Month: June 2025

I’ve written this blog since around 2010 —  first on Blogspot.com and now on WordPress.  That’s about 15 years, give or take.  And during this time, I’ve seen a lot happen in our quilting world.  We’ve lost quilters, lost magazines, seen large quilting organizations shut down, and some quilt shows never regain their traction after the pandemic.  But, at least for me, losing so many brick and mortar quilt shops over the last 15 years has been the worst.

Many quilters, most quilters I would wager, enjoy the process of looking at actual fabric, petting it, and making sure it works with the other fabric we have picked out for the quilt.  Traditionally, fabric shopping has not been a passive experience.  It’s a physical, active one.  So much depends on making sure the material is a good choice – from lighting to dye lots.

And so much of that experience has been stripped from us.  We could sit and argue economics, pandemics, a shrinking of the quilt market – we could sift through dozens of reasons brick and mortar quilt shops are closing, but the reality is they are and overall, American quilters (at least) have fewer in-person shopping options. The fact is, we’re all participating in the indoor sport of online fabric shopping, whether we want to or not.  This is a sport not for the faint of heart or anyone with a trigger finger which can throw stuff in our shopping cart with a click of a mouse.  Because let’s face it, online fabric shopping can be tricky.  What I would like to do with this blog is break down the experience into three areas:  How to find reputable sites, how correctly judge if the online fabric will work for you, and how technology can help you make the best decisions.

Reputable Sites

In many ways, online shopping for quilt fabric is no different than shopping for anything else – you must watch out for online sharks who want to sell you an inferior product at maximum damage to your wallet.  If your former favorite brick and mortar store moves to all online sales, this is pretty easy to do.  You just continue to order from them and continue using them for as long as they’re open.  This happened to quilters in my area when Keepsake Quilting closed their fabric warehouse in November 2024 and now everyone must order online.  Because I know Keepsake sells good fabric and their customer service is stellar, it was a pretty easy transition.  Yes, I have to wait longer for my fabric – instead of buzzing in and picking up whatever I need, I’m suddenly just like most of their customers.  I have to wait for the USPS, FedEx, or UPS. 

But what if your favorite brick and mortar chooses not to stay open at all – even online?  First piece of advice I’d offer is stick to the well-known and well-loved sites which have served the quilting community for so long – such as Shabby Fabrics, Fat Quarter Shop, Connecting Threads, etc.  These have served the online quilting community for years and are stellar.  Personally, I have had more internet shopping experiences with Fat Quarter Shop, but all three are wonderful to work with. 

Another thing which makes these stores great is their large inventory of pre-cuts, such as the 2 ½-inch and 5-inch charm squares.  Normally when we purchase either of these two, we have some sort of project in mind.  But besides being two of the most versatile charm packs, they also can serve another purpose:  auditioning as substitutes for yardage purchases.  When you’re perusing online fabrics for a quilt, and the fabric(s) you’re considering are available in a charm pack, go ahead and purchase the charm pack.  Once they arrive in the mail, you can compare the fabric(s) in the charm pack you want to use to your other fabrics.  This way – in person and under the correct lighting – you can see if your choice will work well.  Instead of sinking a larger amount of money in yardage which may not work, you’ve invested a much smaller amount of money in a charm pack or two and then can purchase the desired yardage with confidence.  And goodness knows we all can sew up a charm pack or three into a project or use them in a quilt.

If you’re like most quilters, the fabric in your stash may – ahem – be curated over a many years’ time span.  We could quite possibly have material which dates back to before the Millenium.  There is no shame in this game.  However, when we use these fabrics in a quilt and find we either run short or need some other vintage-y fabric to round out our quilt, it can be difficult to try to match up these fabrics online.  We could carry the fabric to a brick and mortar store to try to find a blender or some other fabric which may work, but shopping online for a fabric that coordinates can be tricky.  If you ever find yourself in this situation, Fabric Wholesale Direct and Stone Mountain and Daughters are great sites to find both wholesale and designer deadstock fabrics.  If major yardage is needed, I recommend Thousands of Bolts (and Only One Nut) (seriously, that’s the name of the site) or Fabric Outlet. 

There are other great, reputable sites which have both quality fabrics and stellar customer service – such as Hancock’s of Paducah, Missouri Star, etc.  I know I haven’t come close to even scratching the surface of all the good, reputable sites.  If you have used a site not mentioned and can vouch for both quality and customer service – the cornerstones of any great online shopping experience — please throw it in the comments at the end of this blog.  If you come across an online fabric site you haven’t heard of before, or one you’ve never purchased any fabric or quilting notions from, Google the site.  Read the reviews – both good and bad – before you make any purchases. 

How to Judge if the Fabric Online Will Work for You

Even when you know you’re shopping at reputable sites which offer quality fabric and stellar customer service, how do you truly know if what you’re ordering will play nice with the fabric you already have in hand for your quilt?  Purchasing fabric that’s not physically in front of you can be tricky.  A bit later in this blog I’ll go over a few things you can do to make this process easier for you on the technical end of things, but first let’s just take a look at a fabric website and see what it can tell you about our fabric choices.

If you want to streamline the process and be very sure all your fabric will play nicely together, the easiest thing to do is purchase all the fabric from the same fabric family.  A fabric family refers to groups of fabrics that share similar characteristics, fiber types, or uses. These groups help categorize and help you understand the broad range of fabrics used in various textile applications.   For us quilters, this means a fabric manufacturer, such as Henry Glass, has asked a designer, such as Michelle Yeo, to design a line of fabrics which have a variety of prints, small print fabrics which can read as solids or solids themselves, and a focus fabric.  For instance, Michelle Yeo designed this fabric family (The Lost Gardens of Heligan) for Henry Glass. 

