Natalie: Hi I’m Natalie. Welcome to the Final Stitch. Today we’re going to be talking
about trimming and squaring your quilts.
Natalie: So I have Liz here with me and she’s got questions from you that I am excited to
answer so Liz.
Liz: Hi So our first question is actually from Renee in Idaho. She says, “I think
my quilt maybe shrank a little bit. It was square when I sent it, but it’s not quite
straight now. It just came back from the long-armer, how do I get it ready for binding, how do
I trim it, and make sure it’s square?”
Natalie: Alright so that is a great question. Typically when you get your quilt back from
the quilter, it can have, you know, a small percentage of shrinkage, probably somewhere
from like one to three, maybe 5% at most. And that depends on how it’s stretched on
the machine and how dense the stitch pattern is. If you have a lot of stitches and they’re
really close together, it may cause the quilt to shrink just a little bit which is totally
typical and no big deal.
Liz: Totally normal.
Natalie: Ya totally normal. It’s just a part of the process. And it will continue
to shrink as you wash it and just kind of, like, it gets crinkly and comfy and squishy.
It’s really not a big deal and totally easy to fix as you go through and square your quilt
which I will show you if you want.
Liz: Yes. Do because I think the thing is if they get that back and it has shrunk a
little bit, it might look like it’s not square anymore. So how do we trim that?
Natalie: Right sometimes even with borders as they’re going along, I know I’ve had
a border and I’ve had to like pull it out to keep it straight as it goes and gets rolled
on the machine.
Liz: Sure
Natalie: So I’ve got an example here for you. And this is one that we had done here
at our quilting department. So you can see when we get it back, it comes back with backing
and batting still attached and you will typically just have to trim off along the edge. Oh this
one also has a fun pieced back for those of you caught the pieced backing section. Look
how pretty that is. I love it.
Liz: Nice.
Natalie: Ok so I’m going to find a corner. You just want to pick any corner to start
with. This is kind of a big quilt so I’m going to spread it out. Now typically when
I am trimming or squaring a quilt I would want to use a table that was a little bit
taller. This one isn’t going to be perfect for me because it’s clear down, this is
my sewing table. And if I was, ideally I would have a table that was more like waist height.
And I would want my arm and elbow to be able to cut at an angle that was more comfortable
and more ergonomically correct. Just so that I didn’t have shoulder pain or back pain.
Liz: Good tips.
Natalie: The other thing that I would do before we get started is I would turn my cutting
mat. Now my mat is attached by double stick tape on the corners which is also a great
tip so it doesn’t slide around. So I’m just going to pick that up and flip it this
way because at this angle I have a lot more cutting space for my long ruler to cut those
long sides of your quilt. So we’ve got that set up. I’ve got the bottom corner here.
And you can see that I know this quilt was totally straight. Can you guys see that? But
at this point you can see that it looks kind of crinkly and a little, you know, it’s
not perfectly straight looking anymore and that’s just because of the way that it bunches
from the stitching. Alright so I’m going to grab some tools. I’ll use a long ruler
to cut, obviously my rotary cutter.
Natalie: Alright so I’ve got my square ruler and now this is how I would get started on
trimming my quilt. I’m going to start with my square. And right here you can see there’s
a lot of measurements to look at. So I’m going to line it up. This, let’s see. So
we’re going to go with the width of our borders which they probably started out at
6 ¼ or 6 ½ inches. So this is a finished measurement, six from the seam out to here
which is what I’m going to use. And it’s the same on this side. So you’ve got six
inches of border here and six inches of border here. Now you can if you want to do a little
tug and pull and stretch to make sure that everything lines up just right. But if you
cut this corner using this square you know that you started with a perfectly square corner.
And the rest of it you can continue with your long tool until you get up to the top square,
the top corner square. And then you can use your square again.
Liz: Perfect.
