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HOW TO FOLD A QUILT TO PREVENT FIBER DAMAGE  AND TO ALLEVIATE HEAVY CREASES   


GOING FROM “TO DO” TO “TA-DONE” AND INTRODUCING YOU TO A UFO CHALLENGE  


SLOW DOWN AND ENJOY SEWING YOUR QUILT TOP  


WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR QUILT TOP,  IS IT REALLY READY TO BE QUILTED?  


HOW TO STORE STRIPS AFTER YOU CUT THEM  


EMPLOYING A COUPLE OF ITEMS  TO HELP WITH QUILT PROJECTS  


SEWING EASY PILLOWCASES USING THE BURRITO METHOD  


Blue Painter's Tape is a Handy Tool for Quick Marking


Get Creative With Sashing


Lori Holt's Design Boards


Decluttering Your Sewing Space  


Give Yourself Another Hand  


Bobbin Organization and Storage  


Salvage those Selvages  


Another Half Square Triangle Tidbit, But This Time It Involves Pumpkins!  


Avoid the Temptation to Use Tiny Templates to Cut Fabric  


A Method for Starching Pre-Cut Fabrics  


Introducing Jordan Fabrics “Twinkle Little Star” Center Square Technique  


A FREE SHAMROCK PATTERN  


AN EASY WAY TO MAKE A 4-PATCH BLOCK  


WE NOW HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO SEW THOSE BONANZA AND CHRISTMAS UFO’S  


REUSABLE ROW AND BLOCK NUMBERS  


SOME SOLUTIONS TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM OF FRAYING FABRIC


MAKE FOUR FLYING GEESE UNITS AT ONE TIME  


WHAT TO DO WHEN CORNER POINTS DON’T WANT TO MATCH UP  


THREE WAYS TO SEW BINDING: ONE AND DONE  


THIS, THAT, AND THE OTHER  


Make Something Fun and Simple as a Distraction While Sewing a Complicated Quilt  


Changing a Quilt Pattern to Work For You  


January Musings  


Mitered Borders  


Edge Turn Machine Applique’ Using Light Weight Pellon  


Binding  


Using Up 2½-inch Squares, Employing Batting Scraps to Layout Blocks, and Sewing Half Square Triangles  


Preparing Fabric Prior to Cutting, Invisibly Piecing Quilt Backing, and Introducing Acorn Piecing Glue  


Squaring Up Blocks and a Mobile Design Wall  


The Quick Ripper, A Take-Apart Cutting Ruler, and Other Ramblings  


Make a Memory of Hope “Crumb” Quilt  


Gadgets and Gizmos  


The Five-Star Method for Testing the ¼ Inch Seam  


Dealing With Overstuffed Magazine Storage  


Review Your Subscription Expiration Dates  


What to Do with Fabric Leftovers after the Bonanza?  


Cutting Tools and Cutting Aids  


Chain Piecing a 9-Patch Block  


Washing Fabrics and Quilts  


How To Make a Block Press  


Tips on Consistently Sewing an Accurate Quilt Block


A Quick Way to Un-Sew Seams, Using a Seam Ripper, Without Cutting the Fabric


Repurpose Your 2018 Paper Calendar for Your Next Quilt Project






March 2024

HOW TO FOLD A QUILT TO PREVENT FIBER DAMAGE 
AND TO ALLEVIATE HEAVY CREASES 


 

March has really marched in with rainy weather.  As much as I find it wonderful that California is no longer considered in a drought, enough already!  I may have to go buy gopher wood and begin building a big boat.  Rain or dry, have a wonderful March with St. Patrick’s Day coming, Passover, and Easter.  I am back again, happily sewing and visiting in person at the Clubhouse 4 quilt room on Mondays and plan some more escapes on the other afternoons the room is available.  I hope to see you there.

So, how do you fold your quilts?  When you take out a stored quilt, does it have heavy creases?  Mine sure does.  Recently I came across an alternate way to fold a quilt which can result in less creasing when you take out the quilt to use it.

