Saturday 26 April 2014

Working with light fabrics - cont.

I'm currently working on my final four sided kaleidoscope quilt.  This is the completion of my personal study (three years) on kaleidoscopes quilts.

Continuing on from my previous two posts - working with light fabrics and those rogue threads,  I thought I would take this opportunity to show you how I deal with these before basting my quilts.

These fraying threads run the risk of falling behind
this yellow stip.  They can be seen from the front of
quilt.

Carefully trim these.  You will notice that I have
over locked the edge of this quilt.  I have found when working
with Kona fabrics, they have a tendency to fray a lot
quicker than other cotton fabrics.



Use a lint roller to remove threads that have been cut.
Notice that my yellow seams are ironed towards the dark
green.

Stunning quilts can miss out on awards at exhibitions due to visible rogue threads or seams ironed towards light fabrics thus making them visible from the front of the quilt.

Happy quilting.


Sunday 13 April 2014

Tip - quilting with white or light fabrics.

I quilted a wall hanging today which has 1" white strips between each block.  When using a light colour fabric it is important to ensure you iron your seams towards the darker fabric so seams cannot be seen from the front of your finished quilt. 
I forgot another important tip when using white.  Ensure there are no rogue threads sitting behind as these definitely will be seen through the front of your fabric.
you can faintly see a rogue thread at the point of my quick unpick.

this the rogue thread

 You can carefully pull a thread out from the front of a quilt with a needle.  Unfortunately I had to many of these rogue threads so it is much easier to unpick the quilting and start again.

To remove the stitch holes in my backing fabric, I have given it a quick cold water rinse in the washing machine.  For the front of the quilt, I will lightly spray water and iron.

Happy quilting.