This is a gorgeous selection which will become available for purchase in March 2026.   All of the fabrics in a family, such as this one, coordinate well and could be used in a quilt with no problems.  And while the process of ordering all your fabrics from the same family causes the fewest problems with online ordering, it’s not without its drawbacks – the primary one being not all fabric families come with a true dark or light.  So let’s take the first screen shot of The Lost Gardens of Heligan and add a black and white filter.

You can see that most of the fabrics now appear as a gray.  This means they are not true darks, but are mediums, meaning if you construct a quilt out of these gorgeous fabrics, it will look muddy.  You need a light fabric, and a dark fabric tossed in with the mediums to add a true sparkle to the quilt’s surface.  And just a heads up here – most fabric families are overwhelmingly mediums.  A good plan is to take a picture with your phone of the fabrics you’re thinking about purchasing and then add a black and white filter in your photo editing app.  If you get true darks and lights as well as mediums, you’re good to go.  If you don’t, you’ll probably want to add the dark and light from somewhere else.  This process works well both with physical fabric and if you take a picture of the website with your phone. 

One additional thought about fabric families.  Some fabric manufacturers deliberately keep the same dye lots if they continue adding to a family over several years.  A great example of this is Kansas Troubles by Moda Fabric. 

This particular line of fabric has existed for some time, and it remains one of my favorites.  I love the cheddar-y oranges.  Since the inception of Kansas Troubles, Moda has  consistently used the same dye lots with all the fabrics since the beginning – meaning if I add to my collection (which was started around 2016), the fabric I purchase today will coordinate with just fine with those 2016’s purchases.  Some fabric families are like this.  Google the one you’re working with to see if yours does.

If purchasing all the fabric for your quilt from the same fabric family is out of the question – you may just need a bit of additional yardage to round out your fabric haul – there are a few additional concepts to keep in mind:

• Color Descriptions.

This seems like a really simple concept.  If a fabric is described as blue, it’s blue, right?  Maybe.  However azure, cerulean, cobalt, cyan, navy, sapphire, sky, ultramarine, and indigo are also blues too, and you know the color cyan is vastly different from the color navy.  This concept – different names for the same hue – is important to keep in mind as you shop online.  A sapphire blue will be very different from an indigo blue.  You also want to look for adjectives such as “warm” or “cool” colors.  A fabric described as having warm undertones means there are some reddish dyes thrown in.  A fabric with cool undertones means there are blue or gray dyes thrown in. 

These undertones can make the fabric have very different appearances.  Again, referring back to our blue fabric – a blue with a warm undertone may almost appear purple, while one with a cool undertone will appear bluer to the eyes. 

• Multiple Photos

If you can find photos of the fabric at different angles, close-up shots, and photos of the fabric draped or folded, you are able to get a much better idea of how the fabric really looks, verses a flat color swatch.  Some online fabric sites are much better at this concept than others. 

• Pantone/Hex Codes

Pantone colors are described by their allocated number, for example, PMS 205, is pink. There are over 1,000 colors identified in the Pantone Color Matching System, including metallic and fluorescent colors. The solid palette is also identified by a suffix following the color.  If you’re making a quilt from primarily Pantone colors, this numeric system is quite handy to have around.  You can use the Pantone code to help you find additional fabric which will work in your quilt.  You also can get a Pantone Color Chart at http://www.PANTONE-colours.com.  And an interesting aside here – Pantone Color 448 has been deemed the ugliest color on the face of the earth. 

Pantone came up with the color as a response for a hue that would bring to mind filth, ugliness, and death.  Some countries – particularly Australia – wanted to package cigarettes with this color as a further visual warning to folks about the dangers of smoking. 

To purchase fabric using Pantone codes, first identify the specific Pantone color you need (e.g., Pantone 19-0001 TPG for a green fabric). Then, look for fabric retailers that offer fabrics in Pantone colors or provide color matching services. You can also use Pantone color guides or apps to find the closest matching color if you have a reference fabric. 

Hex codes are a bit different and are not connected to the Pantone Color Codes in any way.  The way Hex codes are configured is a bit of a process, but the good news for quilters is we don’t have to do any of the configuring.  It’s done for us.  To use a hex code when purchasing fabric, you’ll typically find a hex code for the desired color, then use that code when ordering fabric online or specifying a custom fabric color. Many online fabric retailers or custom printing services will allow you to input a hex code to match a specific color. If you have a color you want to match, you might need to find the corresponding hex code. This could involve using a color picker tool in a design program, searching online color libraries, or using a color map that displays hex codes for various fabric shades. 

If you’d rather go analog and not deal with apps or color maps to match Hex colors, then use this:

The Ultimate 3-in-1 Color Tool.  In my opinion, this beats any version of a color wheel I’ve ever used.  The Hex color code is written on every color swatch.  Easy-peasy.  The Pantone Code is not listed in the Ultimate 3-in-1 Color Tool; however, Pantone has an app you can download with all their color swatches.  That part of the app is free.  There is a paid portion of the app which allows you more detail.  If you find yourself using the Pantone colors a great deal, it may be worth the extra bucks.   If you don’t, then it’s a little pricey (in my opinion). 

