Pros and Cons of Quilt Kits

Do you buy quilt kits? Many quilters absolutely love picking up kits, while others don’t like them at all. There are advantages and disadvantages to quilt kits, so let’s explore these.

PROS:

1.     KITS CAN HELP WITH FABRIC SELECTION AND COLOUR CHOICE

If you’re a beginner quilter, you may not have much confidence in putting fabrics together. You may just be starting to develop your colour sense and kits can help you with this. All of the fabrics are already chosen for you and you can be sure that they will all work well together. Fabrics selected for a kit can help you learn how to put various colours and fabrics together effectively.

2.     KITS CAN SAVE YOU MONEY

If you are working on a pattern that requires a lot of different fabrics, but only a small amount of each of them, kits can be a real money-saver. Take a look at any patterns by McKenna Ryan or Toni Whitney and you will see that there are a lot of fabrics needed to make any of their projects. Yes, you could buy all of the different fabrics, but it would probably cost you quite a bit more money than purchasing a kit as you can’t typically buy a very tiny piece of fabric.

3.     KITS CAN SAVE YOU TIME

As all of the fabrics for the pattern are already selected for you, you don’t need to spend time choosing fabrics at the quilt store or from your stash. Of course, that cuts down on some of the fun of browsing through a quilt shop, but you could be making progress on the project with the saved time.

While there are lots of good reasons to buy quilt kits, there are also some disadvantages. They are:

CONS:

1.     THE KIT MIGHT BE SHORT ON FABRIC

Kits are either created by the fabric manufacturer or the quilt shop and depending on whether or not they took mis-cuts into account when cutting the various fabrics, you might find that you are in trouble if you cut a piece incorrectly. It can be difficult to replace a fabric in a kit if you need to do so.

2.     KITS AREN’T UNIQUE

Typically kits are mass produced and all contain the same fabrics so your project will look the same as anyone else’s who bought that kit. Sometimes there may be more than one colourway in a kit, but this isn’t typical. If you want to have a totally unique project, kits might not be your best choice. 

3.     IT’S DIFFICULT TO ASSESS KIT QUALITY

Since you haven’t chosen the fabric yourself, it can be difficult to determine the quality and quantity of the fabrics in a kit. If you are choosing a kit in a quilt shop, I suggest that you ask the staff to open it up so you can check on the fabric quality and quantity. This can be difficult to do if you are purchasing it from an online source. Check the return policy on kits in case you aren’t satisfied with the quality of the fabric or the amount included. You’ll also want to check out the pattern included to ensure that the instructions are clear and complete. I always check out patterns before purchasing them – in a kit or separately.

For more information on whether or not quilt kits might be for you, click on the image below.

 If you are considering buying a kit, keep these points in mind and it will help to ensure that you aren’t disappointed in your purchase.

Creatively,

Download the free Get Out of the Ditch! guide to learn how to start free motion quilting by clicking here.

P.S. Are you serious about improving your quilting? Do you want to connect with other committed quilters in a supportive, safe environment?  If you answered “yes” to these questions, you need to join The Quilter’s Way. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. Don’t wait another day! Join now. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. Don’t wait another day! Join now.

P.P.S. Did you know that you can sign up to receive emails full of FREE quilting goodness? Click here to receive FREE content directly in your email inbox every few weeks from Chatterbox Quilts. I know you'll be glad you did!

P.S. I am an Amazon affiliate and, if you purchase items by clicking through the links in this post ,I will receive a small amount of commission. This doesn’t cost you any more $$$, but helps me to continue creating free content for you. Thanks!

Best Thread for Piecing Quilt Tops

One of the most frequent question I get asked is: “What thread do you use for piecing your quilts?”

Some quilters want to know if they have to match their thread colour to their fabric. Others want to know what weight of thread is best for piecing a quilt. There are certainly lots of choices available and it can be confusing to pick the “right” thread for this job.

 Here are the answers to all of these questions:

1.     Do I have to match my thread colour to my fabric colour?

No! You should be able to use two colours of piecing thread: a cream or neutral colour and a light grey. I use the cream thread for light fabrics and the grey for darker ones. I don’t switch between the light and dark threads in a project: I decide if the quilt top is predominantly composed of light fabrics or dark ones and then choose my thread colour accordingly. As you won’t be seeing your thread (hopefully!), you don’t need to worry about matching it to your fabric.

2.     What thread fibre and weight do you use to piece your quilt top?

I like to use a lighter weight cotton thread – either a 50 or 60 weight – as thread does add some bulk to your project, even though it is quite thin. Choose a 50 or 60 weight cotton thread to keep the thread bulk to a minimum.

3.     What thread brand do you like to use?

Photo courtesy of www.aurifil.com

I like to use either an Aurifil Mako 50/2 or Mettler silk-finish cotton. I use cones for my piecing thread as I go through it quite quickly and it is more economical to buy it this way. Whatever thread you use for piecing be sure that it is a quality thread. You wouldn’t put cheap fabrics in your quilt, so don’t cheap out on your piecing thread!

For more information on thread choices for piecing, click on the image below.

What is your preferred thread to use in your quilt tops? Leave me a comment below to let me know.

