What Kind of Fabric is That? Why Cotton and Wool are Queen and King of the Quilting World

Peg's new wool applique block

There's a mystery solved on the end of every fabric bolt. You can probably find the manufacturer, the width of the fabric and what the collection is called. Somewhere in there it should tell you what it's made of.

If you're in a quilt shop it probably says 100 % cotton. There are some very good reasons for that. Cotton has always been the go-to fiber for quilters for a lot of reasons.

Cotton

• It's soft.
• It's washable.
• It dyes well and has great colors.
• It's hyper allergenic.  
• It pieces well.
• It irons flat.
• It can be blocked a little.

But cotton's not the only fabric to quilt with.Wool is an old quilting choice that's all new again. Pretty wool solids make for fluid applique and a hardy textural kind of pieced quilt. Because it's a thicker fabric and more loosely woven, it feels very different to work with, but in a good way. Here's some of the reasons wool is a great alternative quilt fiber.

From Winterberry Cabin

Wool

• It has a fabulous texture
• It dyes well, but with different kinds of dye.
• It needles well for hand applique.
• It has a more raised feel and hand.
• It's extra warm and snugly.
• It can be blocked into shape.

Wool often has other fibers blended in with it. Unless it's a significant amount, say 15% or more, it usually doesn't make a huge difference. But of course, pure wool is best.

Fabrics you want to avoid.
When you walk outside the quilt shop there are all kinds of other fibers that are not so user friendly. This isn't like they aren't pretty or that they have their own uses. They just don't respond well to quilting techniques or they don't wear well. Here's why.

Rayon
Rayon is made of tree bark. It's soft. It's pretty. But it's much too fragile to quilt with. And it sun fades very easily.

Test Tube Babies
Polyester and other test tube babies are not great quilting fabrics. They don't piece well and they are miserable to iron. And if they're mixed into a fiber blend, they still have the same issues. Do you remember the polyester double knit quilts of the 70's? Need I say more?

Lycra is a fiber that stretches. Great for sports wear. Miserable for quilting, as it has to be either stabilized or it will bounce along as you try to quilt on it.

So what happens if you find the perfect color or print and it's rayon. Or lycra? Or poly? You can use it. You can do anything that isn't illegal or deadly. But you deal with the limits and problems of those fibers for the whole life of that quilt. Did it fade? Rip? Sag? Pull out it's stitches? Cotton and wool are queen and king of the quilting world for very good reasons. They work, piece, applique, quilt and needle so much better. 

How long does it take you to make a quilt? How long will that quilt be part of someone's world? No one can afford poor fabric choices. They're just too costly in the long run.

Sue Makinen's great pin cushion

We have a new collection of vintage wools that are perfect for applique. Sue and Peggy have gone insane about them. Sue will be teaching us about wool applique and embroidery on wool in a series of upcoming classes.

Our vintage wool collection

All of this is a reason to be shopping for fabrics at a quilt store. We know what's in the fabric. And it's the best quality for quilting, all the time. Surprises are really only nice on birthdays and Christmas.

Exploring Piecing and Applique: Yes, You Can Do It All

Applique quilt from Quilt Sister

You've probably heard people declare, I'm a "piecer", or" I do applique". They really are very different techniques.And they offer such different possibilities. We're going to look at applique over the next week, but before we do that, let's unpack the differences.

From Fussy Cutter Quilter Kits

Piecing is the sewing of fabric together in seams. We've talked a great deal about piecing. It's usually where beginning quilters start.

Piecing is almost always in straight lines. Except when it's not. There are fabulous curved piecers and piecing, but it's a high skill trick. Much piecing that looks curved is actually an optical illusion. It's worthy, it's lovely and it's very exacting.

Sue Makinen's Applique 

Applique is applying fabric on top of another fabric. Applique is the land of the curve. There is straight line applique, but one is tempted to ask," why?" It's so much easier to piece straight lines and so beautiful to applique curves.

by Barbara Baatz Hillman

There's also nothing against both piecing and applique within the same quilt. It's an astonishing combination that gives you the best of everything.

From Thimble Lady

But that being said, there are a lot of techniques within that. The biggest decision is whether to work by hand or by machine. 
There are wonderful reasons for both.





