#1 Ziplock bags – do all the cutting in one session
Oh gosh, I love this organizing system! I first learned this from a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. She is one organised quilter! A very productive one too. You check out her amazing patterns here>>. I personally love the latest one! Check that one out HERE>
I made the Aviatrix Medallion previously blogged HERE> and went ahead starting the quilt by cutting every single pieces required for the quilt! It was kind of scary to do so, but I did it anyway.
As per pattern instruction, I kept all the pieces organised in zip lock bags!!! Which was super great cause I can simply store them easily and only took out the one required ones when I need to sew them.
You can check out this set of ziplock bags with various sizes – perfect for organizing all shapes and sized patchwork pieces.
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So its done. The cutting at least. #aviatrixmedallion #carolynfriendlander #botanicsfabric
It was a big deal for me to have kept all those in one nice organised place. Since the middle part of the quilt was quite intimidating, I didn’t start sewing until a year later, but since they were all so organised it was easy to pick it back up and just continue to the sewing stage.
#2 Organise WIP in project boxes
Here is one way you can keep all of your project in one place and stack them up nicely. Label them for easy to find what you want to work on too.
I like this size box, perfect to keep 9-12″ blocks flat and some other pieces flat enough to be working back on it.
I also keep my scraps in these boxes. You can read more about the way I organise my fabric scraps HERE>
Get 6 boxes on Amazon. They usually have great deals on these. Sometimes close to half priced off!
#3 Use Alphabities
Label your cut pieces!
I love the Alphabities. Especially when following a pattern. They kept me sane for having to know which one measure what without having to remeasure all the time.
#4 Portable Design board
This has saved me so much time and has gotten me so organised with all the pieces. It is easy to be moving the pieces all at once form the cutting table to the sewing machine.
You can also test out the layout of your pieces on the design board. It is then just a matter of putting it next to your sewing machine while you sew the pieces together.
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You can make your own portable design board following the video below or buy ready-made ones HERE>
#5 Chain piecing
O yes to chain piecing. Chain piecing can keep all your pieces organised in one strand. It would be so much easier to piece similar shape in batches.
Quilting projects becomes easier with batch working and chain piecing is definitely one of the way to do so.
#6 Organise on a Design wall & take photo
Place your blocks on design wall and take photo of the layout so that you can refer to when you piece it together.
You can simply wrap a mounting board with batting or you can get this instant design wall.
I made mine using this corrugated board, wrapping it with batting and placing it on the wall using these strips. Works perfectly! And I can make lots of them around the sewing space.
#7 Block Keeper book
I made a block keeper a while ago (blogged HERE) and I love that I can keep blocks in there flat and easy to find.
You can also keep little pieces together as you would want to piece them later safely in the keeper.
#8 Use Coloring page
A lot of the patterns these days have coloring pages included and you can easily color it first to see how it would look like when pieced together. You can do this with color pencils or felt tip pens (I am currently loving this set).
Another option to that is to digitally color it. If you want to learn how to create your own coloring pages, learn basic digital art drawing if you are interested to do so. I always opt for classes in Skillshare for such new skills.
If you don’t know what Skillshare is – it’s a platform to learn all sorts of thing. You can try it for FREE here>>
#9 Project tracker
Project tracker is great to make sure you are in the know of where are you at
You can get a project tracker in the TLMC FREE Resources Library. Sign up here if you haven’t got the access.
#10 Schedule your sewing time!
Be more organised with your time and block sewing time so you can get your project moving.
I personally love my EC Planner and use it every week to block time for sewing for that week. It is easy to be caught in day to day chores. So if you find that sewing is a relaxing therapy and something that you would love to do more of, make sure you block off some time doing so.
Well that is it for 10 ways to get more organise when quilting! You will be more calm and more productive when you are organised!
Enjoy quilting!
Have other tips to share? Drop a comment below!
Love this post? Don’t forget to share it.
