As a beginner Quilter, this is very good advice...I'll break my bad habit before it's ingrained.

Has Eleanor Burns ever mentioned this?? She was my "mentor", ie books, tv program and videos. This is the first I've ever heard of this....or did I just forget this???

woohoowendy- If I'm doing several long strips, I pin all the strips at one sitting, so I'll pin going one direction, then I'll pin the next strip going the opposite direction. If you're afraid of getting interrupted then, I'll just pin the ends where I'll be starting.

When I stop to go do something else, I get the next strip all ready to sew by lining them up and putting them under the presser foot so that when I come back I can just start sewing. If I am leaving it for another day, I pin the end I want to start on and lay it in the direction I want to start.

sew from top to bottom and then when adding next strip, turn what you've done 180 degrees - and sew bottom to sew....and keep doing that with every row. Hope that makes sense.

And yes, it will cause waviness big time if you sew all the strips in one direction. Ask me how I know....lolol

Have no idea why though...maybe someone has an answer to that one....

I have seen the fabric bow.The quilt will never hang straight.
As I have a poor memory at times, I use a little starter fabric at the beginning of sewing each strip,and let it hang until all the strips are sewn to remind me, gently, when to start the next sewing. Hint....at the opposite end.

Ohhhhh trust me, it does! :cry: :-(

Hmmmm... I wonder if the IDT on my Pfaff will prevent that stretching of long strips by the foot? I don't know if I'll ever test it and take the chance on messing up a quilt.

Your IDT should work similarly to using a walking foot while piecing strips, which is something I read somewhere in blog-land the other day - this gal even used her walking foot for all of her piecing, said this way all of her piecing was perfect.

Ya know how sometimes it seems no matter how many pins you use to keep two pieces of fabric together, sometimes the two edges still aren't in the same place after sewing a seam? I haven't personally tried this yet, but boy, I sure am tempted to. :thumbup:

When you get to the end cut your thread short and the begining side will have a tail' so you can tell which side you started on.