Pinning a quilt – It’s the little things that count

Yesterday, we cut squares and rectangles for our T-shirt quilt, and it was quick and easy using the Hemline Gold 45mm Rotary Cutter along with the Sew Easy Square Ruler – 12½” x 12½” (31.75 x 31.75cm), the Sew Easy Square Ruler – 15½” x 15½” (39.3 x 39.3cm) and the Sew Easy Quilting Ruler – 14″ x 4¼” (35.6 x 10.8cm).

Sew Easy rulers and Hemline Gold rotary cutter

Today, we’ll sew rectangles to make 12½” x 12½” squares, then we’ll combine all the squares to make our lap quilt.

We’ll need the Hemline Gold Plastic Headed Pins. I’m using the black pins for the contrast. If working with dark fabrics, then I’d use the white Hemline Gold Plastic Headed Pins.

Hemline Gold white and black plastic-headed pins

Match rectangles right sides together and pin them on the edge where the seam will be sewn.

Note: Make ¼” seams.

Making squares with rectangles

Two important tools to have close to your sewing machine are the Hemline Gold Thread Snips and the Hemline Gold Magnetic Pin Dish. Why? The thread snips are handy to have close by as there’s always a need to cut threads at some point during the sewing process. With the magnetic pin dish, the pin can simply be dropped in the dish instead of ensuring the pin is properly pushed into a pin cushion. I also noticed that I’m dropping fewer pins on the floor using the pin dish.

Hemline Gold magnetic pin dish and snips

After the seams on the rectangles are sewn together, press the seams open to help reduce bulk.

Press seams open.

Two rectangles have formed a square.

Two rectangles make a square block.

With the rectangles now paired, it’s time to put the quilt top together. There’s no right or wrong placement of the blocks. It helps to place the blocks on a design wall and play with the placement until you’re happy with the design.

For the next step, it’s a personal choice whether to press the seams open or to press them to one side. Since T-shirt fabric is thicker than quilting cotton, my preference is to press all my seams open.

Pin rows together.

With four rows of four squares sewn together, the lap quilt top is completed.

Completed quilt top

We often overlook the smaller tools needed to make a quilt. That’s why today I featured Hemline Gold Thread Snips, Hemline Gold Plastic Headed Pins, and the Hemline Gold Magnetic Pin Dish. These tools are very useful when quilting.

Hemline Gold magnetic dish, snips and black and white plastic-headed pins

Tomorrow we’ll complete the quilt. Join me!

This is part 3 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 2: T-shirt quilts – Quilting rulers that make the cut!

Go to part 4: Stay warm with a quilt made with Fairfield batting

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