Perkins Dry Goods

I just had to share a picture of my oldest son as a four year old. He will graduate from high school next month. I remember taking this picture like it was yesterday.

During one of my many wanderings around the net, I stumbled upon this rotary cutting tutorial at the purl bee. I thought it was really good since it reiterates things that I think are important! You will see how to use two rulers to straighten your fabric, good safety tips and basics on cutting strips and how to cut squares from strips. Enjoy!

If you are a knitter/crocheter there are tons of fun things on this blog as well!

Celine

Here is a tip that has saved me a ton of time plus reduced my stress level when getting ready to go to market.  I love nothing better than sitting with my family and hand stitching the binding on a quilt.  There is something about it that is relaxing and very satisfying.  BUT  then there are the times when you have a deadline and need that quilt DONE!  That’s when I dig out the fusible thread.  I also do the fusible technique as prep to hand sew.  It is soooo nice to have the binding wrapped in place, ready to stitch…..no pins, no pokes! 

I like the YLI Fusible Thread, it runs about $4.99 for a 150 yd spool.

• Sew the binding on the quilt as you would if you were going to hand sew it.  Use regular thread.
•  Wind a bobbin with the fusible thread.  Don’t wind it full, just about 80%.  If you wind it too full, the thread falls off and makes a mess.
• Stitch:  Set your machine to a zig-zag stitch that is a hair narrower than the binding seam allowance and not too short.  I set mine at 4.1 wide and 2.6 long.
• Tension:  Loosen the upper tension.  I set mine between 1 and 2.
  

1. Put the bobbin in the machine.  Now, I have a drop in bobbin on my Janome 6600 and it does not like it when I put the thread in the tension clip thing.  I put the bobbin in so that it unwinds counter clockwise.
2. Sew a zig-zag stitch in the seam allowance so that the fusible thread is on the back side of the quilt.  You will wrap your binding to the back and fuse it.
3. The first fold goes like this; lay the quilt on the ironing board back side up and fold the left side over.  Press.
   
4. Fold the top down, making sure that you have a nice miter at the corner.  Press binding to fuse all the way across.
   
5. Turn the quilt when you get to the next corner and repeat.  When you are finished, the binding looks totally finished.
6. You will eventually need to stitch it to the back, I don’t think this would hold if it went through the wash!