10 Steps to a Better Quilt

Disappointed with the quality of your last quilt?  Worried that your construction is not good enough, won’t satisfy a judge or won’t hold up to its intended purpose?

Thinking through what I believe it takes to achieve better patchwork and quilting, I compiled the following list, which I share with you here so that we may all move forward together:

1.  Check stitch length.

Achieve better quality piecing and quilting by making certain your machine gives a tip-top stitch.  Set the stitch lengths you want to use consistently for piecing and for quilting, record those lengths or enter them into the computer of your machine for future reference, then use them!

Stitches for piecing should be a bit shorter for durability and to keep batting fibers tucked safely inside the quilt.  Shorter piecing stitches will also have less tendency to ravel out if you cut across them when neatening your blocks.  Recommended length should be about 2 mm.

Stitches for quilting should be longer, about 3 mm, to present a more attractive appearance on the surface of the quilt.

2.  Check thread tension.

The balance in tightness of threads between top and bobbin thread simply cannot be overemphasized.  The loop that is formed when the two threads meet should be buried in the layers of material, not visible either from the face or from the back of your work.  If this balance is achieved, both threads float beautifully over the surface they cover and a lovely stitch is achieved.

If both threads are too tight, the seam line will pucker, especially if ironing the work causes the threads to shrink.  If both threads are too loose, pulling the layers of cloth apart will leave noticeable gaps between the stitches.  These spaces are holes through which batting fibers will later migrate.

To check thread tension, sew a line of straight stitching along the bias grainline of a swatch of your fabric, two layers thick.  Sew with the same type of thread you intend to use but in different colors so you can more easily see which is the top thread and which the bobbin, and you can identify which setting may be inaccurate.

For more information about how to set thread tension on your sewing machine, check your manual or refer to your sewing machine manufacturer’s website.

3.  Begin and end stitching lines well.

Standard dressmaking benefits from back-tacked seams.  Sewing in reverse before sewing forward along the seam line secures thread ends and prevents the end of the seam line from opening unexpectedly at a later time.  For patchwork piecing seams, the same method can be used.  If batch-processing or flag piecing your patches (sewing through seam allowances from one set of patches to the next without lifting the presser foot), back-tacking becomes slightly more cumbersome and less efficient.  This is where sewing seams with smaller stitches counts!

For quilting lines, however, back-tacking becomes undesirably obvious.  Many quilters solve this problem by using a tiny straight stitch (.5 mm or less) for a few stitches at the beginning and end of each seam line.  The alternative is to begin and end seam lines without a change in size or direction of stitches, leaving long thread tails that can be run back into the work by hand.  For many machine quilters speed is of the essence; such handwork is time-consuming and tedious.  Choose whichever method works best for the kind of quilting you do, and stick with your chosen method!

4.  Select a wide range of values amongst your fabric choices.

Color is always a challenge for quilters.  It is the most appealing quality of patchwork quilting: color expressed as tangible surface.  More important to the success of a patchwork quilt, however, is the value of the selected fabrics.  Value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color.  It is the amount of white or black that has been added to any hue.

In practice, there is no such thing as pure white or pure black: each has some measure of color.  This is a function of the materials and dyes we use to achieve these two theoretically uncolored values.  Nevertheless, each quilt we make should have an appropriate amount of contrast in value.  Each quilt should contain at least one very light value and one very dark one, balancing a healthy range of medium values.

Achieve your goal of better value use through careful shopping.  First assess the values of the fabrics in your stash to determine whether you have a good range of darks, mediums and lights in your collection of fabrics, and then shop to fill in any shortages.  It’s certain that if you do not have a full range of values in your stash, your quilts will never contain a full range of values either!

Then, when selecting fabrics for a particular quilt, arrange your choices in a fan shape that runs from dark to light.  Test the amount of contrast in your palette by comparing the darkest with the lightest.  If the contrast in lightness and darkness does not satisfy you, push each end of your palette one step further by seeking darker and lighter value fabrics.  The rewards of this effort will be huge!

By the way, my all-time favorite book for color and value is Jinny Beyer’s Color Confidence for Quilters.  Jinny’s systematic approach to color and value takes the guesswork out of great color combinations without resulting in too much color coordination.  The book is a classic; get yours now!

5.  Launder ALL your fabrics.

Wash or dry clean ALL fabrics you intend to include in your quilt before you begin cutting them.  Laundering removes most chemical finishes, shrinks any poorly processed cloths, and reveals any changes that might occur in color.  Far better you sew fabrics as they will appear in your quilt after it has been laundered than to make a gorgeous quilt that holds its beauty only until the first time it is washed or dry cleaned.  It can be heartbreaking to see all your hard work turned sour so soon!

The easiest way to do launder all fabrics is to do it before they enter your stash.  From shopping bag to washing machine or dry cleaner is easier and safer to manage than stashing and then trying to remember whether you did or did not launder.

For dry cleaned fabrics like silks, wools and linens, stop at your local dry cleaner’s on the way home from the fabric shop.  Return three days later to collect your treasures.  For machine or hand washing, leave all fabrics in the shopping bag until you are ready to toss them into a machine or fill that sink.  Permit only laundered fabrics to enter your stash, and never worry!

6.  Cut with precision and accuracy.

Define these two terms and you will learn with what exactitude your cutting should be accomplished. According to my computer’s dictionary, accuracy is “the degree to which the result of a measurement, calculation or specification conforms to the correct value or a standard.”  For us as quilters, this means than when our pattern calls for a shape that is 4″ square, that means 4″ EXACTLY, not 4 1/16″.

Precision is “refinement in a measurement, calculation or specification.”  We work to precision when we calibrate our sewing machines to match our rulers (see the next Step).

The combination of careful cutting and sewing is what gives any quilt its well-constructed beauty.  Sloppiness in cutting shows up in many ways and is to be avoided at all costs!

7.  Calibrate your machine.

Match the ¼” seam line you expect to sew with your cutting ruler.  The thickness of marked lines on your ruler can put your sewing off a tiny bit that becomes cumulative as you piece an entire quilt, resulting in a quilt top that can be up to ¼” or more larger or smaller than you expected.  Never trust your sewing machine’s ¼” foot to be accurate; it may be, but it is your responsibility to ensure that the ¼” your foot measures matches the ¼” that your ruler lets you cut!  Find an excellent tutorial for calibrating your sewing machine at About.com.

8.  Press lightly.

Heavy ironing with a hot, high-steam iron can easily distort your patchwork.  It is far better to press with a cooler, low-steam iron to direct seam allowances and remove wrinkles.  For more on pressing versus ironing, read How to Iron When Doing Patchwork.

9.  Experiment with batting.

Different kinds of quilts call for different kinds of batting.  Shop the batting market carefully.  Study which fibers are used in each brand’s products.  Learn the difference in properties between 100% cotton, cotton blends, wool, polyester and bamboo, the most popular fibers now available as batts.  Select the batting that will best suit your needs for each specific quilt.  To learn more about batting, a good place to start is Planet Patchwork.

10.  Finish with pride!

Nothing disappoints so much as a beautiful quilt top that has been carelessly made into a quilt.  Great fabric choices, sturdy and precise piecing, fabulous embellishments–none of these can compensate for a sloppy binding, a poorly set hanger sleeve that results in wobbles, or lack of attention paid to labeling or signing your work.

For more on bindings, see my tutorial for Seamless Binding, Ellen Guerant’s great tutorial on double-fold binding, or take my class Darned Quilts at Quilt University for included instructions for my single-fold “Fuss-Free Binding.”

Set your hanger sleeve parallel to a straight line across the bottom of your quilt, rather than running it parallel to the top of your quilt, to achieve the smoothest possible hanging surface.  Error in the quilt (if there is any) is pushed to the top where it is minimized, rather than dropped all the way to the bottom of the quilt where it increases exponentially!

Showing a few art quilts recently to some non-quilting friends, I was particularly pleased and gratified when one of them appeared most impressed by the stitched signature on my work.  That tiny feature impressed my friend greatly, and reinforced the idea that it is mandatory to sew a signature on art quilts, even if you apply a provenance-rich label to the back as you would for innovative or traditional quilts.  Like a frame, a signature spells “art” to laymen!

This is my list of 10 Steps to a Better Quilt.  What can you add to this list?  What are your favorite successful tips to better quilt-making?

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge and experience!