Using Technology for Online Fabric Purchases

While Pantone and Hex codes are great ways to find just the color fabric you’re searching for online, admittedly not all websites understand what those codes are or what they mean.  So it’s equally important that your computer, tablet, or phone screen show the most accurate colors that they can.  In order for this to happen, you may need to calibrate your screen.  Screen calibration is the process of measuring and adjusting the colors on your computer monitor to match a common standard.  This means, if your screen is calibrated correctly, you stand a much better chance viewing the fabric online in its true colors.  Listed below are some general  calibration guidelines.  As always, refer to your manual or IT person to make sure these will work with your device. 

To recalibrate your Android’s phone’s screen, you’ll need to follow specific steps that depend on your device and operating system. Generally, you’ll find calibration options in your phone’s settings, often under Display or Touchscreen settings. Some Android devices may offer a calibration tool or reset calibration option within Language & keyboard settings. For iPhones, there isn’t a built-in calibration process, but you can try resetting settings or performing a hard reset. 

To calibrate a tablet’s touchscreen, navigate to the settings menu and look for a “touch screen calibration” or similar option. Follow the on-screen instructions to calibrate your device. For Windows tablets, you can open the Control Panel and select “Tablet PC Settings” to calibrate the screen.

To calibrate your laptop screen in Windows, use the built-in “Calibrate display color” tool. You can find this by searching for “calibrate display color” in the Windows search bar. Alternatively, you can access it through Settings > Display > Advanced display settings. 

To calibrate your desktop screen, you’ll typically use Windows’ built-in tool or a third-party calibration tool. This involves adjusting brightness, contrast, gamma, and color balance to achieve the most accurate display. 

I hope this blog has given you a few tools to make online fabric shopping just a bit easier, made you more confident about your decisions, and taken a lot of the mystery and “cross your fingers and hope for the best” attitude out of the equation.  It’s always a little tricky to purchase fabric which is not physically in front of you, but it is possible to make good and wise decisions without busting your budget.

Until Next Week,

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Felix

One of the greatest things about quilting is there are no rules.

Nope.

None.

Honestly.

There are no hard and fast, do-or-die rules and there are no quilt police.  Now I will be the first to tell you, there are some quilters who may want you to believe in both the rules and an enforcement crew follow-up to make sure you follow those rules, but they are figments of some quilters’ very uptight imaginations.  The closest thing we have to a rule is the ¼-inch seam allowance.  Most of the time, that ¼-inch seam allowance works just dandy, but there are times it doesn’t.  Quilting “rules” are simply guidelines, not ironclad laws, meaning those guidelines can be broken or even completely ignored if you need to. Some quilters prewash their fabrics, some find it easier to work with fabric right off the bolt. Some quilters always use matching thread, some like contrasting thread.  Some quilters pin religiously, some do not. 

What I would like to do with today’s blog is free you from any pre-conceived ideas about some so-called quilting rules. Just because you may have heard these in a quilting class, or from quilter you follow on social media, does not make them rules.  They’re all merely suggestions.

• You must pre-wash your fabric.

Points to you if you’ve been my reader long enough to know I do adhere to this guideline.  I prewash all my fabrics except the fabric I plan to use as a background for my applique.  I do this because the prewashing goes a long way in ensuring fabrics won’t bleed on one another when they’re washed – however, the prewashing process isn’t foolproof. But it also goes a long way in preventing any crocking. 

Prewashing also removes any finishes which tend to flake off when the fabric is handled.  These flakes irritate my nose and make me sneeze.  Prewashing also gets rid of any dirt or odors the fabric may have picked up when it was stored in a warehouse somewhere. 

I do know that many quilters see this as an unnecessary and time-consuming first step in the quilting process.  And if you’re one of those, just remember God created Color Catchers and you may want to use a few when you wash your quilt for the first time.

• You need to use matching thread in piecing and machine applique.

Nope.  If you come from a garment-making background, you almost feel compelled to use matching thread.  But when you think about all the colors we use in quilting, that would be difficult to do.  You would spend a lot of time re-threading your machine.  Most quilters tend to piece with a neutral-colored thread, such as an ecru, white, black, light or dark gray. However, there is no rule which states you can’t or shouldn’t use matching thread.  That decision is entirely yours.

If you machine applique, the same premise holds true.   You may want your thread to match your fabric, you may want to use monofilament thread, or you may want your thread to contrast.  The choice is entirely up to you and the look you’re going for. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

• You need to pin before sewing.

Some quilters pin, some use clippies, some thread baste, and some simply hold the fabric together with their fingers and sew.  This is a personal choice and I’ll be the first to admit I tend to wander between all four choices.  I pin more frequently than use clippies or baste, but I have found that if I need my points to meet perfectly, I will machine baste my pieces before sewing. It all depends on the complexities of the block and what I have near my sewing area – which is why I use primarily pins. My clippies are usually found with my binding kit.  As long as whatever method works for you, that’s all that matters.

• All quilt blocks require a ¼-inch seam allowance.

