If you’re new to quilting, you might have heard about “chain piecing” or “speed piecing”. This is a common technique used with machine quilting.
To chain piece, what you will do, is pin your pieces as normal, and after sewing your pieces together, instead of cutting the thread between pairs, butt the next set right up next to the previous set, without cutting the thread.
Some quilters prefer to use small scraps of fabric to start and finish their chains, so as not to distort the first and last sets being sewn. Stretching and distortion can occur when sewing pieces cut on the bias of the fabric, such as triangles. If you experience some distortion of your pieces when chain piecing, it might be beneficial to try leading with a scrap. Some days I use a lead scrap, but more often than not I don’t use any.
As you continue piecing your sets, without cutting your thread, you’ll end up with a chain of sewn sets, and when you are finished sewing you simply cut the threads in between the sewn sets of pieces - I like to use the thread cutter on my machine, or keep a pair of small scissors in a basket close by.
After sewing you’ll want to press your seams. If you have experience sewing clothing or household items, you probably are in the habit of pressing your seams open. In quilting it’s slightly different. The rule of thumb for quilting, is to press your seams together, not open, to the side of whichever fabric is darker.
Once you’ve made blocks and are sewing rows of blocks to other rows of blocks, the rules change a bit, and instead you’ll press each row in the opposite direction of the previous row.
Pressing techniques, as with all things quilty, are often determined by your personal preference. For this tutorial I will show you the method I use, because I have found it to be the most effective. I prefer to “press” and not “iron”. The difference between pressing and ironing is steam. For pressing, you will use no steam. Some quilters say that steam can distort your fabric or seams, especially with fabric sewn on the bias. However, I have never experienced that myself. Being as I am of the opinion, “better safe, than sorry”, I virtually never use steam when piecing.
I have achieved results that please me best by pressing in the following way. First, you’ll want to press your seams closed to “set” your stitches.
Second, I like to press the seam open by laying the light side down, and the dark side on top. By doing this, your seam will automatically be pressed to the dark side when you open it.
Next, I open the seam, then run my nail across the seam to “finger press”, or prepare a flat, flawless seam for pressing.
I then press for 5-7 seconds with my iron on a cotton setting.
This method has never given me anything less than a perfectly crisp pressed seam, for a look that I just love!