Natalie: Which you don’t have to start with a square tool but I like to because it gives
you a lot more view of, you know, all your lines and making sure that you’ve got the
same width here and the same width there. And it’s all good. It’s all going to square
up. So I usually do, and it’s a little bit of an awkward cut. But I usually do this bottom
cut first and then I’d go up this way and stop at the edge of that tool. And then I
switch to my long tool so that I can get a nice long cut on the side. Now you’ll see
also, I don’t know how closely you guys can see, but there’s a little bit of basting
in this edge. But you can pull the basting stitch out as you go or you can leave it in
because it’s going to be covered by your binding if it’s within that quarter inch
of the edge.
Liz: Right so even when you trim a tiny bit of batting showing, that’s ok because it
will get caught in your binding.
Natalie: Totally ok. Ya totally ok. Actually Mom shared with me a really great tip about
sometimes you can’t get that square edge and you do have a gap in your border and she
just stitched a piece right on top of it and pressed it back and caught it in the binding
and you’d never know.
Liz: Sneaky ninja. Ok, good pro tip.
Natalie: Yes. Super good pro tip because I’ve like cut a half an inch in on my border to
cover that before and so if you don’t want to lose that part of your border it’s great
to just stitch a little of the same fabric and cover it and then you know it’s basically
just a stitch and flip.
Liz: Ya
Natalie: And then you catch that in your binding and you’d never know that you had a little
bit of the batting showing. Alright so as we continue up, this is a six inch ruler so
it’s really easy to see. We use our border edge to keep it straight and we just continue
cutting. Pull that away.
Liz: And that’s a good tip too because I think I’ve always thought you had to use
the outside edge. But you’re using the inside edge of that border to help you stay straight.
Natalie: Oh yes, I would much rather trim from the seam so that my border width stayed
the same because if you use the edge, you may end up with a border that goes from five
to four to three, you know, you’re not going to be able to sure that you’ll keep that
the same if you’re not looking at it. And if your border is smaller you can use the
lines to see. You know, say I wanted to cut this down to a three inch border, I would
just line up that line and make sure it stayed straight. And you can do a little adjusting
here and there to make it behave. But ya you just follow those lines on your ruler. You’re
not really using the mat at all except for as a cutting surface.
Liz: Protector surface.
Natalie: Ya you’re not going to use your mat to measure at this point. So we just continue
going right along here. And you can, this is a great opportunity actually to snip little
threads. You see we have like a little bit of thread right here and if I had my little
snippers I would snip that. But ya everything is ready to go. Oops. We’ll get down there.
This is a good size quilt. It’s great and it’s beautiful and it’s going to be a
really fun Christmas quilt. Just take your time and make your adjustments.
Liz: And I think actually this is also a Missouri Star quilt pattern so it is available in the
description
Natalie: It is. The scrappy four patch star??
Liz: That sounds right. Scrappy Four Patch Star.
Natalie: I could be wrong but. I mean I’m never wrong. When has that happened before.
Liz: When it’s like any quilt can be a Christmas quilt, this is in the holiday floral line.
Natalie: Oh for sure, ya.
Liz: And all of a sudden it’s Christmas stars
Natalie: Yep, super cute. Ok so I’m up to the corner now. So I’m just going to grab
my square just to double check and make sure that we’re all still square. So I’ll go
out to that edge. And keeping this square. And you can see we’ve got a little bit of
pull here. So I’m going to, if I had this, I would want to pull it in so that my border
stayed square and my quilt edge stayed square and that I had a little bit of extra in the
middle. Because that’s going to keep your quilt folding properly. It’s going to make
it easier to bind. It’s going to make it look better when it hangs on a bed. So we’re
going to keep our six inch here and our six inch there. I’m going to pull that down
just a tiny bit because I don’t want to make the corner go off kilter by leaving it
out.
Liz: OK that makes sense.
Natalie: It’s just, it also has to do with how the quilt is on the table.
Liz: Ya.
Natalie: You know the way that it’s laid right now, it’s not laid perfectly flat
and so that little bit of bunching can just be because the bigger part of the quilt is
pulling that direction.
