Tips and Tutorials

Just a page of tips and tutorials to make our quilting lives easier..

For a better view of the illustrations, just double click the photo to enlarge it.

Easy buttonholes without zig zagging or buttonhole attachment.

Click on box in lower left of video to watch full screen.

Nancy's tutorial for making Dancing Blocks for use in borders, cornerstones and quilt blocks.

Cut squares for your centers and an equal number of background squares.  Stitch them together and add strips around the square log cabin style until all four sides of the print are surrounded with background strips.  The strips should be cut the same width as the center square but can be cut wider for a larger or wonkier finished block.  For example, if your center square is 2.5" and your strips are 3", the first background piece should be cut 2.5" x 3".  

The next step is to line up two sides of a square ruler on your block so that the point is along the top edge and the two sides that are on the block end at the finished side measurement of your desired block.  Nancy has aligned her ruler at 5.5".  Draw on your cutting lines, turn the block around and finish drawing the square in the same way.  Trim along the lines for a finished block as shown below.

Orient your blocks in different directions to make them "dance"

Joyce's tutorial for making multiple Half Square Triangles using a paper template.

Here is an instruction sheet for making a Fancy Nine Patch quilt.  

This is available as a PDF (see Pauline)

Resulting block from above instruction sheet.

However, it is much easier to use a paper template to create multiple HST's at the same time.  If you are good at math (and accurate drawing) you can create your own paper template for different sized HST's.  The template below results in 12 HST's.  Cut two contrasting rectangles of fabric to the size of your paper template.  My template measures 9" x 6" so if you joined four you could clip to two layered WOF's and make 48 HST's.  By following the arrows you sew this in one continuous seam and when finished cut along the solid lines and remove your papers for very accurate HST's which probably will not even need squaring up.

Also available as a printable PDF (see Pauline)

HST's are extremely versatile blocks and can be arranged into a multitude of quilt blocks.  Here is a very short video which shows 16 different blocks from HST's

Sharon's Magic Cathedral Windows tutorial.

Steps 1 and 2

One long seam completed, one to go

Mug rug with contrasting blocks and hand stitched curved edges

Toronto's Downtown Tailoring's Awesome video tutorial on how to make narrow hems 1/16" and upwards on any weight of fabric.  Very easy, accurate and fun.  Worth watching just to hear Ida Flores's charming Mexican accent.  "Cut a peench ..."

1/8" hem on cotton tea towel using the Ban-Rol method

Disappearing Nine Patch  From August 21, 2024 Blog Post.

Floating Points and Borders

Donna Jordan's (updated) Trip Around the World tutorial.

5 Easy ways to keep your ruler from slipping.

32 Half Square Triangles at a time.

A Snow Carpet as a quilting aid.

Two easy and accurate ways to do the final join of binding pieces.

Perfect mitered corners.

Sashiko supplies.

20 Basic embroidery stitches for absolute beginners.  Lots more videos showing other options available at the Youtube channel.

Youtube video for making Kawandi quilt like Nancy's.

This is a short video tutorial for quilted book covers (any size).  They take about an hour including the quilting.  I used mine to cover quad ruled journals to turn into quilt planners.

Inside flap

Here is an illustrated tutorial from a blog on a nifty way to feed binding from the upright spool spindle on your sewing machine to keep it under control while you are applying it.

Here is a short video tutorial of Sharon's method for making Cathedral Windows blocks.  

 And here is another short video tutorial sent in by Joyce which demo's a whole Cathedral Windows pillow in under 4 minutes.  Please note that you need to cut the background square larger than indicated in the tutorial or it will not reach the points of the "window".

Easy 5 minute block.

Five ways to use ugly fabric with free pattern.

Easy heart blocks

Colour Catchers really work.

Alternate finish for quilt edge.

Perfectly flat seams.

Comparing Hobbs and Pellon 80/20 batting.

Bonnie Hunter's take on polyester batting and thread.

This is a Facebook video tutorial of a quick way to make Square in a Square blocks or a cushion cover.  

Square in a Square Cushion Cover

Cool method for making fast four patches from charm squares  and a second method from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Here is a simple four patch scrappy quilt.

Note the interesting walking foot quilting--just a straight line and a serpentine.  Not sure if you have the patience for all those lines?  A good method is to do your first line of stitching down the center of the quilt then down the center of each of the sections and continue to divide each section in half with new stitching lines.  That way you can stop when you are satisfied and all your stitches will be evenly spaced across your quilt.  If you start in the center or on one side and start stitching narrow lines across the quilt you are committed to finishing it with narrow stitching.

Here is another simple four patch quilt with four half snowball blocks in between.  Much easier to make than it looks.

101 Ideas for Straight Line Quilting  free ebook download

Printing on freezer paper with a laser printer  eg. for multiple motifs such as orange peels, for foundation paper piecing and for applique. 

An easy way to fold your quilt on the bias to prevent wrinkles.  From the Missouri Star Quilt Co. with a short discussion on how they label and store the 150 quilts that they produce every year.

Burrito method for making a pillow case.  French seams and a flange, for a regular sized pillow.

Basting your quilt with Elmer's Glue  A long video but worth watching to add another basting method to your skill set.  Cheap, easy and non toxic and provides a quilting surface that is flat and non sticky.  Must be washed out before using the quilt.  A quilting friend adds that info to the label:  Prewashed for your convenience.

All questions answered re Elmer's Glue basting.

A great method for making multiple half square triangles.

An easy way to add sashings to blocks which avoids sewing long vertical or horizontal strips.

This short video demonstrates a clever way to fuse multiple strips of fabrics to a sheet of fusible web and includes a cute little applique bird project.

How to quilt a big quilt on your domestic sewing machine.  Good tips here.

Free motion quilting:  8 designs using one basic motion.  

How to apply a binding by machine with a flange.  A video tutorial from Donna Jordan.  

How to chain piece an entire quilt.  Really speeds up piecing and great for keeping your blocks, rows and columns in order without numbering them.

How to cut borders for a square quilt.  No measuring tools required.

Brilliant last binding join for your quilt.  Just about the easiest method ever and only about a minute long.

The easiest narrow hem method.  Make a no sweat 1/8th inch hem and it's actually fun.  

How to sew a perfectly sized quilt block.  A discourse on 1/4" and scant 1/4" seams.

Free printable graph paper for designing and planning quilts.  Includes a diagonal grid, too.

The Quilter's Cache.  Home of a gazillion traditional and lots of original block designs.

Modern Scrappy Blocks.  Stitch and flip method.

Half Square Triangles quilt layouts.  So simple and quick with multiple options.

Three ways to make half square triangles  All about HST's

Quilt as You Go a whole row at a time.  A trellis style quilt

QAYG tutorial without joining strips.  Works for applique and other non traditional QAYG quilts.

Home of the Disappearing Pinwheel and Disappearing Hourglass quilts.  And many other crazy disappearing block quilts.    

Shadow or Pop Out I Spy quilt tutorial.

Free Motion Quilting Motif tutorials  Thirty pages of free motion quilting motifs you can learn.