June 16, 2014 Podcast
Guest: Rachael Gander of Imagine Gnats
Topics: sewing with knits, sewing clothing
She says: "I'm a huge fan of the right tools for the right job. So on my sewing machine (I have a Brother and Singer) and they both came with an overlock foot. And the fabulous thing about this overlock foot is that it allows you to sew knits and sort of works like a serger in that it does a stitch that goes forward, but then it also stitches over the edge to hold it. It's a slow stitch, but it gets the job done. I also think that a ballpoint or a jersey needle is super important. They're just not as sharp as quilting needles, so they push the fibers to the side instead of going through them, because on a knit fabric, if you break the fiber, it will start to unravel."
Guest: Jill Finley of Jillily Studio
Topics: applique tips, embellishing quilts
She says: "Rickrack, as you're sewing, likes to slip and slide away from you. So, I glue it down. Like I do all my applique, I use my Appli-Glue, which is a product I've developed, to hold my pieces in place before I stitch, and that works really well on the rickrack. The thing that people maybe don't know, you have to use a little bit more glue than you normally would when you're gluing cottons together, because the rickrack is made of polyester, and so it doesn't adhere as quickly. And you have to hold it until it dries, because otherwise it will just pop off."
Guest: Carolyn Friedlander
Topics: Savor Each Stitch, modern quilts
She says: "I come from quilting from a design point of view. The first tool I talk about in the book is a line and just how anything that you make out there starts with an idea. And what's great about a line is that that's the first thing you can use to represent that idea. I show you in the book how I start out sketching my ideas quickly and how those actually move into actual projects. You also see lines in the designs of the fabric in how it's printed. Or when you're quilting it, the quilting itself is line work."
Guest: Roseann Kermes of Rosebud's Cottage
Topics: quilting tools
She says: "There's a new product from Clover called the Curved Awl Tool. It looks like their seam ripper with the white handle, but it's a little bit different than a stiletto. And what I liked about it is that the handle was an oval, so it fits into your hand a little bit easier, and you're able to go next to your presser foot from the side rather than in the front to try to move your fabric around when you're doing curved piecing or applique or things like that. And that fact that it was oval, so it won't roll off your table, which is always a good thing there."