If there’s anything I’ve learned over the 13 years I’ve been quilting it’s this: What works for me works, and I see no reason to change my approach to cutting/piecing/pressing/quilting if it gets me the results I am looking for. But boy, have I been proven wrong recently!
When I am piecing blocks, it’s easy for me to lose focus just long enough to second-guess whether I’ve accidentally mixed up the pieces. To avoid confusion, I often resort to taking in-process pictures. That way, I have something to confirm that I am on the right track.
I recently tried the web-piecing technique I first heard quilters talk about at least a decade ago. (This is not the one where you use a thin piece of interfacing. I gave that technique a whirl years ago in this post.) With the web-piecing technique, I can keep my fabric—and brain!—in order without the need for pictures.
If you’ve never tried this technique, now is your opportunity! Here are the basic steps:
1. Lay out your patchwork block.
I used this technique on a 36-patch that I am sewing for the Falling Stars sew-along that has been released for Modern Quilt Guild members. (See my previous posts about this quilt top here and here.)
I have seen some quilters use this approach for assembling an entire quilt, when all the blocks have been assembled and are being sewn together. I think that would be cumbersome. I prefer to use it at the block-piecing stage.
2. Sew the first two columns together without cutting the thread in between units. After the last second-column piece is sewn on, cut the thread.
I know it’s impossible to see on my white background, but in the picture below, the first two columns are now all connected. The four columns on the right have yet to be added to them.
3. Sew the third-column pieces onto the second-column pieces without cutting the thread in between units. After the last third-column piece is sewn on, cut the thread.
The result is that the unit on the left, below, has grown by another column.
4. Continue sewing in this manner until all the pieces have been sewn.
The nice thing is that I often find myself stopping at this spot. Because all the pieces are connected in the correct order, it is easy to pick up the block again at a later date and continue sewing.
5. Press adjacent rows in opposite directions, and sew them together.
This technique is not 100% foolproof, but it’s pretty close. I think I made 3 mistakes while sewing my 27.5 blocks and was able to remedy them before sewing the rows together.
A few additional thoughts on this technique ...
- I found myself increasing the slack between units. Instead of chain-piecing one unit close to the next, I gave myself about a half-inch of thread, which provided some needed wiggle room when pressing the rows in opposing directions. It also helped in the final step—pressing the horizontal seams in the finished block—because I pressed those seams open.
- When I, say, ran out of bobbin, I would often resew over the last few stitches of the previous piece before picking up where I left off, just to keep things connected and orderly.
- With these 36-patches, after everything was connected, I sewed the top 3 rows together and then the bottom 3 rows together. Then I sewed the top to the bottom. I wouldn’t bother doing that with a smaller block, but it helped in a block like this one with so many pieces.
If this is a new-to-you technique and you give it a try, let me know how it goes!
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