tips & tricks tuesdays: nati @ nati's little things! and, organizing stitches.

9:00:00 PM

Hi all, and welcome to Tips and Tricks Tuesdays: What would MacGyver do?

Tips & Tricks Tuesdays at Sew at Home Mummy
Today is a very special Tips & Tricks indeed - Nati over at Nati's Little Things is hosting!


Head on over to her blog to see what kind of shenanigans she's up to, and make sure to link your tip or trick up to party with her! If you don't have a tip, trick or tutorial to link up, make sure to leave her a lovely comment.

Today I have a quick quilting tip to link up with Nati.

I am blessed enough to have a machine that has quite a few stitches to choose from. Often, when I'm trying to decide which stitch to use when I'm about to quilt, I spend oodles of time trying out multiple types, lengths, widths, tensions, etc.

I spent the day yesterday starting a stitch "reference" or "encyclopedia" for myself.

SUPPLIES:
3-ring binder 
some clear plastic sleeves
scrap solid fabric & batting pieces, just smaller than 8.5" x 11"
contrasting thread
fabric marker or sharpie

  1. layer and pin-baste your fabrics and batting pieces.
  2. start playing! test each stitch at different lengths, widths, tensions, and make note of such right above your stitching lines, like this:
(d'oh! I didn't use contrasting thread for this piece - sorry!!)

This creates an easy reference book for myself so that maybe, just maybe! I'll be able to decide what stitch to use the next time I'm quilting something and what a stitch other than a straight-stitch or FMQ. 

It didn't take that long to do, either - about 90 minutes to go through all of my stitches & combos therein, and make notes. 

Once that was done, I put them all in plastic sleeves and into a 3-ring binder, like this:

Hopefully this tip helps someone out there!

Now! Head over to Nati's blog to see what she's up to, and make sure to leave her a nice comment :)

You Might Also Like

3 comments

  1. Wellllllll I have an inexpensive machine that does about 6 stitches and in 39 years I have only used 3, lol! But I can understand need for such a book. I have a mini version with Hand embroidered stitches with various weights and numbers of strands of threads, varying the number of wraps etc in French knots etc. I find it very handy. My mom has a machine that cost as much as my vehicle and does everything but the dishes, but she's started a book like yours too!! Very good tips today!! Hope others will start one like yours too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such a great tip! I've had this idea forever... think I need to turn it into a goal to get it done... thanks for the nudge~

    ReplyDelete
  3. Smart, I have a new machine and I am going to take the time to do this

    ReplyDelete

I ♥ to hear from you!

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment or for asking me a question. Rather email me? Reach out at sewathomemummy@gmail.com.

I like to email everyone back when they've commented - so if you're a no-reply blogger, make sure to leave your email address in your comment so I can share the love back atcha!