- Hello, I'm Stephanie Soebbing from Quilt Addicts Anonymous. And today I'm gonna talk
about 10 things that I do all the time that the quilt police hate. And, yes, this is (indistinct) video, but you know what? It's also to show you that
there are more than one right ways to do something in quilting, and as long as you have a
good reason for doing it, and you're getting the
results you want, you're fine. You don't have to listen to them. You do what works for you. All right, so we're gonna
start with number one. I do not pre-wash my fabric. I used to do this all the
time when I was a new quilter, I would get everything home. I would wash it, I would iron
it, I would fold it pretty, I would put it away, but it just didn't have that, like, fresh off the
bolt crispness anymore. And it just never looked as fabulous. And I kind of had trouble, like, getting it sometimes
to fit the way I wanted to because all those starches and things that were in the process
of creating the fabric they're gone, they got washed away. And so that's one reason
why I don't do it, but the biggest reason is
I just don't have time. Like a lot of times we're cutting stuff straight off the bolt. And then I am immediately making a quilt in three or four days. So that way it can be done and
shared with all of you guys. And I just don't have time
to take a couple hours to then go wash everything, wait for it to go through that
cycle, dry it, iron it all. I just don't have time
for that in my life. And if that's you and you
also just hate doing laundry, 'cause I hate doing laundry. I have, like, seven loads
of laundry every single week just from my clothes and my kids' clothes. And that's enough, that is enough. I do not need to add my latest
quilt shop fabric purchases to that, too, and it's fine, so you can totally skip that step. Now I will say if you have a fabric that you're not so sure about, maybe you don't know where it came from. You're not sure that it was purchased at quilt shop quality fabric, and it's like a really
deep black or blue or red. Go ahead and give that
a pre-wash it's okay. Better safe than sorry on those things, but I will tell you, I have not had any problems
with colors bleeding as long as I was using
quilt shop quality cotton, and when in doubt throw
some Synthrapol in there, or some color catchers,
and you will be okay, so I've not had any issues. It all kind of shrinks
uniformly when it's all done, and gives you that crinkled look, which is always fun in a quilt, but you have my permission. You don't have to pre-wash your fabric. Number two thing that I do
that the quilt police hate, that is I do not starch my fabric. I came across an episode
of "The Quilting Hour" with Lee Chappell Monroe, and there were two very famous, very well-known quilting
professionals on there who were going into great detail on all that they do to
starch their fabric. And it involved, like, putting it in, like, gallon sized containers of starch, and leaving it in the
refrigerator overnight, and then finally taking it out, and drying it and pressing it, or like a lot of people will use the Mary Ellen's Best Press,
and go over everything. And I just, it's back to that time issue. I don't have the time to do that. And because I'm using most of my stuff straight off the bolt, it has a lot of that stuff in
it already to make the fabric nice and crisp when you're purchasing it straight off the bolt in the store. So it's not super necessary to do if you are not also pre-washing
your fabric like I do. You can totally skip that step, especially if you're like me, and you do not have time for
things like that in your life. I do not have time to have fabric sit in a gallon jug overnight of starch, it's just not gonna happen. There's no way in my life that anything like that would happen. And even just taking the time to starch, and spray everything. Most of the time I'm literally
cutting a fat quarter off of the bolt, and then
immediately cutting into it. There is not time for that
kind of thing in my life. Now, occasionally, if
it's been folded first, I'm gonna spray it down with
some water and press it flat, but I usually skip the
starch because, again, that's another thing I have
to go buy and have on hand. And I just don't have
time in my life for that. All right, number three thing that I do that the quilt police hate. I'm gonna get hate on this. I press, like, 99.9% of my seams open. And people flip out about this. They think that the seam isn't as strong. They think that batting is gonna poke out through the center. You think it's eventually
gonna come apart. None of that has ever happened. I've got almost probably
more than at this point, 100 quilts behind me, almost all of them have had
their seams pressed open. I've not had a single issue with it. I do reduce my stitch length
down to 2.0 from the 2.5 that's, like, your
standard, but that's it. That is the only thing that I do. And the reason why I do it is I get really flat straight seams, that I'm not able to get
when I'm pressing it over. The blocks stay truer to size, so you don't have that