Most of the time, this usually works.  But not always.  Personally, I try to make a test block out of scrap fabric before I begin my blocks for the quilt.  Why is this important?  Let’s say I’m making a quilt with 10-inch finished quilt blocks (the size they measure when sewed in a quilt), which means they need to measure 10 ½-inches unfinished.  I cut my units out, sew then together with a full ¼-inch seam allowance, only to discover the block measures 10 ¼-inches unfinished.  This doesn’t seem like a lot, but if you carry that difference say over a row of 10 blocks, it will come up 2 ¼-inches shorter than needed.  And if you’re working with an on point quilt, this can be really tricky unless you know how to recalculate your corner and side setting triangles.  But this test block has shown me I may need to use a scant ¼-inch seam allowance or less in order for my unfinished blocks to measure correctly.

I have also found that a scant ¼-inch seam or less works best when I’m paper piecing a block with lots of parts.  It simply cuts down on bulk and makes it easier to quilt, although you must take a bit more care when removing the papers so the seam isn’t weakened.

• Always press towards the darker fabric.

Again, this is one of those guidelines talked about so much it almost seems like a rule.  Usually, this is the best thing to do, if you can.  Pressing towards the darker fabric prevents any shadowing showing through the lighter fabric.  However, I think keeping the ability to nest my seams is more important because this keeps corners crisp and points intact.  And if I can’t do this by pressing towards the darker fabric, I will press towards the light and grade my seams if the shadowing is really obvious. 

• Never press a seam open.

This statement depends on so much.  There are honestly sometimes you cannot press a seam towards the side – such as with some complex star blocks when you have lots of seams coming together at one intersection, like this:

It won’t work, there’s too much bulk and the seams need to be pressed open to reduce this bulk. 

This – the bulk – needs to be kept in mind as you’re piecing your quilt, because the quilt will need to be quilted either by you or someone else and bulk can be difficult to get a machine needle through (even sometimes with a long arm), and impossible if you plan to hand quilt it.  If there are a lot of seams coming together at one juncture, try pressing those seams open to reduce the bulk. 

One caveat to this:  If you press the seam open, don’t quilt directly over the seam.   A few places here and there are fine, but if you stitch in the ditch, stitch to the right or left of the seam and not directly on top of it.

• All binding should be cut on the bias.

Girl, please.

No.  Nope.  Negative.

Most quilters use French Fold Binding – the binding strips are cut 2 ¼ to 2 ½-inches wide, across the grain of fabric.  The strips are joined on an angle, seams trimmed, and then the strips are folded wrong sides together and pressed before stitching it onto the quilt. 

That’s not to say bias binding is never used.  If you have a quilt with a scalloped border, the best thing to use is bias binding because it will hug those curves like nobody’s business.  It’s also worth noting that bias binding will hold up better over time than the Frend Fold binding simply because of that bias cut.  So if you’re making an heirloom quilt you want to last the ages, you may want to opt for bias binding.

• Hand quilting should be on a hoop or frame.

This is such a personal choice, and allow me a personal example of this.  When I began quilting years ago, I learned to quilt by hand without a hoop – a process I became very comfortable with.  Over time, I met this amazing woman in my local guild named Karen (and she’s not one of those “Karen’s”).  Karen can hand piece and hand quilt like nobody’s business.  Her work is as near perfection as any I’ve seen. A few weeks ago she offered a workshop on hand quilting.  In this workshop she offered you time to hand quilt without a hoop, with a hoop you held in your hands, two different kinds of hoops on a stand, a large floor frame, and a small floor frame.

I imagined after I retired, I would get a floor frame and maybe spend my evenings hand quilting a few of my antique quilt tops.  However, in Karen’s workshop I discovered floor frames were not for me.  I much preferred the frame on a stand that you could rotate 360 degrees.  I am so glad I was able to “test drive” these frames before investing money in a floor frame!

I’ve said all of that to come to this point:  This is one of the most personal decisions you can make as a quilter and there’s no right or wrong answer – it’s what works for you.  If I could offer one word of advice, it would be this: Begin either without a hoop or with a handheld hoop before investing hundreds of dollars in a floor frame or a frame on a stand. *

• You must use small needles for hand quilting.

If I had to throw out another almost-rule for quilting, this would be it.  If you remember your hand needle sizes, the larger the number the smaller the needle.  From what I have read, the ideal quilting needle (which are called “betweens”) is a 12.  It is a super tiny needle.  Do I use those?  Nope.  Absolutely not.  The eye is so small, by the time I get the thing threaded, I’m ready to quit.  I’m much happier with a size 10 between. 

The needle size also depends on the type of quilting done and the fabric and the thread.  Big stitch quilting generally uses a heavier thread and you use a chenille needle.  Batting also plays a part in the size of needle needed.  Cotton batting is a bit tougher to push a quilt needle through than polyester or silk batting.  Let the quilting process tell you what you need, not some abstract, so-called “rule.”

• Always use a ruler when rotary cutting.

Again, this is usually true.  However, some quilters (such as myself) enjoy cutting without rulers from time to time.  I have freehand cut strips and sewn them together – this is such a great creative exercise.  Quilters also use a rotary cutter to cut around templates. 

• You must use 100% cotton thread.

This used to be pretty much a hard, fast rule.  When quilting began its revival in the 1970’s, polyester thread was nowhere near the quality it is today.  It would cut through cotton fabrics.  The safe bet was to use cotton thread with cotton fabrics.  Fast forward to today, and it no longer holds true.  Polyester thread has greatly improved.  And while many quilters would still prefer to use all-cotton thread, if a polyester or cotton-wound polyester serves your purpose, it won’t hurt your piecing a bit.  If I had a spool of 40-weight cotton thread and a spool of cotton-wound polyester which were the same color, I’d piece with the cotton-wound polyester because it would take up less room in the seam allowance than the 40-weight cotton thread.  Again, one of the main goals in quilting is to reduce bulk, and the polyester would do this much better than the cotton.