Creatively,

Download the free Get Out of the Ditch! guide to learn how to start free motion quilting by clicking here.

P.S. Are you serious about improving your quilting? Do you want to connect with other committed quilters in a supportive, safe environment?  If you answered “yes” to these questions, you need to join The Quilter’s Way. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. Don’t wait another day! Join now.

P.P.S. Did you know that you can sign up to receive emails full of FREE quilting goodness? Click here to receive FREE content directly in your email inbox every few weeks from Chatterbox Quilts. I know you'll be glad you did!

DIY Studio Storage Ideas

There are lots of “made for quilting” storage items, but you don’t need to spend money for specialty storage solutions for your quilt studio. Look for alternative storage solutions that you may already have in your home to use in your quilt studio.

If you’re like me you probably have a few UFO’s (WIP’s as I optimistically like to call them) in your studio and you need a way to keep all the fabrics and notions together until you are ready to work on that particular project. Pizza boxes or similar flat boxes work well for storing WIP’s.

In my studio, I use clock boxes that I brought home from the school I work at. These were going to be recycled, but I recognized their potential and rescued them. They fit perfectly in the Billy bookcases that I use to store my fabric. I use a Frixion pen to write the project name and information on the box so I can erase this and reuse the box for another WIP.

Keeping my WIP’s in boxes like these allows me to stack them on a shelf and they are then organized. This allows me to pull out a box when I want to work on that project.

As I do hand embroidery, I like to have my needles, threads, thimbles, and other hand sewing items in a small container. I’ve found the perfect box for this purpose: a Purdy’s chocolate tin! Not only do I get to enjoy the delicious chocolates, but the tin is the perfect size to hold all my stitching items. A double win!

If you don’t have a Purdy’s near you (they are a Canadian company), you might be able to recycle other similar tins or boxes. Another example is the peanut brittle box that I saved. It’s larger and has a magnetic closure that I really like. This works well for small project pieces, such as half-square triangles or EPP (English Paper Piecing). Makes you look at food containers in a whole new light!

Consider other furniture pieces that you might have in your home for storage or cutting or pressing stations. In my studio, my cutting table is actually old kitchen cabinets that we repurposed into a cutting table and storage area. My pressing station is an Ikea table top with storage cubbies underneath and the pressing mat itself was custom made to the size I needed.

If you’d like to make your own pressing mat, click here for a step-by-step tutorial.

For more information on storage containers that I use in my quilt studio, click on the image below.

The money you save by recycling alternative items to use in your studio can be used to buy fabric, notions or those specialty items that you actually need - and that’s a win too!

Creatively,

P.S. Are you serious about improving your quilting? Do you want to connect with other committed quilters in a supportive, safe environment?  If you answered “yes” to these questions, you need to join The Quilter’s Way. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. Don’t wait another day! Join now. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. Don’t wait another day! Join now.

P.P.S. Did you know that you can sign up to receive emails full of FREE quilting goodness? Click here to receive FREE content directly in your email inbox every few weeks from Chatterbox Quilts. I know you'll be glad you did!

Note: I am an Amazon affiliate and, if you purchase items by clicking through the links in this post ,I will receive a small amount of commission. You won’t pay any more $$ for these items, but it will help me to continue creating free content for you. Thanks!

Best Ideas for Bonus Half-Square Triangles

I love using “bonus” half-square triangles (HST’s) in projects. If you don’t know what a “bonus” HST is, let me explain.

When making stitch and flip projects (click here for a playlist that includes several block variations using this technique), you can create bonus HST’s when you clip off the excess fabric at the corners. I take these bonus HST’s and keep then in a bin so they are ready when I want to use them in a completely new project.

I found some interesting ideas for projects in the books I have in my quilting library. Simply Charmed, a table runner design by Sherri McConnell, in Lucky Charm Quilts by Moda All-Stars would be a perfect project for my bonus HST’s. 

Photo courtesy of Martingale Publishing

Another idea is Boden, a wall hanging in Teach Me to Sew Triangles by Pat Sloan uses all HST’s and can be stitched up as a single block or combined together in multiples to make a larger project.

Photo courtesy of Martingale Publishing

 The nice thing about using HST’s is that you can use them in a project even if the pattern instructions call for a different size of HST’s. The arrangement of the HST’s will be the same, the project just might finish at a smaller or larger size. Note: This assumes that the pattern calls for HST’s of all the same size, not a combination of various different sizes of HST’s.

It’s easy to create your own HST designs. Click on the image below to see some of the various blocks that you can create with HST’s.

 What do you do with your bonus HST’s? Leave me a comment below to let me know.

Creatively,

Note: I am an Amazon affiliate and, if you purchase items by clicking through the links in this post ,I will receive a small amount of commission. You won’t pay any more $$ for these items, but it will help me to continue creating free content for you. Thanks!

P.S. Are you serious about improving your quilting? Do you want to connect with other quilters in a supportive, safe environment?  If you answered “yes” to these questions, you need to join The Quilter’s Way. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. Don’t wait another day! Join now.

P.P.S. Did you know that you can sign up to receive emails full of FREE quilting goodness? Click here to receive FREE content directly in your email inbox every few weeks from Chatterbox Quilts. I know you'll be glad you did!