little hump of fabric that's created when you
press the seams over, and you would think it
doesn't take up that much, but it does, it absolutely does. If you've ever strip pieced,
like, two strips together, and you press it under you'll notice that, like, one side is just,
like, slightly smaller, and you think, what did I do? I messed something up. You didn't do anything. The fabric just took up a
teeny little bit of space when it got folded over and
now it's shorter on that side. And especially if you have a block with a lot of seams in it
that's really challenging. And it also makes really bulky joints, especially if you have a lot of points that you're working with, and that causes problems both when you're sewing
your block together to have it look nice. And then also when you're quilting, if you wanna get right in that, you're gonna chance breaking a needle. And that just doesn't happen when you press your seams
open, they stay super flat. You get really precise points because everything is
nice and tidy underneath. Like a lot of times when I
would press my seams under my point was correct, it
was absolutely correct, but by the time you had
that little bit of fabric, take it over when you press it, all of a sudden that point
didn't look right anymore. You just don't get that when
you're pressing seams open, and pretty much every millennial, and professional quilter that I know presses their seams
open, almost all of us. And I think, like, maybe
at one point in time when we were all being
taught to press seams under, there was maybe a reason
why you didn't do that. Maybe the batting wasn't
as good as it is today, or the sewing machines aren't
as good as they are today. So maybe in history, there's
a reason why we did that, but you just don't need to do it anymore. And I get way, way better results, both in the piecing and the quilting when I press my seams open. The number four thing that
I do that quilt police hate is that I stitch in the ditch
with my seams pressed open, and technically stitching in the ditch is always stitching next to the ditch because like a traditional sense, you have your seam and
it's been folded over, and you're gonna be stitching in, like, the low side of that seam. So you're not in the seam. You're next to the seam anyway. And that's all you're doing when you're quilting
with your seams open too, you're gonna stitch
right next to that seam. You can see that I have
stitched right next to the ditch on all of these, everything is fine. All these seams are pressed open, and look at how fantastic
all these points are. I would not be able to get that if I had pressed them
under, it would not happen. I would be losing points left and right. And I have done this time and again, and every single time it turns
out absolutely fantastic. Only once, once have I had an issue with a seam getting popped open, and it was because I had to pick back, and I had gone over
that a couple of times, and it was just too much stress. It probably would have
had issues with any, if it was pressed over too. And it's absolutely fantastic
and you totally can do it. You're not gonna break your threads. All right, thing number five that I do that the quilt police hate, and that's using Frixion gel pens. These are great for marking on quilts, both for, like, if you're
marking a half square triangle, and you need to mark your
center line to stitch down, to make two at a time password triangles, these are fabulous for that
because they go away with heat, but they're also great
for marking your quilt top when you're quilting, and people like to complain about these because they come back if it gets cold. It has to be really, really cold. Like you would need to
leave your quilt out in sub-zero temperatures
in the car all night long in order to see this
quilting line come back. And I'm gonna show you proof of that. I'm gonna show you a quilt that
traveled all over the place, got mailed all over the United States. And I marked all over the top of this when I was quilting it, not
a single line came back. So this is Dimensions. This was a block of the month
that we did several years ago using can Kinkame Shades from Clothworks. And I marked the center line of every single one of these triangles, so I knew where to turn, and not a single line has come back. And you can see here's a
close-up view it's gone. And this quilt went all
over the United States. It traveled the country for a year. It would have been in
planes and cargo holds. It would have been on unheated trucks, shipped and just cold, cold, very cold. Everything's fine. There is not a single mark on here. Everything is absolutely fantastic. So you have my permission. You can absolutely use
the Frixion gel pens, and you do not have to
worry about the coming back. And if they ever were to come back, all you have to do is put an
iron to it and it will go away. So you do not need to worry about your grandkid throwing it out because it ended up with
all these marks on it. You just tell them, hey,