Liz: Gravity is not being your friend.
Natalie: Totally. Ya so this is a way to avoid running into those issues. Alright so we’ve
got our corner here and our corner there. And then we just continue cutting the rest
of that side. All four sides the same, all the way around. And then you are ready to
bind. It’s just that easy.
Liz: Yay. So what if you don’t have a border to follow?
Natalie: Oh good question. So we have another quilt that does not have a specific border.
This one is great because it does have pieces in it. And so the idea here will be basically
the same. We’ll find the pieces that we can use consistently.
Liz: So you’re going to choose the pieces to make your guide?
Natalie: Yes.
Liz: Ok.
Natalie: Right. So you just, every quilt is different so you’ll pick out what parts
you’re going to use as your guide. And you want to make sure that, so this quilt is great
because it’s made in blocks. And the blocks have consistent pieces. So you’ll see that
along this edge, there’s one of these, I think it’s like three by five maybe here
and here. And then on this way you’ve got one going here and one here. And then you
have other sections. So this section is long, it looks like, I don’t know, three or five
inches maybe. I couldn’t tell you because I didn’t make this particular quilt so I
don’t remember the measurements. But this one is the same as this one. And then this
one is the same as this one. So basically we’re still going to start the same. We’re
going to make sure that we’ve got, this block is measuring at nine inches finished
so I’m looking at this seam here and this seam here. And then I’m also making sure
that it’s lined up with the corner so that tells me that when I cut this edge it’s
going to be a square edge.
Liz: Nice, ok.
Natalie: So that’s how I’m going to start. And I’ve got both corners and then as I
go along I’m going to use, whoops, sorry about that. I’m going to use this tool,
this long ruler and I’m going to find just about the point that I think lines up the
best. And it looks like it’s going to be at the 4 ½ mark. So this seam right here
on this little piece that I showed you earlier, consistently matches the 4 ½ inch mark on
this ruler. So that’s what I’m going to look for. It doesn’t have to be 100% like
on the line, it’s just where you look. I mean I could even go ⅛ of an inch over to
save as much of the quilt as possible. But then you want to make sure and use that same
measurement all the way around the quilt so that your sides, everything stays measured
out correctly
Liz: So consistently
Natalie: Consistent, yes. Exactly. It’s not about perfection or a certain measurement.
It’s about consistent cutting.
Liz: Got it, ok.
Natalie: Right. So then I’ll keep that lined up and I’ll go all the way along the edge.
And then you know that when you’ve got your quilt trimmed that it is going to be square.
So I’m just going to keep, I’m choosing that little ⅛ line because I think that’s
a little bit more accurate. To the edge of the quilt. It saves a bit of it. And I’m
going to grab my ruler here and make sure I’m still at that. Yep, we’ve got a nine
inch square there. And a nine inch there. I’m going to pull it in and adjust a little
bit. And it’s just a little bit off in that corner but that is just fine. Alright. And
then we just keep going all the way around the whole rest of the quilt.
Liz: Ok. So you found, in this case because there wasn’t a border to follow, you found
a spot.
Natalie: I found something to follow. Yes. So I have a couple pieces here. I have this
quilt that we made as a sample just kind of like a baby quilt. It’s like a, what do
they call that?
Liz: Whole cloth
Natalie: A whole cloth quilt. And so there’s several things you can do. Obviously you’re
still going to look at your corners and make sure that it’s square. And so, you know,
we could trim this edge and then follow that. And then the other thing, the other points
for whole cloth quilts is it’s going to have the same kinds of measurements as another.
If you think of a square ruler, it will have a 45 so you can fold it in this way and make
sure that that matches up. And so if you want, you know, if your quilt is supposed to be
square then you would cut at that place. If it’s not supposed to be square you can fold
it and then measure to make sure this measures the same width from top to bottom.