Folding a quilt on the bias is a better way to fold a quilt to prevent fiber damage to the fabric and to prevent the heavy creases caused when you fold a quilt with the grain or cross grain.

The following picture shows how fabric creases from folding it selvage to selvage and rolling it tightly on a bolt utilizing the typical cardboard core.  It takes forever to press out those hard tight creases if it is at all possible.
 
 


The next picture shows one of the creases in my quilt which is stored from January until December each year.
 


On a YouTube video I recently watched from Shelly at Matante Quilting, in addition to bias folding quilts for storage, Shelly stated that as a long arm quilter she asks her customers to fold quilt tops and the backing on the bias before sending the quilt to be quilted.  Folding on the bias saves the quilter from having to press the top as well as the backing prior to quilting.   

This makes sense.  As the maker, you press the fabrics to lay flat and then you fold them up and take them or send them to be sandwiched and quilted.  Once the quilter receives the top and backing, they must be pressed once again prior to loading them on the long arm machine, and everyone hopes all the creases will be gone before the quilting process can be successful.  Hopefully, the bias folding will change this double  work.

In addition to YouTube, Shelly has a website at matantequilting.com.  She features a discussion on her approach to bias folding.  The following is an excerpt from her website blog, the photos are from me folding my quilt using her steps.

“Starting Point”

“I’m going to show you on my living room floor, but if you don’t have a large open space like this (or don’t want to put your quilts on the floor), you can easily do this on a bed.

“Start by laying your quilt with the piecing face-down. When you’re done folding, the piecing will be on the outside, which will help you easily identify it. The diagonal folds you’re about to create will all be on the bias, which means they’ll help prolong the life of your quilt.”  (source:  matantequilting.com)
 

(pardon the perspective, I am standing on a stool and my arms are not long enough to make this look like a proper rectangle)

 
“Step 1”

“Grab the bottom right corner and fold it towards the center of the quilt.  I like to make sure that the point is past the center of the quilt (but I don’t ever measure).  You want to create an (approximately) 45° angle and have these two edges of the quilt be parallel.” (source:  matantequilting.com)
 

 

“Step 2”

“Grab the bottom left corner of the quilt and fold towards the center of the quilt. You want the two edges to be touching, and these two edges to be parallel. At this point, your quilt should look (sort of) like an upside down house.”   (source:  matantequilting.com)




“Step 3”

“Pull in the top right corner of the quilt towards the center of the quilt.  The bottom folds should be touching, and these two folds should be parallel to each other.  If your point is extending beyond the edge of the quilt, just tuck it back under so that you have two parallel folds.”  (source:  matantequilting.com)


 
 
“Step 4”

“Take the last remaining corner and fold it towards the center.  All of the edges should be lined up, leaving you with a roughly rectangular (or square) shape.” 
(source:  matantequilting.com)
 


“Step 5”

“Now all you have to do is take this rectangle and fold it into a smaller one until it will fit on your shelf. Since all of the outside edges are folded on the bias, you can now fold this the regular way and all of the news folds will ALSO be on the bias!”  (source:  matantequilting.com)

 


In our house, quilts are stored in an underbed zippered bag, so this is as small as I need to fold this quilt.  I plan to refold all my stored quilts on the bias, including table runners.  I look forward to seeing the results in the future. 

Have a great March.  If you do a YouTube search on “folding quilts on the bias”, you will get several videos to watch.  Send any comments on tidbits to me on email.  You can find my email address on the members only section on the Crazy Quilter’s website.  I can use your help to come up with future tidbit topics, please let me know if you would like me to write a tidbit based on your ideas.  Blessings to you and your family.  I plan to be back in April with another tidbit.  
 





multi color stripe
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March 2024

HOW TO FOLD A QUILT TO PREVENT FIBER DAMAGE 
AND TO ALLEVIATE HEAVY CREASES 


 

March has really marched in with rainy weather.  As much as I find it wonderful that California is no longer considered in a drought, enough already!  I may have to go buy gopher wood and begin building a big boat.  Rain or dry, have a wonderful March with St. Patrick’s Day coming, Passover, and Easter.  I am back again, happily sewing and visiting in person at the Clubhouse 4 quilt room on Mondays and plan some more escapes on the other afternoons the room is available.  I hope to see you there.

