Everyone needs more time in their life to do the things they want to do, right? As a busy wife, mother, blogger and quilt pattern designer I need to take advantage of every time saving tip I can find!  So when Amy Smart asked me to share one of my quick quilting tips as part of her new blog series, I had a hard time deciding which one!?!

One of my favorite tips these days is one that may seem obvious to many but isn't a method that I've always used.  It's a quick and accurate method for rotary cutting lots of squares or rectangles at once.

Many times in the past I've ignored the grid lines on my cutting mat and just used the lines on my ruler to cut what I needed.  I'd cut a strip and then one by one I'd cut lots of squares.  I felt like it was the most accurate.  But it definitely took a LOT longer.  Am I the only one that did it that way???

These days, when I have to cut, like three hundred and eighty-four squares for one project, I use this quick rotary cutting method:

First, I lay my folded fabric on my mat with the folded edge along one of the lines on the mat.

Then I square off the end of my fabric by lining up my ruler on one of the lines (at the end of my mat) perpendicular to the fold, cutting 90 degrees from the folded edge.

Then I start cutting my strips.  For this particular project I needed to cut 16 strips, crosscut into a total of 384 squares. Since I can't crosscut 16 strips in one shot (because my ruler isn't long enough) I did it in 2 batches of 8 strips each.  As you can see I don't move the fabric at all.  I just use the grid lines on my mat and the lines on my ruler to make sure I'm cutting straight lines the width I need.

After I cut the strips, I start crosscutting.  First I cut off the selvages.  

Then I use the grid lines to crosscut the strips into squares, making sure my ruler is straight along the mat grid lines.  I'm very careful to not bump or lift the fabric when moving my ruler for the next cut.

Cut as many squares (or rectangles) as you can get from each strip and discard the ends.

Then, remove the squares from the mat and cut the next batch of strips!  And, if your anything like me and my silly-self, you can pick them up in a checkerboard fashion just to see a fun pattern!

Oh, and here's another little tip I use all the time:  

After you've done a lot of cutting, use a lint roller to pick up all the leftover fibers from off your mat!  This is especially useful if you ever cut minky!

Well, there you have it.  A quick and accurate way to cut 384 squares in a fraction of the time!

Be sure to stop by Amy's blog, Diary of a Quilter to find the rest of the links to many more fantastic quilting tips!

Happy quilting!

~ Amber

Tuesday Tips {Twin Fibers}

Welcome to Tuesday Tips!

We have another inspiring creative space brought to us today by Jessica of the blog, Twin Fibers!  I found Twin Fibers a few months ago while cruising around Blogland one day and have loved the quilty goodness I've seen there since.  Especially this 3 Pears Pillow (check it out!)  Jessica is a twin (as you may have guessed).  She shares the blog with sister, Jennifer, which means it's twice the fun over there!  So without further adieu, here's Jessica ~

Good Morning!
I wanted to say thanks to Amber for inviting me to be a part of her Tuesday Tips. I have to admit, I'm a new reader to her blog and I'm so happy to have found A Little Bit Biased!

I thought I'd take some time today and show you around my little sewing area. My husband helped me build in this area of our basement so that I could have a dedicated area to sew and quilt. It has been so nice to be able to leave a project out and not have it messed up (like it frequently was when I was sewing at the kitchen table). :)

My space over looks the play area in the basement. I've got a row of cabinets to hold fabric... most of my stash is in the center cabinet with the frosted glass doors. I keep my serger and sewing machine set up and ready to go.
I find it really helpful to have the ironing board right behind my chair. That way I can just turn around and press a seam quickly.

Here's a view to the left. This is where I have my rotary cutting mat and rulers.
The white shelf holds all sorts of ribbons, Perle cotton, glitter, pincushions and a few little decorative items that are special to me. I also set my rotary cutter up on the shelf... I've had problems with little hands getting a hold of scissors and cutting fabric before, so I've learned to keep them up high and out of reach!

My work area is usually pretty clean. I find that when I'm organized and there's not a huge mess... then I can focus on a project and finish it up. Now, for the rest of the playroom... there's toys all over... but at least I have an area that's cleaned up! ;)  The picture above is of my scrap fabric storage. I think it's about time for a scrap quilt!

And here's how I store all my thread. I have a couple of clear storage boxes where the spools are sorted by color order.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing a little bit of how I organize and store things! Please visit with me at twin fibers if you'd like to see what I've been sewing.
~Jessica

Jessica, thanks so much for coming today!  I love your set up (so clean and organized and pretty!)  I need to move my ironing board closer to me and get me some of those clear containers for thread!  Just perfect!!!