And the sky is certainly the limit as far as the quilting process is concerned.  Any thread which suits the way you want your quilting to look can work – cotton or not.

Let me also add a caveat to this – if you’re making any type of quilted item which may find itself in the microwave, always use 100% cotton thread or it will catch fire.

• Always use the Golden Ratio for borders/all quilts should have a border.

If you’re a bit fuzzy about the Golden Ratio for borders, go here: https://sherriquiltsalot.com/2018/07/26/sashing-and-the-golden-ratio/comment-page-1/.  The Golden Ratio is a helpful guide, but it’s not the law.  Experiment with different widths and shapes.  If your choice in borders makes you happy, that’s all that matters.

And no, not all quilts need borders.  There are a great many antique quilts which have no borders.  In all reality, borders and sashing didn’t become widely used in quilts until after the Civil War.  That does in no means mean you need to have one or any at all on your quilt.  If you’re happy with your borderless quilt center, that’s all that matters.

• Applique background fabric should be a solid, neutral color.

One look at a quilt such as this:

Or this:

Throws this “rule” completely out the window.  An applique background fabric can be any fabric, as long as it doesn’t overwhelm the applique.  Personally, I think a solid color applique fabric (for background or in the applique design) tends to appear flat and uninteresting.

• Traditionally pieced blocks are the only “true” quilt blocks which matter.

Again, girl, please.

Any block sewn or appliqued and put into a quilt is a quilt block and should be treated with the same respect and admiration as the beautiful “traditional” quilt blocks.  Old and new blocks require skill, patience, and time.

• Rotary cutting is the best way to cut out a quilt.

A lot of the time, this is true.  If you’re cutting strips and then subcutting into smaller units, rotary cutting is a fast and accurate way to cut those types of quilts out.  The same goes for borders – rotary cutters save time and increase accuracy.  However, rotary cutters are generally not great for cutting out applique pieces and small templates.  Scissors are usually better and more accurate for these.

• Any thread below 40-weight is not suitable for quilting. 

In the piecing process, this is true.  You want a thread weight and a ply number which are the least bulky in the seam allowance as you can muster.  For me, it’s a 2-ply 50 or 60 weight thread.  But the quilting process and machine applique are entirely different animals.  Even a 12-weight can work for these – it all depends on the look you want.  I hope to have a blog on how these lower weight threads work in the near future.

Finally, I urge you to be a quilting rebel and ignore these so-called “rules.”  I don’t know what group of pretend, self-appointed quilt police came up with some of them, but feel free to thumb your nose at them and proclaim yourself a Quilting Rebel.  For me, there’s only one hard, fast rule in quilting:  Have fun!

Until next week,

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Felix

*There are several companies which make wooden quilting hoops and frames.  And since my blog is not sponsored by anyone, I will name drop the company I get mine from:  Barnett’s Hoops (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063630738459#.)  They also make wonderful things like sewing caddies and applique desks (lap apps).  Their goods are not made ahead of time and stored in a warehouse somewhere.  Each item is individually crafted when you order it.  And while yes, it may take you a while to receive your order (my husband ordered my quilting frame in October, hoping to have it by Christmas, but it arrived shortly afterwards), the wait is well worth it.  The customer service is amazing and I’m more than happy to give them a shout out.  They have crafted a lap app, storage box, and thread caddy for me.  All of them are wonderful and even after years of use, are still perfect. 

Have you ever fallen down a rabbit hole and was left shaking your head when you finally clawed your way out?

That happened to me a few weeks ago.  Susan, one of my very best quilting friends, lent me some quilting magazines.  These were magazines from the early 2000’s, so they’re over 20 years old.  The magazine I took a deep dive in was Better Homes and Gardens Century of Quilts (2002).  This was a great magazine, and it traced our quilting history from the 1900’s through to 2000.  In their articles, they would name drop certain pattern designers.  Some of these folks I was aware of (such as Marie Webster) and others I honestly hadn’t heard of before.  One of these women was Anne Orr. 

Anne was a multi-talented textile designer and artist.  She designed patterns for knitting, crocheting, tatting, embroidery, and quilting.  The article mentioned she published a book of eight projects in 1944.  Curious, I began Googling Anne and her book.  I discovered the name of the booklet was Quilting with Anne Orr.  The 1944 version has long been out of print, but it was reprinted in 1990.  After clicking around a bit more, I found a copy at Thrift Books and ordered it. It was a whopping $3.95. 

About five days later it arrived in my mailbox.  That evening I sat down with a cup of tea and Anne’s book.  It was then I nearly blew my own quilting gasket.  The book had eight quilt patterns in it.  The entire book was 32 pages and six of those pages were applique templates.  That meant 26 pages were devoted to quilt patterns.  After I divided the 26 pages by 8 (the number of patterns), I discovered 6.5 pages could be devoted to a pattern.  Considering two pages were completely filled with pictures, and more pictures took up additional space on the remaining pages, even less space was given to quilt instruction…

Which led me to question:  Were quilters years ago smarter than today’s quilters?  I mean, I have purchased patterns where it took an entire book to explain the directions for just one pattern.  I have patterns where the pages devoted to instruction easily doubled the 6.5 pages per instruction in Anne’s book.  Heck, with some of her quilts, the directions were a whopping half a page.  Did the quilters back in the 1940’s not need as many directions as we do?   Were they smarter than we are? 

