7 Ways to Finish a Quilt Fast
Are you crunched for time and need to finish a quilt fast? Here are some ideas to save you time on the finishing steps!
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- If you usually pin-baste your quilts, use a basting spray instead. Pin basting can take a very long time if your quilt is large. Get a can of basting spray and make quick work of this step -- it'll wash out when you launder the finished quilt.
- For quilting the project, consider tying it. The traditional way of tying a quilt is to tie it by hand, but there are tutorials online for doing it by machine. Using pretty colors of floss, perle cotton, or yarn can add a fun design element.
- Or just quilt it simply with your machine, such as straight lines or a grid. Start with lines up to 3-4" apart (or whatever the maximum distance is according to the batting manufacturers guidelines), and after you've covered the entire quilt you can go back and add lines that are closer together if you wish to.
- Another quick quilting idea is to use freeform wavy lines in either one direction or multiple directions. Because it's freeform you don't have to be precise, you won't need to take time to measure, you won't have to worry about it looking "off".
- If the freeform look is not nice enough looking for your tastes, try using the serpentine stitch on your sewing machine. Just lengthen and widen the stitch and quilt wavy lines at regular intervals.
- If you usually sew the binding to the back of your quilt by hand, try machine-quilting the binding instead. See a tutorial here.
- Are you gifting a wall hanging or a small table topper that won't need to be laundered? Consider attaching your binding with a fusible product such as Stem-a-Seam. It can be applied in the same way fusible applique is done, and will lay nice and flat -- great for table toppers or candle mats.