Hand applique is

• Elegant and delicate
• Can be intricate
• Traditional
• Portable( you can easily carry it with you)

From Sew Momma Sew

Machine Applique is

• Faster
• Less Intricate
• More contemporary (usually)
• Needs to be done in your sewing room with your machine.

In a way, the differences are almost along personality lines. Do you need to finish up fast, or do you want to do a long term masterpiece?
Both are fabulous. Applique is a wide world and we'll explore a good chunk of it. 
Sue Makinen is teaching a class on  hand applique for us on Saturday May 3rd, at 10:30-3.You can find more about Sue on our Blog Post Applique Treasures: Sue Makinen.

Biased: Introducing Bias Cut Fabric

We talked last time about the construction of fabric and what " straight grain" means.

From Threads Magazine

Basically it means the fabric is cut along the line with either the warp grain( the long threads of the fabric) or the weft grain, (the threads going across).  Fabric is just woven threads. It's not static. The threads can easily shift within the fabric.So it can stretch, warp, or shift on you in a moment's notice.  The straight of grain fabric does that slightly. But what if you cut at a 45 degree angle across the square. The picture shows us a log of thread ends with nothing to hold them in place. That 45 degree cut is a bias cut. And since the threads aren't holding each other in place, it stretches. Not just a little bit. A lot! 

Is that a good thing? Again, nothing is  good or bad but thinking makes it so.

You may think this talk about grain doesn't matter to beginner sewers, or people making simple quilts. But it helps you predict how fabric will react as you sew it. And if you think it through, you'll understand some of the problems involved with sewing bias and some of the solutions.

Elizabeth Hartman from Oh, Fransson!

Remember how we talked about half square triangles, and how many different kinds of blocks you can cut from them? That seam across the half square triangle is bias cut. Any quilt we make with triangles or diamonds by definition has a bias seam, waiting to stretch out before your eyes. 

Before you start to panic, quilters have dealt with this from the beginning of quilting. And knowledge is power. Are you wondering why one square is bigger than the other? Pointed slightly differently? Why the seams don't match. It could be due to bias stretch. Here's some ways to control that,

From Exuberant Color

Bias coping skills

• The simplest thing to do about bias is to remember not to stretch it. Don't pull it through the machine. Don't tug it into place. Don't encourage it to stretch more than it does just in sewing.
•  Cut accurately and trim to even things out rather than stretch a seam to make it match.
• Use a walking foot to make your fabric feed evenly top and back side. A walking foot grabs fabric from both the top and the back side.
• Use pins. A lot of pins
• Don't drag your iron along the seams. Lift it. Place it. Let it steam. Repeat.

If it stretches a little, that's fine. Just don't encourage it to stretch a lot.

From Nettie at aquiltisnice

Is there an upside to bias? Actually yes there is! That curve you see on this bound edge is from cut bias strips. The bias stretches nicely to accommodate the curve. Many quilters use bias binding because that stretch leaves a smoother bound edge.

We'll talk more about bias binding next time!

Sewing Against the Grain: Knowledge is Power

Thermoweb.com

When most of us start to quilt we usually start with projects that look pretty easy. Square pieces, simple straight lines. So why is it that we're sewing along and all of a sudden the seams we pinned don't match and one side is a lot longer than the other.

We think of fabric as being square. That's not really true. Fabric is thread woven. Those threads can and do shift within the fabric. Fabric is only square if we cut it square. And that can change when we pick it up and move it.

Illustration Janet Wickell

The secret is in the weave. The long threads of your fabric going down the length of your cloth  (the weft) are tightly stretched in the weaving. The threads that go back and forth between the edges of your cloth ( the weave) is placed between the stretched weft. They don't have the same tension on them so they are never as tight. What does that mean? The weave edge of your fabric is stretchier than the weft.

When we're cutting our fabric we think of straight of grain. Both weft and weave are straight grain. But they don't act the same way. The weft is much more likely to stretch. And it will stretch right under your sewing machine foot.

Is this a good thing?
A bad thing?
Nothing is good or bad if thinking makes it sew.

Back to our seam. It makes sense if you sew a weft cut piece to a warp cut piece that one will stretch more. Here's some strategies that help us work around that.

• Pin everything well. It will move some. We just want it to move less.

