Good to Know

As I’ve shared before… I have yards and yards of fabric! During one of my mother’s recent visits here at the ranch, she helped me tremendously by going through tubs of my stash and sorting, gathering together coordinating pieces for me to use in making a quilt. 

Although she spent several days doing this for me, it’s an absolute time saver! I can go pick up a bundled together section and know things will match. Again, thank you Momma!

I’ve made one top she sorted for me, a quilt for others, but then went back to making Quilts of Valor since I have a self-imposed deadline of April 2015!!!

Quilts for Others is a need as well, but one thing at a time...

Because math hurts my brain, I’ve often wondered how much fabric it will take if I want to cut “such and such” size square. Before finding “Quilting Tips – Estimated Yardage Chart for Squares,” I would just plow into it and make it work, holding my breath most of the way through! Now I can breathe easier, which is always a good thing!

I’m always looking for short cuts…

When sewing the diagonal – across a square – I hate having to pick up a pencil and a straight edge and then drawing the stitching line. When doing about 50 of these for a quilt top, it gets pretty tedious!

In one of Missouri Star Quilt Company’s fabulous YouTube videos, Jenny explained to fold the square into a triangle and press the fold. There you have it, a stitching line to follow!

I recently stumbled upon another great time saving trick on Quilty Pleasures!

I do believe I have a cereal box to cut up! Will try this soon!

Remember me mentioning about a gazillion times over the years how math hurts my brain?

I certainly am doing the happy dance since finding the online Quilting Calculators!!! It calculates backing, binding, borders, on-point-setting triangles, and fabric measurements! You put in the size and it tells you how much fabric you need!!! Yippppeeee!

For example: You have a quilt top that measures 57” x 68” ~ How many 2.5 inch wide x width of fabric strips do you need to cut binding? How much fabric is this - a half yard, full yard, what? This is a quick reference for finding that information! Oh My Goodness!

Do you have any “Good to Know” resources?