Liz: Ok
Natalie: Ya. So the other thing you can do is fold it in half rectangularly and just
make sure that everything matches up. And if it doesn’t, so you can see here like
this one is not 100% square. I could go through and figure out, is it this line or that line
that’s crooked and then square it up from there. And you always, always if you start
from square corners, you’ll be able to meet them in the middle and end up with a square
quilt.
Liz: So guys if you’d like to see us do more with whole cloth quilts let us know in
the comments.
Natalie: Ya it’s a tricky one. It’s tricky because whole cloth doesn’t have anything
to follow.
Liz: Right, nothing to make your guide so you’ve got to do a little extra.
Natalie: Right. Yep.
Liz: So we have another question. If you guys give us a second to clear up then we have
another question about curves. Alright so the other question that we have to talk about
today is from Mary in Iowa. She says, “I’d like to add a little something to the borders
of my quilts. I’m thinking about curving the corners. How can I do that evenly on all
four corners?”
Natalie: Ok so if you’ve already trimmed your quilt and you know that all your corners
are already square then it’s super easy to add a curve. And I would just use a tool
you have around the house. Maybe you already have a circle magic, or a drunkard’s path,
or a large orange peel tool or a roll of duct tape or a coffee cup
Liz: A dinner plate, whatever your curve is.
Natalie: It’s really how big you want it. And I’ll show you really quick some of the
differences. So I have the large orange peel here and what I would do is line it up because
I already know that this corner is squared. So I’m going to line it up on the corners.
And you can just use your template because, you know, if this is along the edge and this
is along the edge then you know you’re going to get the same shape curve on all four sides.
And then you just trim this section off. Now if you wanted a smaller curve you could use
this tool and just curve it like this. And this is basically, I mean if you put four
of these together it’s basically like a little bitty salad place, you know. And you
could do really whatever size circle you want. You just want to make sure that you set it
along the same edges. And then if you do that because it’s already a squared corner you
won’t have any trouble making them all the same.
Liz: And so you just use your rotary cutter and curve that?
Natalie: Yep, trim that straight off. And here’s another piece that, this is the inside
of the drunkard’s path. It’s pretty similar but a different curve, a different angle.
And all of these would be really fun. You know any one is fine. And then if you wanted
to do like a straight, like what would that be?
Liz: Oh to like to turn into a hexi or octagon or something like that?
Natalie: Ya , then you would just use this, you know, and you measure out your edge. So
let me see, actually this one is going to be easier because this is where these lines
get fun because the 45 is going to tell you that you have a 45 degree angle going the
other direction. So, let’s see, if we do it. Ope, I’m way more angley challenged
than my mom. Nope not quite. Ok. So if you line that up on the 45 then you know that
this is going to be a squared 45 degree angled cut.
Liz: Nice. And so it will be even on all four sides because you’re using that line?
Natalie: Ya and same with like, here’s the 60. It’s going to be not the same because
it’s a 60 degree so you’ll have like a narrower edge here and then a wider edge here.
45 is what I would do personally. And then you can adjust it. Because you have it lined
up here you know it’s going to land in the same place on both sides
Liz: Got it.
Natalie: That’s how that works. It gives you that guideline and then you know. Now
if you’re doing this and you want to make sure this size is the same, this is where
your mat comes into play. So you could put it in the corner of your mat, or not the corner,
just pick a corner. If you just make sure that each corner has the same number of squares
then they’ll all match and it’s going to be really cute. It’s just a fun, different
way to make your quilts just a little bit fancier. A little bit different.
Liz: I love it. So Mary from Iowa, we hope that answers your question. And if you have
more questions, guys, ask them in the comments below. We love seeing your questions and comments.
And thank you for joining us.
Natalie: And share your projects. Show and tell.
Liz: Yes share your projects
Natalie: We love to see all the things that you’ve made. So this has been Trimming and
Squaring your quilts and I hope that we inspired you to try something new and get creative
and also a few helpful tips, maybe. And I look forward to joining you the next time
on The Final Stitch.