That’s when I clawed my way out of the Anne Orr rabbit hole.  There had to be a reason her directions were so sparse (and left so much to chance) and our directions are, well…more complex and leave little to nothing to chance.  After reading the directions to some quilt patterns I purchased in the last two years, and then comparing them not only to Anne’s book, but to additional quilt patterns on the internet which date back to the 1940’s, I’ve come up with a theory:

It’s not that our quilting foremothers were smarter than we are (nor are we necessarily smarter than they were), it’s that the quilting landscape has changed.  Hear me out. 

Quilters (or any other type of sewists) typically had a sewing skill set from an earlier age that we do.  In the 1940’s most women had at least some kind of rudimentary knowledge of sewing.  Chances are their mothers or grandmothers made some of their clothes and other household goods (including quilts) and passed this information along to the next generation.  Some girls may not have liked to sew, but they at least knew the basics – how to mend, sew on a button, and sew a seam.  Chances are a good deal of them were familiar with a sewing machine of some type.  With this being the case, they probably did not need as many instructions as quilters do today.  Today, many quilters come to the art later in their life.  Their mothers may not have sewed, or they may not have been interested in sewing until now.  Sewing may not have been part of their consumer science class in school (the new name for home economics).  Hence they come into our quilting world needing a good grounding in the basics and plenty of clear, concise directions.

The need for quilts was often quite utilitarian, verses our quilts which aren’t necessarily utilitarian.  In the past, many quilts were made out of necessity – to keep people warm.  These quilts weren’t necessarily difficult.  They weren’t complicated,  they just needed to be pieced and quilted before winter set in to keep folks warm.  It’s not that these quilts were ugly and thrown together without thought.  Many of them were planned, but they were simple so the piecing could be done quickly and then just as quickly quilted.  While we make quilts which are destined to go on a bed, we don’t have a winter deadline.  We have blankets and bedspreads from Target, Belks, Walmart, or other places that can keep us warm.  We have more time to spend on a bed quilt and can use complex piecing techniques or applique (if desired) to make our quilts gorgeous.  More complex design elements mean more directions, and more directions mean longer patterns. 

Quilting was a part of many women’s social fabric.  Sure, we have quilt guilds, online quilt groups, and quilt clubs, but these cater to certain individuals who already have an interest in quilting.  Chances are, if you belong to a guild, your membership comes from all over your city.  However, in the 1940s and even farther back in the past, things were a bit different.  Many churches had quilting groups, as did neighborhoods.  My great-grandmother quilted.  She would piece quilts during the winter, but in the spring and summer, she would call in her sisters, daughters, and granddaughters to help her quilt her tops. It was a skill and craft celebrated in churches and in neighborhoods. Many times quilting was a social event – the women would quilt and then share a meal together.  And it was a great time for those established quilters to pass down tips and tricks to the younger quilters, both perpetuating the art and the skill.  Most of the time quilt designers didn’t need to give a lot of directions simply because they weren’t needed.  People already were acquainted with terms like width of grain, bias, etc.

We have so many more tools.  Have you ever been in an antique store and find an old sewing box?  When the hubs and I are out antiquing, searching for old sewing kits and machines is one of my favorite things to look for.  A quick glance into one of these sewing caddies (even those from the 1970’s), shows the basics – scissors, thread, thimble, seam ripper, needles, pins, measuring tape, and perhaps a needle threader and tailor’s chalk.  Our “basics” are more complicated – rulers, scissors, several types of marking pens, thimbles, maybe a couple of sizes of rotary cutters, extra blades, pins, needles, seam ripper, post-it notes, stilettos…and I probably could add a few more items I just can’t think of right now.  If I plan to attend a quilt retreat or a class, I need a list of my “basics” just to make sure I have them all packed!

On top of our complicated basics, quilters now have the option of a choice of machines (most quilters own more than one), cutters such as Accuquilt, regular irons (for regular pressing), small irons for applique or block units, pressing mats, and cutting mats.  Usually these additional “basics” also have to be included.

I will be one of the first quilters to admit, I like these gadgets.  They make my quilting life easier and in most cases, faster.  However, they all require their own set of directions and if they’re used in a quilt pattern, the pattern also must write in the directions for the gadget as well as the pattern.  So the pattern is longer and more complicated.*  The fewer the gadgets available, the fewer the directions, thus the shorter the length of the pattern.

Maybe earlier designers were more willing to let you figure stuff out on your own.  On page 5 of Anne Orr’s booklet, we find the directions for her Jonquil Quilt.  The first paragraph is standard – it simply tells you how large to cut the applique blocks, and scallop strips.  The second paragraph instructs on how to make the applique blocks:

Mark the lengthwise and crosswise center on 12 of the blocks.  Trace the placement guide to each of the blocks, matching the arrows to the folds.  Rotate the guide 180 degrees to trace the second half of the pattern.  Pin the applique pieces in place, alternating the colors of the flowers and using dark yellow petals and insides with the light-yellow cup and vice versa. Applique pieces in place.

That’s it.  That’s all.  No explanation about applique stitches, no suggestions about using glue instead of pins.   Her pattern contains a few individual applique pieces to trace.  The placement guide is a sketch of the block.    There are no suggestions on how to quilt it.  There is nothing written about binding.  Compare Anne’s pattern with one of our contemporary designers such as Ester Aliu – who for comparison’s sake, her pattern for Mia May, a 49 x 65-inch quilt, is 44 pages in length.  Ann’s Jonquil pattern is a half a page for an 80 x 104-inch quilt.

