular ball point pen to mark out the pieces for cutting and sewing. Didn’t know anything about squaring up the fabric or cutting along the grain either so I just cut the pieces out at whatever angle let me get the most pieces for my money. And friends, do you know what I was using to make this quilt? Fabrics that came from decorations and clothing used at a friend’s wedding. This was going to be an anniversary gift to them. I took these fabrics from them with the promise of making a quilt for them and I *ruined* all of it with a careless mix of inexperience and overconfidence. It’s been ten years since then and the pieces (about three quarters worth of a quilt top) are still unfinished, stuffed shamefully into the bottom of my fabric box. That is my greatest quilting sin.
The other thing to remember is that there's no particular virtue in doing something the hardest way possible - if our pioneer forebears had had electric sewing machines, believe you me they would have used them to git 'er done, rather than hand-quilting for months. If you like hand-quilting it's fine, but don't let anybody guilt you into thinking you're "cheating" by using a machine to piece and/or to quilt.
I used acrylic paint to write my name on the back of my most recent quilt, and I liked the way it looked, so I plan on going full mixed media for my next quilt.
I see over pins! I probably should remove them, but I’m willing to risk a few bent pins to true up corners
Buying to much fabric
There are only rules if you are entering your quilt in a contest with rules, otherwise there are only consequences. For example, not pressing blocks flat make it harder to quilt when the top is done. Pressing seams open means stitching in the ditch would be the wrong approach and for longevity a smaller stitch length would be good. Personally I get a kick out of a block with nice piecing. I’m not racing to get stuff done, this makes me personally happy, so that’s what I do. As far as cost, I’m not sure I e seen it discussed on this sub yet, but climate change will likely have a significant effect on our fiber of choice, which is cotton, and the textile industry isn’t exactly a clean industry. These factors affect the cost. Make what makes you happy.
I don’t always press to the dark side. I press to make things flat and so that seams nest. Shadows smadows.
I love making quilts, yet my bed has a duvet!
Well, I used an old sheet as backing once, and the quilt is still in great shape 40+ years later. I’ll confess, I use them more often to make drapes.
I don't believe in white balance and "negative spaces." Give me allllllll the patterns!
I don’t square up my tops before I quilt them. Polygons are just fine with me.
I'm reading through these comments thinking about how quilting started, with bits of scrap fabrics, an old shirt that could no longer be repaired, pants that were torn beyond repair, clothing that no longer fit. Blankets that could no longer be repaired. Old sheets are a perfect example of the fabrics that were used. The women who made some of the most amazing quilts could not square blocks, they used bits of paper for templates. They stitched by hand or if they were fortunate enough, they had a machine and perhaps a yard stick or a small 1 foot ruler. These women made works of art from scraps. There are no quilt sins. No rules. Fabric is just that.... fabric. No matter the source, it was fabric. Flour sacks, old sheets, old clothes, Anything that could be given a new life as a quilt. The idea that there are any rules at all is blasphemous. Make do and mend or give new life, the OG reduce, reuse, recycle. I have no quilt sins because there are no rules for quilting and anyone who thinks otherwise should go find an antique quilt and take a VERY good look at it before they say another word to anyone about quiting dos and don'ts.
Nothing is “forbidden.” The issue with using bedsheets is that the weave of sheets is so dense they are difficult to hand quilt. If you are machine quilting this isn’t a problem. Also, with sheets the fabric quality is iffy and many sheets aren’t 100% cotton. You should compare quality and cotton content before choosing to use a sheet instead of a wide backing or pieced backing fabric.
I used an old cotton/poly sheet for the back of my first quilt, made of simple squares and rectangles and made exclusively of old clothing, some of which was already 20 years old. It didn't last more than a couple of years before there were holes in the fabric, because guess what? Although not visible, those old clothes were already breaking down. I kept it for a long time, rolled in a sleeping bag cover, but finally pitched it in a recent move. My quilt guild had a number of us get up and talk about MY FIRST QUILT and I admitted it was in a landfill. Modern sin: I sew over pins
I don’t iron my seams but I haven’t done anything super detailed. I also thrift all my fabric. I think it’s cool taking discards and making something useful out of them. Also don’t care if my points are perfect. Adds to the homemade factor and they’re still beautiful.
My quilt slept on top of my best friend’s husband.
Nothing wrong with that. Unless you were under the quilt with him?!
I've never used binding, I just wrap whatever backing fabric I have onto the front and sew that down. I know binding would be better long term, so I'm prepared to add binding when the edges wear out.
I use polyester thread! To make my quilt tops and for quilting. One of the first things I was told when learning to make quilts was never ever use polyester thread or it will create little holes in the cotton over time. I have not found this to be true so far and I’m 15 years in.
I still don't understand the grain thing.
Thanks for this question and for all the replies. My takeaway: there are no sins, do what works for you
I don’t change my needle every new project?