Originally Posted by JENNR8R
OHMYGOSH! She didn't use a zazillion pins to match the rows and rows of different fabrics in the lone star! How'd she do that so effortlessly?... and I didn't see a seam ripper either. :shock:
Practise and experience.
My mama's Singer was the model before the one in the film clip. Those old Singers sewed a straight seam. All you had to do was line the two layers of a straight edge up properly at the beginning, then hit the pedal to get a long straight seam. I don't know why but it takes a lot more effort to keep modern machines on the straight line.
The first and only quilt I've made so far was in 1978. It was a two colour trip around the world and I used five-eighths inch seams because I didn't know any better. I ripped the seams along the length of the fabric first, then used a template to cut my squares.
I was in my early twenties, had two jobs and no sewing machine. My mama would have been glad to let me use hers but with two jobs, I just didn't have time to go over and sit at a sewing machine for any length of time. Just too busy or too tired. So I sewed it all by hand, eyeballing the seams and using the template to check the size of my sewn patches if I wasn't sure.
My husband just re-discovered the lap hoop I used to hand quilt that quilt on my second job, which was a night shift job for an telephone answering company (not much to do, so we were welcome to bring in hand crafts to help stay awake).