@@AnitaSouthall It depends on the doll! Dolls come in lots of sizes. If I'm making them for myself, I usually don't make them any bigger than 20 or 24 inches. And I use very fine thread (Aurifil 80 weight) and I don't machine quilt it very much so it will be more flexible (use a sparser, looser design). If it is a smaller quilt, I often leave out the batting entirely and just quilt the top to the back fabric to make sure it will drape around the doll.
I make my own now. 1T corn starch, 4C water, few drops of essential oil (optional) Boil 1 minutes, stir lots. Thin with more water if necessary. Cool, then transfer to spray bottle or for large pieces of fabric I soak in a bucket then hang to dry.
Thank you very, very much for all these wonderful tips! I am learning quilting and prefer right now to try and do all hand sewing. Starting small works for me!! I will try to make coasters for Christmas gifts. 😊
Thank you Sherri good tips, I like having the stitch length small for small blocks, really made sense . I am sure I will use all of these tips when sewing my next small project.
These are excellent tips. I recently finished a ~45 x 45 pixel quilt with 1/2 in finished squares...and it was my first quilt. I wish I had starched my fabric to assist with the accuracy of cutting 1" squares. The quality of the rulers matters so much and I started using a wooden school ruler 🤦♀️. I didn't back stitch and the blocks did start unraveling at the end of rows until I too serendipitously learned that a shorter stitch length prevents that. The other tip regarding the accuracy of 1/4 seam allowance is important too. I plan on doing another portrait pixel quilt next year and I will watch this video again before I start. I wish I watched it before I started my first quilt. Thanks again.
Thank you, Sherri!! Your 3 inch blocks looked perfect to me!! Two of them looked like they were for experienced quilters. 😃When I first started sewing around 4 years ago, I thought it would be a good idea to to make the smaller quilts which also had small blocks.😩 I wasn’t quite ready for that. I love all of your tips for small and larger blocks! 😍
Thank you so very much for the video! I love the tips and I am trying to soak everything up like a sponge. I will say it is paying off I am having success!!! Thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart.
I hope you enjoyed your time off! Looking at those blocks both way, I like the X pattern best - it is not as common, plus your swimming suits are upright. If it is too small for you, you can do what you've done before & add a narrow aqua sashing. You are amazing! Thank you for all you share and teach us!
All these tips are great. I am doing the Sewcialites in the 6" version. I make my own starch (triple the recipe and use the professional sprayers from the dollar store - search homemade starch on RU-vid). As another viewer mentioned, I use leaders and enders (2 1/2" squares right now to make a quilt or other projects). Also a one hole sewing plate on the machine really helps to prevent the fabric from going down into the machine! Cheers from 🇨🇦🍁
Thank you for the tips. I wondered how your blocks were so straight. Mine would turn out a little wavy. I'm going to be sure and try the starch method. Thanks.
Thank you, Sherri. Great tips. In a future video chat with Chelsea, please expand upon the difference between spray starch and finishing spray. I have never used Flatter or any similar product. Plus, I do not understand why I would want to use a finishing spray instead of more Best Press. Thanks again!
Sherri, your hair looks really nice in this video. You have so many tools for quilting. I often hesitate to purchase new rulers, especially the smaller ones, because I can use a bigger one to do the job, and rulers are so expensive. Perhaps this is not the best way to think about it, perhaps accuracy should trump frugality.
Some of the small Creative Grids rulers are less expensive than you might guess. Shop around. Some quilt shops charge more than the suggested retail price. Eyes rolling. My local quilt shop routinely marks rulers up. I stopped buying rulers from them because I got tired of asking them to honor the suggested retail price.
I know this is 3 years old but, I am currently sewing 2 inch blocks together and I even use a leader on my machine. It just will not go into the feed dogs. HELP!!!
Great tips. I’m very chemically sensitive so cannot use unscented starch either. Do you know a good recipe for homemade starch? My Grandma used to use a homemade one with just cornflour/sugar and water but no one knows the recipe she used!
I use home made starch. 1 tablespoon of corn starch in 2 cups of warm water. Mix it throughly and use in a spray bottle. Works beautifully but you need to shake the bottle every once in a while while using as corn starch has the tendency to settle. People use potato vodka diluted as well.
@@jhwilliams6550 I make homemade starch (recipe on RU-vid - I use the Chatterbox quilts recipe) and triple it. I use 3 "professional" sprayer bottles from the dollar store. You can leave them for a long time, and just shake up well before using.
@@jhwilliams6550 I use it for a long time. I use slightly warm water to easily dissolve the corn starch. It doesn’t get cooked. So I use it till it finished and than make a new batch.
Sherri I have problem with the actual sewing of the tiny pieces. Especially where the book is at the seams. Do you have any suggestions to get the actual sewing part nice and neat?