I used one of these. If you ever see a mark come back on it, just put a little heat on it, and it'll be fine it'll go away. That's it, that's all
you gotta do it's fine. Quit poo-pooing these, quilt
police, they're awesome. Thing number six, we're at six that I do that the quilt police hate, and that's that I do not save every scrap. I know gasp, horror, everyone wants to know
how I save all my scraps. The answer is if it is
smaller than a fat quarter, I don't want it. Especially if I've already made
a quilt out of it, I'm done. I've had my experience. I've very much enjoyed that fabric. I have a finished thing. I do not need to save the extras, but don't worry I don't
throw them all out. What happens is we have
this bin of extras, and this is a combination of things that are smaller than a fat quarter, or smaller than a quarter yard cut that we wouldn't sell as a remnant, as well as extras from quilts. This is an extra from a quilt. This is a cutoff from the
quilt I'm working on right now. We had a little bit extra when I was cutting for my strip piecing. I don't need to have those, but there are members of my team who very much enjoy working
with small little things. So they pick through this, and they use it for whatever they want, and whatever doesn't get used
gets donated to a good cause. Currently this basket next
week is going to go to an organization at my local quilt guild that makes doll quilts for
preschoolers in our area to get as Christmas gifts. It's a great organization,
great to send some fabrics to, but you know what? I don't need this in my life. I don't need this tiny
little cutoff thing. I know somebody will appreciate
it, it's just not me. So someone else can have it
and have some fun with it. So don't feel like you have
to save every scrap either. I guarantee there are organizations, or people you know in your quilting circle who would love to have a basket like this to make something pretty out of. Thing number seven that I do that's gonna piss off the quilt police. I do not believe that
every fabric is pretty if you cut it off small enough. I believe that there exists
in this world ugly fabric, and my ugly might be somebody
else's this is so beautiful. I cannot wait to use
it in my next project. So ugly is totally relative, but to me there are fabrics
that I would not use unless I was absolutely
dire and desperate. And we all have those in our own stashes where we look at it we're like, what in the hell was I
thinking when I bought that? We all have those and it's okay. You don't have to cut it
up teeny-tiny and use it. You can just donate it, give it to somebody who
does enjoy those things. It's totally fine. My reps laugh at me because
when I am going through, and picking out fabric for the shop, I'm immediately, like,
nope, uh-uh, not us. And it's not a dig at anybody. It's not a dis on the designer
that created that fabric. It's just not my cup of tea. And it's not the cup of tea
of I think your guys' taste because I've been buying
fabric for four years now. I think I know what you guys
are gonna like, or not like. I'm usually pretty good
at picking something that you guys are going to enjoy. Every once in a while I have a dud, but for the most part, like, you have your things that you like, and you don't need to feel
like you have to use it because you bought it and you're wondering what the heck was I
thinking when I bought that? And you think if I just
cut it up small enough, it'll be fine. It's okay, just get rid of it. Give it to somebody else who
will love it and cherish it. You don't have to feel
like you need to use it. It's okay to call it ugly
and give it to somebody else. Thing number eight that I do that the quilt police are gonna hate. This one's really gonna ruffle feathers. I don't bury my threads. We have a video on how to do it. I have done it, I know
how, I choose not to, but what you do is when
you're quilting your quilt, and, like, say you've
broken a thread midway, or you changed sections, or you started in the middle
of block or something, you have tails of thread from your bobbin and your top bobbin. And you're going to bury that, and you hide it in between
the layers and the batting. And so that way, the idea is that it won't
unravel over time with use, and quilt judges really like it. If you're doing it in a show, you do need to do it in that case, but my quilts are for me, and they're for you guys
to be excited about. And burying threads takes a lot of time. And as we've already
gone over in this video, time is something I do
not have in abundance. So what I do is I will backstitch, or stitch in place a couple of times, and that is enough to
secure the threads together, and then I just snip it off. And you know what? There are some really
famous, very well-known, award-winning quilters
who do the same thing. If it is not gonna be for a show quilt, as long as you have that thread secured so it's not gonna
unravel on you over time, just skip it, go ahead and give it a trim. You don't have to spend your time burying all those threads, it's okay. We're two thing number nine that I do that the quilt police are not gonna like. And that's that I have no shame, and no guilt about starting a new project when I have a lot of UFOs
