Nifty Fifty Tips

QUALITY CHECK POINTS
1. Fabrics are pre-washed and pressed.
2. Points and seams match up.
3. Block size is 10 1/2" unfinished and square.
4. Seam allowance of 1/4" all around without invading block pattern.
5. Seams are straight - whether machine or hand pieced.
6. Blocks are pressed and seams lay flat.
7. All pieces, especially inside blocks are true to size and shape
8. Applique stitching is hidden, unless intended to be visible (i.e. button
hole stitch or machine applique).
9. Fabrics coordinate in color and design
10. Signature must be done in permanent fabric ink and kept out of seam
allowance.
11. Machine embroidered blocks are pre-shrunk, sewn with polyester thread, and are adequately stabilized.

SEWING TIPS
In order for your blocks to be exactly 10 1/2" unfinished (for a 10" finished block), you must cut and sew accurately. Almost all quilt pattern books have basic instructions in the beginning of the books, so if you're having trouble getting a block to size, why not go back and review the basics?

Cutting: Make sure that you square up your fabric and do a "clean cut" before cutting your strips. Also make sure that you place the ruler on the right cutting line and when you start to cut, don't remove your hand from the ruler, but rather "walk" your hand up the ruler until the cut is finished. There are a few "How To" books on the market that just address how to rotary cut.

Sewing 1/4" seams: Your seam should actually be a "scant" quarter of an inch, or just inside the 1/4" mark you are using. You might want to check your 1/4" mark by using the Trudie Hughes method: Take 3 pieces of fabric 1.5" wide by about 4" long and sew them side be side. The finished piece should measure 3.5" from raw edge to raw edge. The measurement should be done before the piece is pressed, and you should hold the fabric up to the ruler rather than laying the fabric on your cutting mat and putting the ruler on top of it. If you are less than 3.5" your seam is too wide, if you are more than 3.5" you are too narrow and will have to sew a larger seam.

Yardage
To figure up your yardage for each of your fabrics take the size square you
need to cut and figure out how many you can cut from the width of your fabric.  For
example if your fabric is 42" in width and if you need to cut 4.5 inch squares you divide 4.5 into 42.  I round up my inches to make it easier so I would divide 5" into 42.   This will give you 8 squares per row.  5"x8=40".  Now that you know you can get 8 squares  out of a  row then you take the amount of total squares you will need to cut and divide 8 into that amount.  So let's say you need  50--- 4.5" squares then you will need to divide 8  into 50 to find out how many rows you will need --- 8x7= 56.  This tells you that you will need at least 7 rows.  Once you get the amount of rows you will need then you take your size block again and multiply it by the rows to find you yardage.  4.5" x 7=31"   The result is you will need to buy 31 inches of fabric.  I always round up so I would purchase one yard. This will give me an extra 5" in fabric and it is always a good idea to always purchase enough extra fabric to be able to cut one extra row in case of mistakes.

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