[Related Posts: 5 Surefire ways to boost your productivity]
Welcome to the 18th week post of the 52 weeks of hot pads / quilted pot holders. This week we’re making Irish Chain Quilt Block Hotpad
Here are the list of past week’s posts in this 52 Weeks of Hot Pads Challenge:
- 1st Week : Simple Patch | Bias Binding
- 2nd Week : Diagonal Lanes | Quilt As You Go + Binding Tip
- 3rd Week : Scrappy Lanes | Sewing with selvedge
- 4th Week : Pixel Heart | Sewing small pieces
- 5th Week : Hexagon Flower | English Paper Piecing | Round Hot Pad
- 6th Week : Warm Heart | Heart Shaped
- 7th Week : Scrappy Egg | Small scraps
- 8th Week : Rail Fence | Strip piecing
- 9th Week : HST Geese | 8-at-a-time HSTs
- 10th Week : Starry HST | Mitred Border
- 11th Week : Mom’s sugar Cookie | Round with Pocket
- 12th Week: Hot Plusses | Plus Blocks
- 13th Week : Highway of Geese | Flying Geese
- 14th Week : Cross Way | Squares and Rectangles Patch
- 15th Week: Scrappy Log Cabin | No measuring
- 16th Week: Cross Bun | Simple Rounded
- 17th Week: Scrappy Herringbone
I thought it would be a great challenge for me to do a pot holder a.k.a hot pads every single week of 2019. (but I am currently falling behind, maybe I’ll catch up but if not, it will just be a 52 weeks but not in a single year)
I am planning on having it displayed in my kitchen. They make great decor don’t they?
While I am at it, I am going to be sharing with you a simple tutorial on the process.
You can join in the challenge and make the same hot pads I make every week with the same design or any of your own choice.
I got another flimsy done! Pretty quick when you can just make 16 blocks to make a big enough quilt.
I love large blocks.
This one is especially pretty simple and easy.
As usual, I am using what I already have in stash, and though the navy dark sashing isn’t the best choice, I think it was the best that I had in the stash.
I am a fan of productivity aside from quilting. Want to sew more or make more quilts? Read on the 5 productivity hacks I have in this post to finding more time to sew.
I am a fan of Amazon.
I can scroll for hours and add things to my cart and sometime I ended up buying, but sometime not. Eitherway, I had fun. In this post, here are some fun and exciting deals to watch out for in the next few days while Amazon Prime Day is going on!
Here is an updated deal lists that I have selected that you don’t want to miss on!
I am a fan of Amazon.
I can scroll for hours and add things to my cart and sometime I ended up buying, but sometime not. Eitherway, I had fun. In this post, here are some fun and exciting deals to watch out for in the next few days while Amazon Prime Day is going on!
Welcome to the 17th’ week post of the 52 weeks of hot pads / quilted pot holders. In this post, we’ll be making a herringbone quilt block hotpad.
Here are the list of past week’s posts in this 52 Weeks of Hot Pads Challenge:
- 1st Week : Simple Patch | Bias Binding
- 2nd Week : Diagonal Lanes | Quilt As You Go + Binding Tip
- 3rd Week : Scrappy Lanes | Sewing with selvedge
- 4th Week : Pixel Heart | Sewing small pieces
- 5th Week : Hexagon Flower | English Paper Piecing | Round Hot Pad
- 6th Week : Warm Heart | Heart Shaped
- 7th Week : Scrappy Egg | Small scraps
- 8th Week : Rail Fence | Strip piecing
- 9th Week : HST Geese | 8-at-a-time HSTs
- 10th Week : Starry HST | Mitred Border
- 11th Week : Mom’s sugar Cookie | Round with Pocket
- 12th Week: Hot Plusses | Plus Blocks
- 13th Week : Highway of Geese | Flying Geese
- 14th Week : Cross Way | Squares and Rectangles Patch
- 15th Week: Scrappy Log Cabin | No measuring
- 16th Week: Cross Bun | Simple Rounded
I thought it would be a great challenge for me to do a pot holder a.k.a hot pads every single week of 2019. (but I am currently falling behind, maybe I’ll catch up but if not, it will just be a 52 weeks but not in a single year)
I am planning on having it displayed in my kitchen. They make great decor don’t they?
While I am at it, I am going to be sharing with you a simple tutorial on the process.
You can join in the challenge and make the same hot pads I make every week with the same design or any of your own choice.
Sometime a good simple patchwork is all you need to work on. Here is a simple patchwork baby quilt I made last weekend.
I have a fun quilting tip to share with you today.
Have you ever kept those leftover triangles hoping to use them someday in a scrappy quilt?
And then when it is all mixed up, you ended up throwing it away instead?
I have been there, done that.
Sometimes, these are leftover triangles from piecing long binding together using thee mitred method or sometimes just leftovers from the stitch and flip method.
Well, in this post I’ll share with you a little tip on how to just get those scraps out of the way and straight to making use of it.