staring me in the face. I'm gonna do something that
you guys have not seen before. I'm gonna show you my UFO stack. We did a video of how I organize my UFOs. I keep them in scrapbooking bins. It's a ridiculous amount of UFOs. Someday I'm gonna tackle those when I do not have small children, and my life settles down somewhat, but now is not that time. And I've got them there and
they will get finished someday. It will happen, I will
get to almost all of them, but today is not that day. And if I have a shiny new object that I wanna make right here and now, because I love this fabric in this moment, I'm gonna make that thing, and I'm not gonna feel bad
about it, and it's okay. So you shouldn't either. All right, so for the 10th thing that I do that the quilt police will not like I had to pull my team and say, what should the 10th thing be? And they're like, you don't
use steam in your iron. I'm like, yes, that's correct. I hate steam in irons, hate
it for a couple reasons. One, I feel like it shortens
the life of your iron. And I use an Oliso iron,
those things are not cheap. They're, like, 160 bucks. I do not want its life to
be shortened at all ever. My last one lasted me,
like, five or six years. And every single iron that
I've ever put water into eventually spits and gets nasty gunk all over your white fabric
that you can't get off. And I don't want that. I don't need that in my life. So I don't put water in for that reason. And I also don't put steam in because I feel like it
distorts the fabric. If you are pressing and you
need a seam to be super flat, and have things not go wonky
on you, it is really easy, especially if you don't
know what you're doing to end up with a weird outta shape block because you used steam. So what I do instead because
I do like to use water in order to get things nice and flat is I use a spray mister instead. What this does is it turns the water into a fine aerosol mist, and so when I spray it on my seams, I don't get big water droplets. I just get enough moisture on
it to get a super flat press. Especially when I pair it
with my felt pressing mat, and it just works fantastic. And so I don't have to gunk up my iron, and it doesn't get so much on there that it stretches things outta place. So I feel like this is, like,
the best thing and I use it. It is, like, a critical tool that I own. So I use this instead of
steam and water in the iron. Well, I hope that that gives
you permission to do things a different way than you were taught because a lot of times we just
get it ingrained in our head that, like, we have to do it this way, because that's the way we were taught, and that's the way it's always been done. That doesn't mean that
that's the best way. It doesn't mean that it's the only way. It certainly does mean that
it's the best way for you. So there's more than one right way to do a thing in quilting. Usually there's more
than one, more than two. Sometimes there's three, four
right ways to do a thing. So as long as you are doing something that is giving you the
results that you want, and makes sense in your
brain then go for it. Do it your way. So you may be like,
Stephanie, I just can't. I can't press my seams open because maybe, like, when we
do our beginner quilting class, I teach people to press their seam over because I do think it's
easier to get those seams to lock in place when they're pressed over when you're a beginner. That's how I taught my daughter, but as she gets more skilled, I'm gonna teach her to
press those seams open, and how to pin it, but maybe you're not at that stage yet. Maybe you are not ready
to press those seams open, but when you are, I guarantee it's gonna
transform your quilting, and the way your piecing
looks, guaranteed, especially, if you have anything
with points or triangles, hands down, it's gonna look fantastic, if you press them open versus to the side, but just experiment. Do things a little differently, even if it's not the correct way. If it's a way and it works for you, do it, just do it, have fun. Don't worry about someone
wagging their finger at you, and the quilt police getting after you. So have fun that's the biggest thing. Have fun with your quilting. Let me know in the comments
below what things you do that are contrary to the
way you've been taught, but are absolutely, like, diehard I have to do this in my quilting in order to get good results. I wanna know, I wanna know what they are. Maybe we can do a part two with all of your guys' suggestions 'cause I was thinking I have more, like, I was thinking of more things as I was going through here, and maybe we could do a
part two with a few of mine, and a few of yours it could be really fun. So, anyway, enjoy that. We normally do a bunch of tutorials. We'd show you some new
fabric that we have, but make sure you check
all those goodies out over at our website,
shop.quiltaddictsanonymous.com. And in the meantime, happy quilting. And don't let the quilt
police get you down. (upbeat music)
