- Hello, and welcome to
Quilt Addicts Anonymous. I'm Stephanie Soebbing. Normally we bring you quilting tutorials and show you some of the newest arrivals for modern quilting fabric. But today we have a special video. I'm gonna share 15
things that I didn't know when I started quilting. I started quilting in 2007
after I graduated from college. I was very, very busy in college. I was the editor of our student newspaper. I always had some kind
of an internship going and I had a full class schedule
and a full social life, so I did not have any time. I was working constantly. And then when I just was
working 40 hours a week, I did not know what to do with myself. So I had a sewing machine that
my grandmother had gotten me when I was 14 or 15. I knew how to use it, kind of, and I had a book on how to quilt. So this was like, I think YouTube existed, but not in the capacity
that it does today. And so I didn't really
have videos to teach me. I would DVR on anything that said quilting once I figured out that
capability of how to do that. So I would watch a lot
of Love of Quilting. And so I would learn some stuff,
but not always the basics, 'cause they were more geared towards like people who had been
doing it a little while. And then I had an aunt who quilted, but she didn't live near me. She lived three hours away. So I figured out a lot of things on my own and it took a while and
I made a lot of mistakes. So we're gonna talk about
what some of those are today. So that way if you two
are kind of learning without any like in person resources, you can maybe figure out some
of the things you're like, "Oh, that's why I can't
get that thing to work," because I definitely had
a lot of those moments. Eventually, like two
years in, I discovered we had a very active local
quilting guild near us. And I discovered that there
were local quilting shops where I could purchase
fabric instead of just going to Joanne's and Hobby
Lobby and Hancock Fabrics at the time, which is great,
you can get some stuff, but the longevity of
the fabric you get there isn't as good as what you
get from a quilt shop. And also there aren't as many
people who are able to help you troubleshoot what
it is that's going on. So we're gonna go over those 15 things. I hope you really enjoy them and it should be a good time, hopefully. So laugh at my mistakes. I've also brought in like
one of the very first large quilts I ever made. And this quilt, I gave it to my husband when we were engaged to be married. So that is now 14 years ago. And it is the worst example
of quilting that I have still 'cause I gave away a
lot of those first ones. But this quilt is used
every single day by him, 14 years later. So that just goes to show
you that even if your quilt is not perfect and it's
not gonna win a blue ribbon at a quilt show, that doesn't mean that it's not going to
be loved and cherished because this one certainly is even though it is a hot
mess by my standards today. So it's okay if you're on the
journey and you're learning, your quilts are still going
to be loved and adored even if they're not
gonna win a blue ribbon. All right, so the first
thing that I didn't know when I started quilting is
that not all presser feet are quarter inch presser feet. We actually have an
entire video about this in our beginner quilting
series that shows you how to find a quarter inch seam, because I didn't realize
that the standard foot that comes with your
machine is meant to be for dress making, which is
often a 3/8 or 5/8 inch seam. So for a good year and a
half, when I started sewing, I would follow the instructions
in my book and line the fabric up exactly with
the edge of my presser foot. And then I would always
have a very perfect 3/8 inch seam and I didn't realize why. So that was a great
revelation when I finally took my first in person quilting class and I'll never forget,
her name is Donna Layman. She came over and she took one
look at my machine and goes, "That's not a quarter inch foot." And then she showed me how to tape it off. And like the very next
week I showed up at class with an entire quilt up
finished with triangle points. Absolutely gosh darn perfect. And I was like, "This has changed my life. It has literally changed my life." And I didn't know at the
time how much it would change my life because this is
what I do for a living now. And it has changed the lives
of my entire team as well. So thank you Donna Layman for showing me that a 3/8 inch foot is, or the dress maker foot is
not a quarter inch foot. So the second thing I didn't know when I started quilting was
what a walking foot was. This is a walking foot. It came with my machine. I thought it was the craziest
looking contraption ever, and that it would never be needed for anything that I needed to sew. And what it does is it's got a second set of feed dogs on top here. So that way, when you are quilting, so you use this when you're binding or when you are quilting straight line or waving line quilting on
your home sewing machine, what this does is when
this goes up and down, it also moves your feed dogs on top. So it moves all three layers
of your quilt together at an even pace so that
there's not bunching. And it's a lot easier on your back. And everything just goes a lot better. This entire queen sized
quilt with flannel backing I quilted straight down every
single one of these seams, with is my regular pressor foot, because I didn't know any better. And you can see, because I
didn't use my walking foot, this fabric has just
pulled this way over time because it all got stretched that way. So this is a must have
if you're gonna quilt on your home sewing machine or also if you're attaching binding to the edges. The third thing that I didn't
know when I started quilting is that pressing, when you
are working with your fabric, is incredibly important because
it does a lot of things. It helps your thread lay
nicely with your fabric pieces once you've sewn them
together, helps with longevity and the way you press helps impact the final look of your quilt. When I first started quilting, I pressed all my seams to the side because that's what we were told to do. And that's what the book said to do. And I would always press it under the dark side of that fabric
so that way it would be hidden and you wouldn't have a shadow. And that's how it was explained to me, that's what I did every single time. But as I started doing more
quilting of my own quilts on the long arm, I realized
that if I press my seams open, that I not only got better results, especially when you're joining points, but I also was able to
open out the possibilities of quilting significantly. And I was able to get
right into those corners without busting needles and popping fuses once I started pressing seams open. So if you take our beginner course, I do show you to press your seams to side, because I think when you get started, that is easier to help nest your seams. But as you get more comfortable with it, definitely experiment with
pressing your seams open because you're gonna get a
lot better results over time. I go over pressing in
every single video tutorial that we do, so pay attention to that and get the best iron you can afford. I press with an Oliso
'cause it gets super hot and really makes for really flat seams. And then I also use a wool pressing mat. We don't sell either of those things. And then I also use a spray
mister when I am pressing instead of water and my
iron 'cause I don't wanna get my iron gross and we
do sell the spray misters. So the fourth thing I didn't know when I started quilting was
what all the threads were for and why you needed so
many different varieties. So when you start sewing, if you go into like a
Joanne's or something, there will be so many
thread options, it is crazy. And you really need to make sure that you are not just going for
the color that works, you need to make sure that you're getting the right application for it. So when I first started
quilting, I used this a lot. It is a cotton thread. You get it at Joanne's. I think I got it 'cause
it was meant for quilting, it's 100% cotton. So you do wanna make sure
that you're using 100% cotton when you are piecing your quilt, but it's super super linty. If you have a lot of lint, then that means you have to service
your machine more often. And that's not an inexpensive thing to do. Our fill, this is not linty at all. This is all I use now. And we do have this available. Other things that you
might see, Coats and Clark, I found to be really linty. Dual Duty I also found to be really linty. This is a silk thread. I use this for hand
stitching applique only. This is like a metallic thread. You would not want to be
using that for piecing. Some of the silkies that you'll see are primarily for garments. And sometimes they're just
for machine embroidery. So they're not strong enough to actually hold stuff together. It's just meant to look
pretty on top of a fabric. Of course we have jeans thread, this is home decor thread,
and this is the thread that I use when I am
quilting in my long arm. I get glide and my machine likes that so that's what I use exclusively. And I do use a polyester for that mostly because I like to
sometimes go kind of dense with my quilting and this you can build up on in a way that
you can't with cotton. So just as you're looking,
you wanna make sure that you understand what the
purpose of that thread is and that it is accurate to what you are actually going to be
sewing and working on, but you cannot go wrong
with our fill thread. Once you start using this, you're probably never gonna
wanna use another thread for piecing because it is just fantastic. The number five thing that
I didn't know when I started quilting was that you need to change your rotary cutter blade a
lot more often than you think. People just use them
forever and ever and ever. And if you are like having
to put a lot of elbow grease in it, then it's been time. It was time a long time
ago to switch that. When you go through that, it should feel like you are cutting through butter. It should be nice and easy and it should just go straight across. Here at Quilt Addicts Anonymous,
we used to have to cut our Stashin' with Stephanie
Subscription club by hand. We would typically go
through about eight bolts in a four hour shift and
we would change our blades out at the beginning of the
next shift because it needed it. So if you're cutting
a quilt and you've cut your whole quilt, you've
trimmed everything on it and you're ready to go onto the next one, it's time to get a new blade. If you're feeling like,
"Okay, I'm really kind of having to push on this,"
and you're feeling it in your wrist and you're
feeling it in your shoulder, change that blade out. I know they feel like
they're really expensive, but wouldn't you rather feel
good and not have a sore body and be able to enjoy your
craft and it then spend another couple dollars to replace
to replace your blade? So just swap out that blade. I guarantee probably everybody
needs to do it right now. If it's been more than like
a day since you've done it, just go do it, it's okay. Just change that blade. The sixth thing I didn't
know when I started quilting was what a quilt sandwich was. I distinctly remember, and
this person is now my friend, going into Joanne's to get
batting for my very first quilt and asking for it, and the
girl looks at me and goes, "Oh, you're ready to
make a quilt sandwich?" And I just nodded and I
thought, "This woman is insane. She is nuts. She has lost her damn mind." And I did not realize that
making a quilt sandwich means you are putting your backing fabric with the wrong side up and then you're layering your batting on top. And then you put your
quilt top on top of that. And then you're going
to secure that together with safety pins until
you're ready to quilt it. And basically your fabric is the bread. And then your batting is the meat. And that's what a quilt sandwich is. So if you hear that term and you're like, "This woman's lost her
mind," they have not. It's just a term you haven't heard yet. So making the quilt sandwich
is a very exciting part because it means you're
almost done with your quilt. Number seven comes from our shipper. This is something that I
actually knew when I made my first quilt, but there are
plenty of people who don't, so we're gonna cover it. So while you can use straight pins, like the same ones that
you are pinning your pieces together with when you base your quilt, you want to get safety pins. You want these curved
ones, 'cause then you can like dig down and pull it up
and then clamp it in place. And then you're not gonna stab yourself because we do not wanna
be stabbing ourselves. 'Cause when you are quilting, you're going all over the place and it's in
your lap and it's on your arm and you will just be bleeding everywhere all over your quilt if you
have the straight pins. The straight pins are bad. So grab these and you need
way more than you think. I think they come at
like 60 or 75 in a pack. You need like 500, because
you will have a quilt that's in progress and you won't wanna have to take all the pins
out to start another one. And then you just won't
know where you put the bin. I had mine in like a
rice pudding container from Jewel forever, and
then I could not find the stupid thing and then I
would have to go buy more pins. So as many of these as you can get and the bigger, the better. This one is an inch and a half wide. That's perfect. That is the absolute perfect size. Get as many of those as you can grab. So the number nine thing I didn't realize when I started quilting,
this is a really funny one. I got a good story for it. So when I was putting
binding on my first quilt, I was at our family cabin
and my aunt was there, who is a quilter. So I'm trying to put this binding on. And first of all, it hasn't told me that I need to fold my
binding over hotdog style, keeping my edges together to
create two layers of binding that are gonna then be sewn
to the edge of my quilt. And it also says, "Sew
it to the quilt top." So I'm sitting here thinking, "Okay, I have to sew it to the top only." How do you do that? Because I'm a very little person. So I think, okay, I had to
figure out how to peel back my batting and my backing
layers and just sew this to the top only. So I'm like awkwardly
trying to make this happen. And my aunt comes in and she's
like, "What are you doing?" And I'm like, "Well it
said to sew it to the top." And I've only got one layer
that I'm trying to sew the top and everything else is awkwardly
pushed back to the side and she goes, "No, you sew
it through all three layers of it all at one time." And I'm just like, "Why
would they not say this? Like in the instructions. So if you read my quilt
instructions in my quilting books, it says to line it up with
the edge of your quilt top and then sew through all three layers because I know there's somebody
else out there like me, who's gonna be like,
"How do I turn all this and make this happen?" That binding was a hot damn
mess on that first quilt, but it was cherished by a little
baby, so it's totally fine. But learn from my mistakes. When you put that binding on,
first you're gonna fold it over hotdog style. So you're gonna go through
two layers of binding and then you're also gonna sew through your quilt top, your batting,
and your backing fabric. And we have a full video
tutorial on how to do this from start to finish
if you need some help. So the number nine thing I didn't know when I started quilting
that there's something called a quilter's knot. We have a video tutorial that
shows you how to do this. Essentially, you're
able to wrap the threads around a needle a few times
and pull it across the thread. So that way you create
this nice little neat knot at the end of the thread, and you are gonna bury that
in between your batting layer. So you're gonna stick it
through the backing fabric and then you're gonna pop the knot through so that way it's concealed. Now I did not know that this existed when I started quilting, but essentially you wanna use that anytime you start or stop quilting
because it just gets hidden and it feels really nice
on the back as opposed to a bunch of fat knots
on the back like this one. You can see I started quilting and I also ended quilting here and there are probably
hundreds of these knots all over the back of this quilt. So learn from my mistake on that one. The number 10 thing I didn't
know when I started quilting is that strip piecing will save you thousands of hours on quilting. I designed this quilt
and I didn't know that that was supposed to be hard at the time, but I designed it on graph paper and I cut and sewed together every single one of these
squares individually. This is a queen size quilt. It's a queen size quilt. And I didn't strip piece a
thing because I didn't know that you could and that
it would make your life a lot easier. So strip piece whenever you can. We try to do that for our patterns. So that way you guys can enjoy it and have more things be done. We have an entire video on that as well, strip piece as much as you can. All right, the number 11
thing that I didn't know when I started quilting is
that there is a difference, besides how much it costs, in the fabric that you are gonna purchase
from a big box store versus what you're gonna get
at a independent quilt store like us, Quilt Addicts Anonymous, or one that you might
visit in your hometown. You're gonna have greater longevity and better wear over time
in anything that you buy from an independently owned quilt shop, but also you are gonna
have a lot better feel. Once you feel the difference,
and you understand the difference when you sew with it, that is when you are just
like, you just don't go back. I have so many of those
stories where like one time I was teaching essentially,
a triangle master class at my local quilting guild. This woman could not
get her triangle points. It just kept stretching out on her when she was pressing things open. It's because she was using
big box store fabric. Now I totally understand that some people, that's just not in their budget
to spend a little bit more. And that's why when we have
our beginner quilting course, when you download that pattern, we send you a coupon
for 20% off a quilt kit, because we want you to
understand that difference from the start. And you also can check out our Stashin' with Stephanie
Subscription club. We give you a discount
on the bundle each month, and then also our members get to save on getting an additional
fabric to go with that. So that's another great
way to be able to quilt with the good stuff,
but have be a little bit more budget friendly. If you've been hesitant to just
order a fat quarter bundle, see how it goes. I guarantee you are going to
notice and feel a difference and over time, you'll notice
how that wears as well. It'll be so much better. The number 12 thing that I didn't know when I started quilting is
that there is a wide variety of quilting fabric styles out there. I made a lot of quilts
early on that were not me. And I gave a lot of those away
just because they were cool. Like I enjoyed the process of making them, but it wasn't anything that I
would actually want in my home as a 20 something when
I was starting to quilt. And then I took this trip to
go interview Kaffe Fassett. And it was the first time
I'd ever been exposed to Kaffe Fassett fabric. And it was just eye-opening to
me to see all of the bright, bold, modern, and like
hot pink as a neutral. And then I visited some of
the shops around the area where I came back with all this fabric, and then not long after that, I ended up going to my first quilt market and seeing everything that
was available out there. It's out there. I guarantee it's out there. There are things to fit every single body and everything that you like. I guarantee somebody has
made a fabric for that and you can find it. And if modern is your style,
then we're your source. We get almost every
modern line that comes out and you guys can have at it
and have some fun with that. The number 13 thing that
I didn't know when I got started quilting is sometimes
you are not the problem, your sewing machine is. We have an entire sewing machine video about what you want to look
for when you're purchasing your first machine, but
essentially, you want to probably be spending at least $500. And that will give you a machine where you're not gonna
be fighting with it. So if your machine is often
having a bunch of thread nets eating your fabric, or
you're constantly struggling with tension issues, even
though you're certain you have that set correctly, that is probably a
problem with your machine. It probably is just not capable of doing what you are asking it to do, because it is not, either
it needs to be serviced if it is a good machine
or it just is meant to be a throwaway machine. Like you use it until it
breaks and you toss it. And that's what most of those
big box store machines are. Brother, Baby Lock, Bernette,
Janome, Husqvarna Viking, once you get to that $500 level and above, you are gonna have a good
machine that's gonna service you. So those are really good brands. They're really well known. The other thing you wanna
do is make sure you get one that you can purchase locally, because you're gonna
have local support on how to use the machines or when
it's time to get it cleaned and serviced, because you should do that every six months to a year, they're gonna be able to
help you out with that. Here's the number 14
thing that I did not know when I got started quilting. So there's this term
called the quilt police. We've got a video on 10 things that I do that the quilt police hate. So there's a difference, like
if you get your quilt judged, or if you go to somebody
who you respect as a quilter and say, "How can I make this better?" Then to have constructive
criticism given to you at that point, that's good. If you show somebody
something and you show it off at show and tell, and it is
the best thing you have made to date, and you are so proud of it, and the first thing somebody does is like, "Well, those points don't really match. Why did you mix boutique and print? Why did you, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah?" cut them off, no contact with them. They do not need to be
in your quilting circle. They have nothing but
negativity to share to you. Learn the difference and go to
the people who are gonna say, "Oh my gosh, that is amazing. You've only been quilting for a year? That is fantastic,"
because you're excited. You did a great job. You deserve praise so that
you can have the encouragement to keep going and keep getting better. So learn the difference, stick
with the encouraging people who are gonna support you and help you rather than tear you down. That's good advice just
in life in general, but quilting, especially. We're to the 15th and final
thing that I didn't know when I started quilting. And I think it's the best
thing that I didn't know it. I didn't know that quilt
design was supposed to be hard. So I think it was great
that I didn't know that and I just did it and I just went for it because that has pretty much
led me to where I'm at today. So if you have someone who's like, "Maybe you shouldn't try that. Maybe you shouldn't do that yet." It doesn't matter. Just do it anyway. Like I caught myself doing this my myself, my daughter made her first quilt and she was seven at the time. And I let her long arm it, which was scary because my long arm cost
as much as my used minivan. And so it felt very much
like I was giving the keys to the car to a seven year old. And so we had a couple of conversations and then she would try different things. She would try something
new with each pass. And then she wanted to do
unicorn horns with squirrels. And I'm like, "This is not gonna happen." And she just did it. She just did it. And is it gonna win an award? Hell no. But is it amazing that she did it? And is she like so
excited about that quilt? And does she sleep with it every night? Yeah, yes she does. And so that's what you need as a quilter. You don't need to be told,
"You can't do that yet. You're not ready." Just do it. Well, I hope you have enjoyed listening to the 15 things that I didn't know when I started quilting. And I hope that this maybe helps answer some questions for you. If you're like me and you don't know that not all pressor feet are
a quarter inch press feet, that's a pretty important thing to know. And I feel like it's a
really easy thing to screw up if you don't have someone
there guiding you. So if that helped you and that
helped change your quilting, awesome, I'd love to hear about it. But if this also just gives you permission to go do the thing, go design a quilt. Even if you've been quilting
for five minutes, that's fine. Go do it, have some fun. And we always wanna be encouraging here at Quilt Addicts Anonymous. We want to celebrate you no matter where you're at in your quilting journey. And we wanna help teach you to get better. We want to be that encouraging
friend who celebrates you and encourages you to
do more and do better. So make sure you subscribe,
like our channel. And then you can get all
of our quilting tutorials. We've got lots of series. We have a beginner quilting series. We have a triangle
masterclass that teaches you all the things about triangles. And we have a pattern to go with it. We have an intro to free
motion quilting series that you guys can check out. We've got lots of things
to really just teach you all that you need to know about a thing so that you can go forth
into the quilting world and improve and celebrate
what you've accomplished and have a lot of fun with it. So I hope you've enjoyed this
video, like and comment below. Tell me some of the things
that you didn't know when you started quilting. I would love to hear them. Maybe we'll do a compilation
video later that has some of your things that you
didn't know when you started. All right, until next
time, happy quilting. (upbeat quirky music)