I think quilt pattern designers prior to the 1970’s quilt revival assumed a great deal (somewhat accurately).  First, they presumed most folks who quilted either knew how to sew, or had access to people who did know how to sew, if they needed any help.  And while yes, some of the patterns during that time period were “easier” than those of today, I also think the simplicity gave the quilter license to change things up in order to make their quilt truly theirs.  And I believe the designers presumed if the quilter wanted to change the looks of the pattern, they certainly had the skill set to do so.

However, to be fair to our contemporary designers, they have to write patterns with lots of skill levels in mind, because of where we are at as a sewing society.  The social fabric of our overall sewing knowledge is in tatters for several reasons.  First, while a version of home economics is still taught today in some schools, it is more like consumer science and generally doesn’t have a sewing or cooking module.  Second, we had the Great Decimation of Quilting Knowledge in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Coming off World War II and into the Women’s Movement, women entered the workforce in great numbers.  Hobbies like sewing and quilting fell into decline as women struggled to find balance in work and home life (hey, we’re still struggling with that).  It wasn’t until the mid-seventies that quilting experienced a revival with the onset of the nation’s Bicentennial celebrations.  As the interest in quilting cranked up, we suddenly realized very few people actually knew how to do it well and accurately.  After relying on old publications and struggling through them – probably like Anne Orr’s book – the new designers decided the directions needed to be more thorough and complete.  And this type of direction has been maintained as the “norm.”

So do I think past quilters were smarter than we are today?  No.  However, I do think they were regularly exposed to the art of sewing and quilt making on a regular basis and became familiar with both to the point where complete directions were not required.  I do admire what they were able to produce without all the fancy notions and gadgets we have, but that doesn’t mean I want to trash my Electric Quilt software or go back to cutting out my patches with templates and scissors.  However, a large part of me wishes my quilting world were a bit simpler and didn’t require quite so much.

Until next week,

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Felix

*File this under “It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.”  I came into quilting on the cusp of the introduction to the rotary cutter.  This was in the early eighties.  My first quilting classes taught the use of templates and scissors to cut out your patches.  And I was more than fine with that.  One day I went into Piece Goods to pick up a few things I needed and one of the sales folks handed me a rotary cutter to look at.  “This will revolutionize quilting!” she told me.

I thought it looked like a glorified pizza cutter.  I cautiously handed it back.  I was a young mother on a schoolteacher’s income and couldn’t afford it.

Gradually, however, quilting patterns changed.  At first you had directions for template cutting and rotary cutting.  And then finally templates pretty much disappeared altogether and all the directions were written for rotary cutters.  I read them with more than a bit of skepticism.  I made my square templates, traced around them on the fabric, and then re-measured with a rotary ruler before verifying they were the right size and proceeded to cut them out with a rotary cutter.  It took me three quilts to completely trust the rotary process.   

I quilted a long time before I actually quilted my own quilts – that is, I pieced or appliqued my tops and then had someone else quilt them.  Something about dropping the feed dogs and moving the fabric around to create a quilting motif just made me anxious.  I worried I would harm my machine or that my stitches wouldn’t be just right, or I would have to rip out my quilting stitches and start over…and over…and over.   It took me several years – far longer than it should have – to get comfortable with the idea of quilting my own quilts on a domestic machine.  And yes, a few years ago I did purchase a long arm, but I still quilt a fair amount of my quilts on my M7 Continental – especially the small ones.  I would like to share some tips and tricks in this blog to help any of you who still may be struggling with dropping those feed dogs and quilting your own quilts.

• Know your machine

Sewing on your machine and quilting on your machine are entirely two different animals.  With the feed dogs dropped, you control the stitch length and tension, not the machine.  So, it’s really kind of a different sensation.  And while a machine with a large harp isn’t a necessity, I would be lying to you if I didn’t say a larger harp makes quilting large quilts easier.

• Practice.  Practice.  And practice some more.

In order to get used to get the feel of your machine when you drop the feed dogs, you need to practice.  I really can’t emphasize this enough.  Orphan blocks are great to practice on.  If you don’t have any of these lying around, just sandwich up some fabric squares and use those.  Make sure they’re big enough so you can get the sensation of what it will be like as you manipulate a larger quilt through your harp, but not so big that the bulk is a hindrance.  My practice pieces are somewhere between 12 and 18-inches square. 

• Use the right thread for the job.

When you are practicing, it’s really good to use thread which contrasts against your fabric.  This way you can  see if you are controlling your stitch length during curves and when you change direction.  It makes it easier to check your tension and make corrections.  Another helpful habit I picked up was to make notes on your quilt sandwich.  If you particularly like a stitch length with a certain thread and motif, write that down beside that quilting area and hang on to it.  I purchased a notebook and some page protectors.  Every time I found a motif I liked, I would note any pertinent information in ink beside the quilting area, trim it to fit inside one of the page protectors and file it in my notebook.  I know this sounds like a lot of effort, but that notebook is a handy dandy thing to have around when I’m looking for quilting inspiration. 