Please feel free to leave Jessica a comment below.
I hope you enjoyed this installment of Tuesday Tips and have a great day!

Car Window Travel Sewing Caddy Tutorial + Giveaway!!!

Hello friends!  

Today I've invited my friend Aniva to share a tutorial with you for this super cute, super handy car window sewing caddy!  She gave one to me as a gift the other day and I loved it so much that I immediately thought I needed to pass along the idea to all of you!  This caddy is perfect for all of us that find ourselves doing hand work as we ride "shotgun" in our cars because it suctions right to your car window and it's just the right size to hold sewing necessities but doesn't take up too much space.  

So without further ado, here's Aniva!

Thanks Amber for helping me to create the tutorial for this little caddy.  I have enjoyed making these caddies as little gifts for my quilt friends, whether for a birthday or just a little "thinking of you" gift.

Sometime back I saw a post online where the blogger had used a shower caddy (the kind with suction cups to stick to the wall) found in a second hand store to create a caddy to use on her car window for when she sewed on car trips--I thought it was genius.  I tried for some time to find such a container at a thrift shop and never succeeded. I did, eventually, find a new container that I really like at my local Wal-Mart in the bath and shower section.  I found it to be the perfect size for a spool of thread and small scissors.  The suction cups adhere it securely and temporarily to the car window without leaving any marks and I can move it about as often as I need to.  The only thing I added to the container was a landing place for a few needles and pins.

Here is what you'll need--

Two - 2" x 2" fabric scraps

hot glue gun and glue

pinking blade for a rotary cutter or pinking shears

tiny bit of polyester stuffing

container of your choice with suction cups

(Please be mindful when choosing your container that since these are made for the bath they are designed with holes in the bottom so that water drains out.  If your container is one with lots of holes you may want to also glue some heavy paper into the bottom so your supplies don't fall through the holes.)

Place your fabric squares WRONG SIDES TOGETHER.  Sew three sides using a 1/4" seam allowance--yes you can backstitch.  Stuff with a tiny bit of stuffing.  Sew the last side together -- be sure to backstitch on this last side to make the whole thing stay together better.  

Use the pinking blade on your rotary cutter or pinking shears to give the raw seam a cute little zigzag finished edge.  

Adhere the small pin cushion to your container with a dab of hot glue.

Have fun filling your gift caddy with a fat quarter of fabric, small scissors, a package of your favorite needles, a gift card or anything you want.

The other thing that I have really loved is making the cute little hexie gift tags.  Just type up whatever fun sewing saying you want to have on your tag into your computer using the word processing software of your choice.  I set my page to have three columns so that I can get more sayings on one page of cardstock.  Remember the tag is not very big so keep your saying fairly short.  You can play with different font styles and font sizes.

When you are happy with your page print it out on the color of cardstock paper of your choice.  Use some paper scissors to roughly cut the words apart.  This doesn't have to be precise it is just so you can get your punch around the words.  I used the  Extra Large hexagon punch by Fiskars (this will give you a hexagon with a 1" side as shown) available at craft stores and websites.  With the punch framing your saying, punch the paper.  You can distress or embellish your little tag anyway you want.  Punch a small circle in one corner so you can tie it on your gift.  FYI- the Fiskars medium punch = 1/2" hexie and the Fiskars large punch = 3/4" hexie.

If you want to buy some similar hexagon papers, I found these darling little paper hexagon Charms made by Laundry Basket Quilts at a local quilt shop, Just Sew in Highland, Utah.  They have the cutest sayings on them.  There are 100 in a package and they come in two sizes.  A 1" per side size and and 3/4" per side size.  The papers pictured above are the 1" size.  The sayings are about family, sewing, fabric and friendship.  All you have to do is punch a small hole to make them so you can tie them on gifts.  Super easy.  If you want to purchase some of these online click HERE.

Amber is giving away a couple of these little caddies to two lucky readers.  To enter, just leave a comment below. We'll pick a winner in the next couple of days.

I want to give a shout out to friends at Riley Blake for the cute polka dot fat quarters...thanks for making so many fabrics we love.

PS. I tried to find the original blog post that planted the seed for this idea in my mind but I was not able to find it so if you are that blogger contact Amber - she will be happy to give you credit on this post.

Cheerio!

Aniva

♥ ♥ ♥

Thanks Aniva for sharing this darling and practical idea with us! I know I'm going to be making quite a few of these for gifts! And thank you for contributing TWO of these cute caddies for our giveaway! Friends, be sure to leave a comment below to enter to win!

