Handy hacks

48 – Hazel Saunders – If spray starch makes your fabric too stiff, spray several squirts into a spare holiday spray bottle and mix with a little warm water. It makes your work stable but less firm and your spray starch goes much further.

49 – Carolyn Gibbs – Plan your patchwork pressing so that ALL seams (including diagonal ones) meet others pressed in opposite directions to ensure perfect points

50 – Lis Binns – If you get muck like bondaweb on your iron, use a paracetamol tablet to clean it off – hot iron, rub with the tablet, wipe off residue onto kitchen towel. Works like a charm!

51 – Bekybran – When you press a block, let it cool under the weight of a ruler and it will stay flatter.

52 – gillymacdesigns – As soon as you feel your rotary cutter blade is getting blunt, change it immediately. Always have a spare blade ready!

53 – Studiokatedesigns – For smooth, curved seams use LOTS of pins with small ‘bites’ of fabric!

54 – Cindy Smith – I always make the edge of my quilt top at least 1″ bigger than it needs to be. For instance, any points that would normally meet the binding are actually 1″ back from the raw edge. This allows your machine quilter to easily clamp to the edge of your quilt and will allow her to quilt closer to where the binding will be sewn.

55 – Nicholas Ball – When it comes to basting your quilts, if you struggle to get a taut and wrinkle-free quilt sandwich, try spray basting. I find I can baste quilts quicker and more easily using temporary fabric adhesive than I can with pins. My preferred brand is Odif 505. This non-toxic, repositionable and leaves no residue behind.

56 – Sandra Johnson – When stitching a straight edge to a bias edge, stitch with the bias next to the feed dogs so it won’t stretch out of shape.

57 – Isobell Hall – When working on handmade 3D casts it is a good idea to retain the original mould so that you can keep returning the cast to the original mould. This is a great advantage if you are applying mixed media and it also helps to maintain the shape whilst resting from quilting round the cast.

58 – Sheila Wilkinson – Marking dark fabric – Use a sliver of dry soap to mark fabric – the thin piece left at the end of a tablet. Scrape it with a scissor blade to sharpen. It virtually disappears as you sew over it, smells nice, does not damage your fabric and washes out well.

59 – Sheila Wilkinson – Sewing in thread ends – Use a self-threading needle when sewing in the ends of machine quilting threads. It has a slot in the end of the eye so you just pop the thread through it. Insert the needle in place between the layers before threading it. Since it can sometimes come unthreaded as you pull it through, twiddle the needle between your finger and thumb as you pull and all should be well.

60 – Stuart Hillard – Pins and pressing really help! Match ends, match points and pin well… “pin, tack…then sew!”

61 – Anonymous – If you use blue water erasable pens for marking up designs on your work, these marks can be easily and permanently removed by spraying them with a freshly made solution (1 cup of water and 1 heaped teaspoon of baking soda) and allowing to dry naturally.

62 – Allie tate – My favourite tool for quilting is Spoonflower’s Fill-A-Yard tool. It allows for creating beautiful whole cloth quilt tops or gives sewist increased flexibility when curating and purchasing designs for their next project.