Janet Wickell About Quilting 

• Cut cleanly. Clean rotary cut fabric is  is always easier to sew because it's more accurate. It's impossible to sew torn fabric evenly because the edge stretches in the tear.

• Consider sewing strips and cutting them in segments for construction. It's much more accurate.
• 
  
• Even up squares before you stitch them together. You're seams aren't completely even in the block? A swift round of rotary cutting each block to exactly the right size can save you a lot of trouble later.

  

  Amanda Herring The Quilted Fish

• 
  
• Sew long strips together from the same side. I know it's awkward. But your strips will stretch the same way and iron much better.
• 
  
• Use a sewing machine foot that helps you keep your seams even.  A  consistant 1/8 inch discrepancy in a nine patch makes for blocks that can be 3/4" different in size. Accuracy does count.

  

  Faith Jones of Fresh Lemons Quilts

• 
  
• If you have one side of a piece your piecing that is longer, you can put that on the bottom. The top will stretch and the bottom will not.
• 
  
• Finally figure out how much accuracy matters to you. You are the only judge here. If you're happy with your results, no one else gets a say about that. My grandmother's quilt seams didn't match either. I'm upholding a fine tradition.

Janet Wickell has a great article fabric grain  at  quilting.about.com.

Faith Jones also has a great article for making seams match on Quilting Gallery. 

Next time we'll talk about the exception to all of this, bias.

Fussy Cutting for Pieced Quilts:

 Fussy cutting for piecing has to always take the seam measurement into account. You want to look at the pieces put together with the seam allowances in the piece but somehow subtracted from your design.



The hexagon  pieces here are  carefully cut with the rose center, and the leaves and petals going around. It isn't exactly how the fabric was printed, but it holds the image of the rose beautifully.

What should your seam allowance be? It can be anything you like as long as you're consistent. Mary Ellen Hopkins called it your Personal Private Measurement. For many of us, our foot width  from the edge is a good choice. 1/4" is standard, but not necessary. What is important is that you know where it is on your ruler, and you stick with it.

The same print can give you many choices for your blocks. It's all in where you place the design elements.

http://suedaleydesigns.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/02/so-what-is-this.html

For more complicated pieced fussy cutting, some people use mirrors to see what their design will actually look like.

Wise choices and a consistent seam allowance let you put your prints right where they shine.

Next time we'll talk about fussy cutting for applique.

  

Novelty Prints: Picking Prints for Fussy Cutting

Fussy cutting is ALL about the fabric.It's picking the exactly right print for a quilt and then picking out exactly the right image in the fabric for the piece. And it's always dramatic.

The simplest fabric for fussy cutting has already been designed for the purpose. There are fabulous panel prints that are just made to cut apart and put in a quilt square. 
Some fabrics require a little more thought.

Love this Dick and Jane panel. But say, it's a bit large. Cropping it is easy. Focus on the part of the print that matters most to you. You'll lose something but it makes the print more important in the quilt.

Fussy cutting for piecing usually involves placing the fabric in a square or rectangle. Your print may or may not be the size square you need. You can use borders to plump it out a bit. If you need it smaller, then cut judiciously. 

 
Sometimes a print will offer you several great choices for a mixture of blocks.

Some prints are more random and you'll need to turn and twist to get the look you want.

Your clear plastic ruler is a real help for this. It allows you to center in on just the part you want and figure your seam allowance. Does it matter if you have extra bits of the print around the edge? Actually, no. Your eye will pretty much ignore the periphery and focus on the center.

You may find a print is too small for your block. Not to worry. Add a border or two and you're good to go.

Take your novelty print over to your cutting board, tart looking at it through your ruler and you'll see it in a totally different way.

Great Strip Quilts from Painted Panels

We love this new kind of print. They're not really panels, but they do feel like a panel. They're a yard long repeat of a painted image. But how do you make them into a quilt?

Here's a great idea.

If you cut them into strips and separate them with another fabric it looks like light shimmering through.  

Simple. Stunning.
This quilt was made with different width strips, but you could use the same width for a realistic look. The changes in size make a more contemporary feel.
There are all kinds of these painted panel quilts available. Imagine what you could do with these?

And, it's the easiest quilt you'll ever piece. Come into Threadbenders and see the great painted panels that could be your next masterpiece.