Happy quilting!
~ Amber

Stash Hash Quilt-Along: Week 2

Good morning!  Welcome to week 2 of the Stash Hash Quilt-Along.

The assignment for this week is to do all the cutting for your chosen quilt size.

Note: If you're doing a scrappy background it may take longer to do the cutting.

You're welcome to cut fabric each week as needed but if you take the time

to do all the cutting this week it will make the assignments for weeks 3-12 to go a lot faster.

I have a time-saving tip for cutting the non-scrappy background fabric.

Check out my tutorial for Quick Rotary Cutting.  

Follow the idea there to cut your background strips 

and then crosscut into squares or rectangles.

To quickly cut the 5" squares on the diagonal once, keep your 

squares in place on your cutting mat while you make the diagonal cuts.   

You should be able to cut through several squares

(in adjacent rows) in one swoop as shown in the next few photos.

Be careful not to bump or move the pieces as you move the ruler to the next diagonal.

Cut through all of the squares once.

And voila!  You'll have all of the triangles 

needed for the star point HST's cut in a snap!

You can use the Quick Rotary Cutting method 

to cut all of the background pieces.

It will take a little more time to cut your bright fabrics but

enjoy seeing those pretties that you've treasured for so long!

This is when you get to plan the color scheme for each star.

After you finish cutting you will be all ready to start sewing next week.

I think you're going to LOVE seeing these blocks come together!

So that's it for this week!

Tell me below what size quilt you're making.

I'd love to see your progress on Instagram if you decide to share.

Please tag me @gigis_thimble and use the hashtags

#gigisthimblepattern, #stashhashquilt, and #stashhashqal 

so I don't miss a thing.

Also, just to let you know, I decided to continue sending the weekly reminders.

It seemed like a lot of you appreciate getting them and I am happy to do it.

Thanks for your input on that!

Have a great week!

Amber

Quilters' Spring Cleaning 30-Day Challenge

Jessica Dayon and I enjoyed the Quilter's Spring Cleaning 30-Day Challenge 

that we hosted last year so much that we decided to do it again!

The challenge will begin on Thursday, April 1st, and end on Friday, April 30th.

It will include 30 tasks that will help you get your sewing space clean and organized!

We'll be talking about it daily in Instagram stories so be sure to follow along there for tips!

Her Instagram handle is @jessicadayon and mine is @gigis_thimble.

Here is the list of tasks:

1. Organize a drawer

2. List all projects & kits

3. Organize rulers

4. Purge unwanted projects/kits

5. Sort scraps

6. Organize red, pink & yellow fabrics

7. Change rotary blades

8. Clean off one surface – chair, table top, etc.

9. Organize orange & green fabrics

10. Organize threads

11. Pre-wind bobbins

12. Organize blue & purple fabrics

13. Organize books and magazines

14. Piece batting remnants

15. Organize black, grey & brown fabrics

16. Clean & oil sewing machine, replace needle

17. Wash or replace ironing board cover

18. Organize white & low-volume fabrics

19. List 12 WIP goals & make corresponding slips of paper. 

Each month pull out a slip of paper & work on that goal.

20. Organize patterns

21. Clean iron

22. Organize a drawer

23. Organize pre-cuts

24. Inventory supplies & notions, make shopping list

25. Dust shelves, tables, window sills & baseboards

26. Clean cutting mat

27. Organize yardage 

28. Make backings for WIPS

29. Make bindings for WIPS

30. Remove all trash & vacuum

If you'd like to print the list out, click HERE

for the Quilter's Spring Cleaning 30-Day Challenge PDF we've created for you!

So who wants to join us in getting our sewing spaces in tip-top shape?

Are you up for it?

Be sure to tag Jessica @jessicadayon and myself @gigis_thimble

on Instagram if you decide to join!  We'd love to be there to cheer you on!  

Oh, and we'll be using the hashtag #quiltersspringcleaning for this challenge.

Talk to you soon!

Star Patch QAL: Week 1

Hey, hey friends!  Welcome to the Star Patch Quilt Along: week 1!  

If you haven't signed up yet, it's not too late to join the fun!   

We have fantastic weekly prizes sponsored by some of my favorite people/shops

and at the end of the 8-week QAL, you'll have one dang cute quilt top you can be proud of!

 Click HERE to register.

Click HERE for all the Star Patch QAL details.

So let's get down to business.

Week 1 is all about planning and cutting.

If you still need to get the pattern, click HERE.

There are digital and paper versions available in my Etsy shop.

(I am shipping the paper versions out as quickly as I can so there's a good chance 

it will arrive at your house within a few days if you live in the US.)

