Tools — Blog — Sarah Atlee : Artist

This one goes out to all my fellow quilters who get frustrated when their piecing isn't perfect. Which, for me, is always.

Okay hear me out. When I first learned to make quilts, I was taught to use quarter-inch seam allowances.

What's a seam allowance? That's the amount of fabric left on the inside of a seam.

By PKM - Own original work, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

In quilting, seam allowances are usually about a quarter inch wide. That's enough fabric to anchor the stitches and prevent them from easily pulling apart.

It's also a convenient measurement for those of us still stuck with the antiquated Imperial measurement system.

Sewing quarter inch seams is good practice. You want those seams to hold together. It's an especially good practice if you are making a quilt from a fixed pattern - that is, a plan that depends on precise measurements, and blocks that all come out the same size.

I don't do that.

I'm an improvisational quilter.

So I don't worry so much about quarter inch seam allowances.

See this quilt top in progress:

Looks fairly nice and neat, doesn't it? What do you see when I turn it over?

WHOA NELLY THE CHAOS.

I MEAN WHAT EVEN IS THAT.

Here's another example:

NERP.

I'm working with a whole lot of fabric pieces that are leftovers, cut off from other bits, scraps, or otherwise irregular. None of these were measured or previously cut to a specific size. That's how I work.

Working with what I have, whether created with or without intention, is where the magic lives. It's in the pleasure of the present moment. It's play.

So, if you are just starting down the quilted path, learning to use quarter inch seams is a good skill to have. Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts can help you.

But, once you know the rules...

You can break them :)

Happy stitching!

Image description: A close up of Sarah's hand holding a quilt where she is doing some hand stitching. The quilt fabrics are brown, orange, and green with a pattern of yellow flowers.

I've just delivered a stack of newly finished quilts to a professional photographer. To get ready for that delivery, I spent most of last week sewing labels and sleeves onto quilts. That's a lot of time hanging out with my hand sewing kit.

Image description: On the left, a metal box holding sewing supplies. On the right, two spools of thread in teal and magenta. The background is a light grey quilt.

How about a little tour? It really does all fit into that mini metal lunchbox pictured above. (Except for those two spools of thread. Choices were made.)

Image description: Various sewing tools laid out on a green background with a yellow one-inch grid.

Top row, L-R: Needle threader (unused), sake cup pincushion with pins and wonderclips clipped around the rim; Liberty of London pincushion for backup pins (made by my friend Elizabeth)

Row 2: Scissors, spools of thread in various weights

Row 3: 2 bobbins with more thread (I try to keep a range of light to dark colors handy), lip balm*, hand balm, heavier threads for hand quilting, measuring tape

Row 4: Bandages (not so much for stab wounds, but for when my fingers get too sweaty), mini-mint tin with needle grabbers, sticky thimble patches, and other aids, adorable needle holder that looks like lipstick, another needle grabber, one button, magnetic needle minder, roll of washi tape, thimble (unused), backup scissors, one paper hexie

* Lip and hand balm because who wants to get all snuggled in to their hand sewing nest with the tv on and realize oh crap, my skin is dry, I have to get up to get the stuff? No one, that's who.