So, how do you fold your quilts?  When you take out a stored quilt, does it have heavy creases?  Mine sure does.  Recently I came across an alternate way to fold a quilt which can result in less creasing when you take out the quilt to use it.

Folding a quilt on the bias is a better way to fold a quilt to prevent fiber damage to the fabric and to prevent the heavy creases caused when you fold a quilt with the grain or cross grain.

The following picture shows how fabric creases from folding it selvage to selvage and rolling it tightly on a bolt utilizing the typical cardboard core.  It takes forever to press out those hard tight creases if it is at all possible.
 
 


The next picture shows one of the creases in my quilt which is stored from January until December each year.
 


On a YouTube video I recently watched from Shelly at Matante Quilting, in addition to bias folding quilts for storage, Shelly stated that as a long arm quilter she asks her customers to fold quilt tops and the backing on the bias before sending the quilt to be quilted.  Folding on the bias saves the quilter from having to press the top as well as the backing prior to quilting.   

This makes sense.  As the maker, you press the fabrics to lay flat and then you fold them up and take them or send them to be sandwiched and quilted.  Once the quilter receives the top and backing, they must be pressed once again prior to loading them on the long arm machine, and everyone hopes all the creases will be gone before the quilting process can be successful.  Hopefully, the bias folding will change this double  work.

In addition to YouTube, Shelly has a website at matantequilting.com.  She features a discussion on her approach to bias folding.  The following is an excerpt from her website blog, the photos are from me folding my quilt using her steps.

“Starting Point”

“I’m going to show you on my living room floor, but if you don’t have a large open space like this (or don’t want to put your quilts on the floor), you can easily do this on a bed.

“Start by laying your quilt with the piecing face-down. When you’re done folding, the piecing will be on the outside, which will help you easily identify it. The diagonal folds you’re about to create will all be on the bias, which means they’ll help prolong the life of your quilt.”  (source:  matantequilting.com)
 

(pardon the perspective, I am standing on a stool and my arms are not long enough to make this look like a proper rectangle)

 
“Step 1”

“Grab the bottom right corner and fold it towards the center of the quilt.  I like to make sure that the point is past the center of the quilt (but I don’t ever measure).  You want to create an (approximately) 45° angle and have these two edges of the quilt be parallel.” (source:  matantequilting.com)
 

 

“Step 2”

“Grab the bottom left corner of the quilt and fold towards the center of the quilt. You want the two edges to be touching, and these two edges to be parallel. At this point, your quilt should look (sort of) like an upside down house.”   (source:  matantequilting.com)




“Step 3”

“Pull in the top right corner of the quilt towards the center of the quilt.  The bottom folds should be touching, and these two folds should be parallel to each other.  If your point is extending beyond the edge of the quilt, just tuck it back under so that you have two parallel folds.”  (source:  matantequilting.com)


 
 
“Step 4”

“Take the last remaining corner and fold it towards the center.  All of the edges should be lined up, leaving you with a roughly rectangular (or square) shape.” 
(source:  matantequilting.com)
 


“Step 5”

“Now all you have to do is take this rectangle and fold it into a smaller one until it will fit on your shelf. Since all of the outside edges are folded on the bias, you can now fold this the regular way and all of the news folds will ALSO be on the bias!”  (source:  matantequilting.com)

 


In our house, quilts are stored in an underbed zippered bag, so this is as small as I need to fold this quilt.  I plan to refold all my stored quilts on the bias, including table runners.  I look forward to seeing the results in the future. 

Have a great March.  If you do a YouTube search on “folding quilts on the bias”, you will get several videos to watch.  Send any comments on tidbits to me on email.  You can find my email address on the members only section on the Crazy Quilter’s website.  I can use your help to come up with future tidbit topics, please let me know if you would like me to write a tidbit based on your ideas.  Blessings to you and your family.  I plan to be back in April with another tidbit.