I think you'll find this week to be a pretty easy week in the QAL.

There's just 3 things you need to do:

1. Get the pattern. 

2. Plan your color scheme and gather your fabrics.

Originally, I was going to do traditional red and green Christmas fabrics.  

I think this pattern will make a fabulous Christmas quilt.  But then I got thinking, if I do just red and white fabrics...it will be great for Christmas, 4th of July and even Valentine's Day!

So red and white/cream it is!

And finally, the 3rd thing you need to do this week is cut out all the fabrics.

I was able to cut out my background squares really quickly using my Quick Rotary Cutting Tutorial. Check it out, you might learn a new tip or two!

Cutting the colorful squares (red in my case) is what will probably take you the longest.  But it's sure fun to see your pretty, scrappy collection of squares come together! 

I used about 33 different fabrics for the little squares, cutting about 7 or 8 from each fabric. 

I just did mine over the course of a couple days so it was easy peasy!

So that's it!

Post a picture on Instagram this week of your fabric pull or cut fabrics and use the hashtag "starpatchqal" and you'll be entered to win The Perfect 10 Book and Ruler Combo Pack by It's Sew Emma from The Fat Quarter Shop!

I can't wait to see all the different color schemes you guys come up with!!

Paper-Piecing Tutorial

O.K. First, let me just say that I just realized that I only posted twice last month! I'm really embarrassed. I really have been thinking about posting, but have just been trying to get some things done around my house. Like, oh I don't know, maybe some...laundry...cleaning...projects...cooking...MY PATTERNS...Halloween costumes. That kind of stuff. I've had a few set backs with my patterns, but am really thinking next week I'll get them back. I'm so close. So stay tuned. I'll be doing some giveaways as soon as I get them back.

So. Because of my desperate need for something worth while to post about, I decided to put together this little tutorial for you. A little somethin' I've been wanting to do for a while now. Some of you may have never tried paper-piecing. Maybe it seems too complicated? But it's not. It's really quite easy and fun and things just turn out so exact. So I think you should all give it a try. Here's a tutorial for those of you who are intimidated by paper-piecing.

You will need:

* a pattern

* some fabric

* a glue stick

* scissors

* ironing board & iron

* sewing machine

*rotary cutter, mat & ruler

For this tutorial, we will be paper-piecing a star.

(Click here to see one example of what you could do with this star)

Here's what the finished product will look like:

Here's the pattern:

(Reduce or enlarge to achieve the desired size.)

This star has three sections. To begin, you will need to cut out of each of the 3 paper pattern sections outside of the dashed line.

Paper-piece patterns are always numbered in the order you should go. So you always start with piece #1. This is the easy piece! Using a dot of glue, you will adhere a piece of fabric to the back side of piece #1 (with the right side of the fabric facing out). Make sure your fabric fully covers all of piece #1 - all the way past the dashed lines. It's better to use pieces of fabric that are quite a bit bigger than the actual size on paper. With all of the angles it's easy to mis-interpret the size you need, so bigger is better. You'll trim later.

Now, for piece #2 (keep in mind that you will be sewing on the line that connects pieces 1 & 2). Lay piece of fabric #2 on top of piece #1 (with right sides together).



Hold it up to the light so you can check to make sure that after it is sewed and opened up that all of piece #2 will be covered with piece #2 fabric. Notice in the picture above, that the edge of the yellow fabric will barely cover the line between pieces #1 and #2. If that happens, just adjust the yellow fabric up a little so that it will be at least a 1/4" above that line for your seam allowance. When it looks like it will cover all of piece #2, then you can sew on the line between those two pieces. Use a very small stitch length when paper-pieceing. This will perforate the paper so that when it comes time to take off the paper, it will tear off super easily.

Check to make sure the piece you just sewed on covers the entire piece #2 all the way out to the dashed lines. Then trim off any excess past your 1/4" seam allowance.

Iron the fabric open. Repeat that process for piece #3.

Trim off any threads.

Trim 1/4" outside of the dashed lines.

Now you can carefully tear off the paper.

Now you have to sew all three sections together. Just line up the top points/edges of the sections. Sew the sections together two at a time.

* Remember to turn your stitch length back to it's regular setting when you sew the three sections together.

Trim any "Dog-ears" off of the block. Make sure you square everything up and that you leave 1/4" away from the points of the star. You don't want to cut those babies off.
There. You did it! You paper-pieced a star. Of course there are other designs you can paper-piece too. A log cabin is a great one for beginners. Try this star and more.

I hope this tutorial helps. Let me know what you think of it!