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Four Basic Quilting Tips

Toby Lischko
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Duration:   10  mins

Accuracy and consistency are important when piecing quilt blocks and assembling a quilt top. Learn several quilting tips and see different quilting supplies and tools that Toby Lischko recommends using that can help improve your piecing.

Quilting Tips and Tools

Toby begins by talking about one of the basic tools that most quilters have- the quilting ruler, and how to ensure that you are using it properly. She demonstrates how the fabric should be lined up along the lines of the ruler and shows how it is easy to accidentally be off just slightly when cutting fabric, but that it will ultimately affect how accurately your pieces come together.

Once you have all of your fabric cut out and you are ready to piece them together, Toby shares her next quilting tip, which is how to establish an accurate ¼” seam allowance. She shows the quilting tools she uses to measure and ensure that her needle is exactly ¼” away from the edge of her presser foot to give her an accurate seam. While you can use a ¼” foot when piecing, this is a great option if you do not have one.

She then shows how she marks the accurate seam allowance on her machine bed to give her an additional guide to go off of when sewing her pieces together.

She then demonstrates how to test the accuracy and consistency of your seam allowance and shares several pressing tips while doing so.

The final quilting tips and quilting supplies that Toby shares are in regards to cutting and pinning your fabric. She explains how you can make rotary cutting a little bit easier and shares her favorite size and style of pin to use when piecing.

After you’ve learned about all of Toby’s favorite quilting tools and supplies- learn more tips and techniques!

Share tips, start a discussion or ask one of our experts or other students a question.

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6 Responses to “Four Basic Quilting Tips”

  1. Stephaney Thomas

    It would be nice if the answers were posted here in the discussion board so we can all learn from the questions of others..

  2. PEGGY

    What a great way to check for a quarter inch seam - thank you for that! I have one question on the ruler lines, how to use them when cutting fabric. Just to clarify, are you saying that the line on the ruler lies on top of the fabric, so that the edge of the fabric lies on the left side of the ruler line? That the line is included in the measurement? Or do you lay the ruler down so that the fabric lies on the right side of the line, pushed right up against the ruler line but not including it in the measurement? I would surely appreciate any reply, as I have been looking for this information for quite some time! Thank you so much!

  3. Paulette

    Thank you this is really going To help my sewing

  4. Lisa Thorburn

    Love the idea about the mole foam! Wish I would have heard about that year's ago :-)

  5. Donna cole

    What kind of sewing machine are you using?

  6. Agatha Wiebe

    I checked on fabricland in Canada for .4 pins and they have them in mm measurements. What should they be then?

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