3 Tips for Quilting with Small Fabric Pieces
Don’t be intimidated when sewing with small pieces of fabric if you’re a beginning quilter. Use these 3 tried and true tips to help you improve your quilting accuracy when quilting with small fabric pieces.
Welcome to week two of the Spooky Sampler quilt along. This week we are working on creating the Small Pumpkin and Broomstick blocks for the quilt.
I shared a video on Instagram walking you through some of the steps to create the broomstick block. It uses a stitch and flip piecing method that I thought might be confusing if you’re new.
Be sure to check it out on my Instagram IGTV. You can also find it on YouTube.
I thought this week, since some of the pieces for these blocks are as small as 1″ x 1″, that I would share some of my best tips for working with small pieces of fabric.
When I first started quilting, I was very intimidated by tiny fabric pieces. I still find myself unpicking and starting over when I quilt, but I have found a few things that I think consistently help.
TIP 1: Use Starch
Startching your fabric will give it more body and make it hold up better as it’s sewn and pressed. This is especially true if your fabrics are lightweight. I like to starch my fabric pieces after they are cut out but before I sew with them.
I know that many quilters also like to starch the fabric before they cut. It’s totally up to you. I use spray starch made for clothing that you can buy at the store. You can also buy starch especially made for quilting.
TIP 2: Use a Stiletto or Seam Ripper When Sewing
It is essential when you are sewing quilt blocks that the fabric feeds through the machine straight the entire way. It can be easy to let the fabric drift to one side without knowing it, yielding an inconsistent seam allowance. This happens more frequently with smaller pieces of fabric. You can only hold the fabric so long as it approaches the needle and foot.
Instead of trying to wrangle the fabric with your fingers, use a tool like the small screwdriver that came with your machine, a seam ripper, or a stiletto to guide the fabric as it approaches the needle.
TIP 3: Sew with Leaders & Enders
When I was a beginning quilter, I kept hearing people say they were making “leaders & enders” quilts. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.
A Leader is a scrap of fabric that you begin sewing on before you sew the fabric you WANT to sew. Begin sewing on a scrap of fabric (you can start in the middle of the scrap if that’s easier).
Next, do not cut the thread on your machine, but place the next piece to be sewn right next to the leader and keep sewing as if it is all one piece of fabric (there is a video demonstrating this below).
You can keep sewing quilt blocks this way, one right after another, so that it creates a long chain of blocks (this is referred to as chain piecing). An Ender is the last you sew in the chain and is also usually a scrap of fabric.
Why You Might Want to Use Leaders & Enders in Quilting
- It prevents a thread nest from developing under your sewing project. SInce the thread is being held by the piece you stitched previoulsy, the tail end of it won’t get caught in your stitching.
- This method stops the fabric from bunching up under the needle and thread plate. When this happens to me it is so frustrating! I find sometimes it’s hard to “start” the stitching line and my fabric bunches up. When you’re sewing with a small piece of fabric, there is not a lot of tension in the thread, so when you start sewing, it can shove the end of your fabric under the needle plate.
- Helps to keep the thread tension consistent from the start to the end of the seam.
- Your needle is less likely to unthread.
- You can use leaders and enderes to chain piece quilt blocks together which will save you a lot of time when construting your quilt.
Some quilters plan ahead and actually create quilts from the scraps they use for their leaders and enders. I normally sew with scrap fabric next to my machine.
Video Instructions
I filmed the process of chain piecing a few quilt blocks using a leader.
Quilt Along Information
You can find all the information regarding the Spooky Sampler quilt along on our blog.
Schedule
I’ve designed a special Project Planner just for the quilt along.
Here are all of the blog posts shared in the quilt along to date.
- Introduction
- Week 1: Ohio Star Quilt Blocks & Fussy Cutting Tips
- Week 2: Broomstick & Small Pumpkin Blocks & Piecing Tips
- Week 3: Bat & Spider Blocks & Raw Edge Applique Tips
- Week 4:
- Week 5:
- Week 6:
