Do you find the process of measuring & cutting as boring as I do? I find I love sewing but cutting and measuring is interminably tedious.
Thanks to** Lynn Bodoni**, I managed to get out of it for my most recent project. I found these squares in Joanne’s - precut! And - I made a quilt! My first one. I just have to attach a backing.
Any ideas on shortening the cutting & measuring process? And of course any input at all on sewing anything is welcome and appreciated. 
Umm, yeah, precut squares are excellent for quilts… what else can you do with them?
I dunno - make individual little bags out of them for gifts? I thought of that, too, as I rarely use gift bags anymore. I just make little duffle-style bags with ribbins in them.
However, my point was I never noticed those squares! Or rather just thought “They are for quilts” and never thought about them further, just dismissed them from my mind.
I get bored doing any one thing for very long. So with quilting, I try to have projects in different stages. If I don’t feel like cutting, I can piece. If I don’t feel like piecing, I can quilt. If I don’t feel like doing any of it, I look through the books to get ideas for the next project.
I don’t think I’ve ever worked on one quilt all the way through without interrupting the process to work on something else. I get tired of looking at the same thing all the time.
Edited to add – I assume you’re using a rotary cutter and mat, and have a good assortment of rulers? Because if you’re using scissors and templates and having to mark all your cutting lines, that’d tire anyone out.
Hells YEAH get a rotary cutter if you haven’t got one.
I like the end of the measuring and cutting process. It means I’m half-done, at least.
Yeah, yeah! Zip through those stacks with a rotary cutter! Sew 'em together like signal flags! Strip [quilt]!
I don’t quilt, but do mostly garment sewing. And I hate, hate, hate cutting out the pattern pieces. Most of my mistakes don’t happen in the sewing process, but in the cutting process. There are many times when I wish I had two left arms, because at least then I could use all the extra left sleeves I have hanging around. If I could find a place that offered pre-cut fabric for historical costuming, I would leap at the chance of buying from them.
I much prefer draping things on my dummy in muslin. By the time I’m done, I have a pattern that fits and the lining all ready to go. I just need to cut out the fashion fabric, and get to skip that nasty paper pattern step.
Yeah. What Miss Purl said. Cutting out gives me minor heart failure, especially if the fabric is expensive. Stitches can be taken out. It’s much harder to fix ‘I cut this piece out so the nap runs the wrong way’.
I like draping, too, but I don’t usually use the muslin for lining. It’s generally got permanent marker all over.
I love my roller-cutter.
I see those rolly cutters on TV. Everyone who quilts touts them.
Not into sewing, but they look like the greatest thing since sliced bread. (Do they work well on curved lines?)
Rotary cutters. Hmm. How did I miss this wonderful thing? I will have to go look for it.
And no,m I don’t have a mat. Another thing I never thought of. I’ve only been sewing for about a year, so I can upgrade and buy me a few new things.
That’s exactly what I was looking for - some sort of genius device!
A rotary cutter, a great big Omnigrid ruler, and a great big self-healing mat make cutting out quilt pieces a joy. It is–I’m not kidding–my favorite part of making a quilt. Just loooove it. It’s so efficient and geometric, and you don’t yet have to face the fact that pieces don’t fit together, etc. It’s all about optimism and pretty fabric.
How long do the blades on those rolly cutters last? They look kind of neat but not if I’ve got to change out a blade as often as with an Xacto knife. Do they work on thicker stuff like wool felt, or pretty much only cotton?
I do all sorts off different stuff, but I usually am cutting mohair plush fabric (for teddy bears) so that has to be scissors so you don’t ruin the plush - that stuff is pricy ($65/yd is on the cheap end!)
I like tracing and cutting because it makes my working material into a smaller and more manageable pile. It is very pleasing to me, to toss out all the bitty little snips and scraps.
Oh, I have a tip. Pins are a huge pain in the butt - I hate pins. I always poke myself with them, and they fall out of my pieces. But dig this: Radio Shack has teensy little 1.25" long alligator clips that work great. I suppose garment makers will still need pins to tack stuff to their mannikins, but for most of my purposes, the alligator clips work a zillion times better. They’re in the little pull-out drawers at RS, in packs of 12 for like $2.75 or so.
The blades usually stay sharp for all of the cutting for a queen-size quilt… maybe a queen-size and a twin-size. I don’t know how they’d do on plush, but those puppies are sharp.
They work OK on curved lines if you get one with a small diameter. I think it’s 18 mm, while the “standard” cutter is 45 mm.
Anaamika, Jo-Ann and other craft/quilt stores usually sell a “get started” kit for quilting which includes the rotary cutter, mat and ruler. I’d recommend Fiskars or Olfa. It’s worth the investment although there may be a little sticker shock with Olfa.
Most quilt patterns call for you to cut the piece with the seam allowance included, so that’s where a good ruler, rotary cutter and mat come in. No marking or tracing required. The ruler is marked with 45 degree and 60 degree lines for angled pieces.
Most of the time I still trace a plastic template and cut the pieces out individually so I agree that that’s the boring part. I just slog through it and think of the fun piecing and quilting to come.
Oh, and you can also attach thin sandpaper or slightly rough stickers to the bottom of your rules so it doesn’t slide. Quilt stores will have them, perhaps even in clearer material so you can still see through it. Pay attention or the cutter can jump the ruler or veer away from it; be aware of where your other hand is at all times.
I find cutting and measuring nerve wracking. As Purl and Lissa said stitches come out but a botched cut is usually forever. Since I’m often working with some weird fabric I can’t get more of, I get very nervous.
Since I don’t have a machine, I find the actual sewing boring. It’s a pain in the tuchas knowing that what takes me an hour could be done in a minute if I had a sewing machine. I still haven’t started this year’s Halloween costume for that reason.
No way am I going to be exclusively quilting, however. Mostly I don’t quilt. My current projects are a skirt, some fun little things for V-Day, and an apron. So would the rotary cutter still be a good investment for me?
I think it’d be a good investment.
A rotary cutter is about $12 and replacement blades are $6. You can cut through three or four thicknesses of fabric with it. Assuming you’ll be cutting straight lines, it’ll save wear and tear on your hands. I think they’d be great for aprons.
Same with the ruler. When I started quilting, I bought a cheap flimsy 12-inch ruler and wondered why my long cuts weren’t straight. A heavy ruler, 6" x 24", made all the difference.
gigi, I need to put some sandpaper on mine.
I finally found a presser foot that helps me with quarter-inch seams. It has a black plastic guide on the edge that keeps the fabric in line. Much easier than my other foot, which had little guide marks. And it only cost $5!
I need to invest in that. I eyeball the mark on the regular foot and it rarely works out! I ignored all the extra feet in the machine until my mom came by and explained what some of them are. One flips the edge over for you as it sews! Whoa. I still haven’t done much besides straight seams though, either for piecing quilts or sewing on bindings.
A guest on Simply Quilts showed a machine that does the quilt binding. You just feed the fabric through, and it folds it and sews it on. How cool is that?