Once you’re comfortable and ready to quilt your quilt, there are a few thread-y ideas to keep in mind.  Remember the lower the weight of thread, the thicker it is.  So a 30-weight thread is much thicker than a 60-weight thread, and will show up a lot more than a thinner thread.  If you want your quilting stitches to stand out, go for a heavier thread.  If you want your quilting stitches to melt into the background, try a higher weight thread, such as a 60, 80, or even 100 weight thread.  Most of the time a 40 to 50-weight thread is a great compromise.  The stitches don’t quite disappear, but they’re not prominent, either.  Polyester threads quilt just as well as cottons (sometimes even better).  You can use a different color thread in the bobbin (to match the back of the quilt) than on the top (to match or contrast with the front of the quilt).  However, having a different weight of thread in the bobbin than on the top can cause tension issues.  You may have to play with the tension to get your stitches looking the way they should.  My personal favorite quilting threads are So Fine, Bottom Line, and Microquilter –all from Superior Thread.  The thread colors I keep in constant supply are yellow, light pink, gray, and beige.

• Relax, relax, relax

When you try something new and unfamiliar or return to an action you haven’t done in a long time, it’s natural to feel a little tense.  When you feel your shoulders hunch up high enough to almost touch your earlobes, it’s time to chill out.  Relax.  Take a minute to get up and stretch.  Get a drink of water.  Have a glass of wine.  Do whatever you need to in order to dissipate the tension.

If you’re tense, it’s easy to try to speed the process up to remove yourself from a stressful situation.  Please don’t speed up your quilting.  You’ll only make mistakes.  Relax and keep a steady pace.  And here’s a reality check – all those quilters on YouTube that look as if they’re breaking speed records with their quilting?  Chances are, they’ve sped up the video to move things along.  They’re really not quilting that fast.

• If you can’t figure out what quilt motif to use, just stitch in the ditch.

When all else fails, start by quilting in the ditch.  That gives you a good idea of the block layout and can jump start your creative juices.

• Read the batting label.

Before you begin quilting, re-acquaint yourself with the batting label.  It will give pertinent information about how far apart the quilting stitches can be and still maintain the integrity of the batt.  Cotton batting with no scrim should be quilted with quilt lines which are close together.  Polyester and polyester blends can handle quilt lines farther apart.  Read the label to make sure you’re not under quilting. 

• Rulers are awesome.

A few years ago, if you wanted to use quilting rulers, you needed access to a long arm or perhaps a mid-arm.  However, many of today’s sewing machines geared towards quilters now have a ruler foot included, so domestic machine quilters can use those wonderful quilting rulers just like long armers do.   There is a difference between using rulers on a long arm and rulers on a domestic sewing machine.  With a long arm, you bring the foot to the ruler (because the long arm head is moveable), and on a domestic sewing machine you bring the ruler to the foot (because the head is stationary).

With either a long arm or a domestic machine, use gentle pressure to keep the ruler lined up with the quilting foot.  If you press the ruler against the foot too hard, the ruler can slip beneath the foot and your needle will hit it ask me how I know.  This breaks your needle and perhaps your ruler, can throw your timing off, and scares you to death again, ask me how I know.

• Start simple.

Don’t try to jump straight into feathers or curved cross hatches.  Try a meander, large-ish loops – anything with gentle curves.  I wouldn’t recommend quilting with rulers until you have a good idea of how your machine reacts with the feed dogs dropped.  A simple quilt pattern on a simple project is a perfect way to start your machine quilting journey.  You want to set yourself up for success, and seeing the texture fill in on a small quilt or easy quilt project is just about perfection.

• Don’t put it off.  Begin to quilt your own quilts as soon as possible.

One of the reasons I put off quilting my own quilts is this: It was never offered as an option in my beginning quilt classes.  My first quilting teachers hand quilted their own quilts.  I worked full-time and had two kids under the age of five.  There was no way I had the time to hand quilt anything.  My quilt tops languished in a closet until I had saved enough money to have them quilted.  No one ever taught me otherwise.  I knew quilting on my domestic machine was possible, but had no idea where or how to even start the process (these were the days before internet and YouTube). 

Don’t put it off.  Try quilting on your domestic sewing machine.  Start with a small, easy project and work your way into more complex ones. 

• Go easy on yourself.

We all have to start somewhere.  At some point, we are all beginners and need to accept we will make mistakes.  Don’t judge yourself by other machine quilters, or by what you see on social media.  Quilts shown on Facebook or Instagram are usually those quilters’ best work.  You don’t see the mistakes or the ripped-out stitches.  You’ll improve with each quilt.  You’ll improve faster if you practice (see hint #2). 

• Realize you’ll make mistakes.  We all do.

We all make blunders on our quilts.  I’ve been quilting for nearly 40 years, and I make mistakes in every quilt I make (but after all this time, I’ve really gotten good at hiding them).  I still rip out stitches.  I find a good show to binge watch and unpick my mistakes.  Don’t beat yourself up over mistakes or think you’re a failure and can’t quilt.  It’s only a failure if you don’t learn something from your errors. 

I hope you take this blog to heart and try quilting your own quilts.  You don’t have to quilt every one of them, but it’s nice to have this skill if you’re in a time crunch or simply don’t want to pay someone else to quilt them.  Even with a long arm and a great domestic machine, there are quilts I send to a long armer – if they need custom quilting or are king-size.  And there is no shame in that game.

When you do quilt your own quilt, let me know how you do!  For me, there’s nothing quite like seeing that texture which comes from quilting stitches.  This brings as much satisfaction as perfect points or nearly invisible applique stitches.

Until Next Week,

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Felix