Chain piecing is da bomb!
#11
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: AR
Posts: 3,604
Hey Jan, I couldn't help but notice your "there you go" comment. I've said this so many times in our church nursery that one of our 2 yr old little girls has started saying it. haha I've started listening to myself and my husband and we do way this a lot! I guess it's our way of being "encouraging". haha
As for the chain piecing, I do this too. Sure saves time.
Debbie
#12
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Southfield, Michigan
Posts: 286
Just sayin'...
I've done chains on the single pieces that I need many of, but after doing 8 of my 29 rows of my Blooming Nine Patch, I finally figured out how to NOT get confused and sew them up in the wrong order. I have all the pieces in neat little "row piles," but was sewing a piece, pressing, then sewing, then pressing...just so I wouldn't lose my place. Needless to say, it was taking forever to get through even the short rows. Then I finally got smart and did 2 at a time, then the next two, then the next two...pressed (keeping them in order- LOL)...then added the 2s to each other...etc.
I know you experts are rolling your eyes, but this is HUGE for a newbie! It's going SO much faster "assembly-line" style!
Ok, off my box now. I feel like I'm at a Q-Anonymous meeting and just went to the podium to announce my major breakthrough for the week!
I've done chains on the single pieces that I need many of, but after doing 8 of my 29 rows of my Blooming Nine Patch, I finally figured out how to NOT get confused and sew them up in the wrong order. I have all the pieces in neat little "row piles," but was sewing a piece, pressing, then sewing, then pressing...just so I wouldn't lose my place. Needless to say, it was taking forever to get through even the short rows. Then I finally got smart and did 2 at a time, then the next two, then the next two...pressed (keeping them in order- LOL)...then added the 2s to each other...etc.
I know you experts are rolling your eyes, but this is HUGE for a newbie! It's going SO much faster "assembly-line" style!
Ok, off my box now. I feel like I'm at a Q-Anonymous meeting and just went to the podium to announce my major breakthrough for the week!
#13
I understand! I was researching a quilt as you go method where you pull the back through to the top, and I was like "Man, that's exactly what I need except I don't want my backing to show on the front!" About 2 hours later it occured to me that I could use the same method to pull the front to the back and get the same results! I felt like an idiot genius.
#14
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: NY
Posts: 2,497
Teeler, good for you! Don't you feel so accomplished when you learn a new trick! I, too, love chain sewing. I've learned to lay everything out and take a picture. Then I chain sew everything. Something else it has taken me a while to learn is to sew together the quilt in 4 sections; upper left, upper right, lower left, then lower right. I used to sew in rows. If you do that, then you are sewing the length of the quilt many, many times. If you sew it in sections, then you sew top sections together, bottoms together.....(at this point you have yet to sew the length of the quilt), then sew top to the bottom. The longest seam you've had to sew is only the width!!!! Get it? If you're not getting it take a piece of paper and cut into 4 pieces and pretend each piece is a quadrant of your next quilt. It took me a year to even attempt to change my row sewing style. When I did though, it paid off in spades!!! Good luck. Please let me know if you ever try the 4 section method of sewing a quilt top together.
#15
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Piedmont Virginia in the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mtns.
Posts: 8,562
Personally I have had a family quilt that was appraised as ca. 1780 or earlier, which has sections in it that would have been perfect for "speed/chain piecing." I've wondered many times if that young Colonial Virginian woman knew how to do that, and like to imagine that she figured it out for herself.
Jan in VA
#16
Teeler, good for you! Don't you feel so accomplished when you learn a new trick! I, too, love chain sewing. I've learned to lay everything out and take a picture. Then I chain sew everything. Something else it has taken me a while to learn is to sew together the quilt in 4 sections; upper left, upper right, lower left, then lower right. I used to sew in rows. If you do that, then you are sewing the length of the quilt many, many times. If you sew it in sections, then you sew top sections together, bottoms together.....(at this point you have yet to sew the length of the quilt), then sew top to the bottom. The longest seam you've had to sew is only the width!!!! Get it? If you're not getting it take a piece of paper and cut into 4 pieces and pretend each piece is a quadrant of your next quilt. It took me a year to even attempt to change my row sewing style. When I did though, it paid off in spades!!! Good luck. Please let me know if you ever try the 4 section method of sewing a quilt top together.
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