"Look Ma, No Pins"!

Meet my newest time-saving sewing assistant; yep, it's Elmer's school glue!  I saw an online tutorial using school glue instead of pins for attaching binding to a quilt in preparation for stitching. You're probably shaking your head in disbelief, I did too; at first, but the more I read the more interested I became in trying out the technique. I had everythig I needed on hand, including a quilt just waiting to be bound.

Place your to-be-bound quilt on the ironing board and apply glue dots as shown in photograph above. I only attached a few inches at a time.

After matching up the raw edges of the binding along the quilt edge on top of the glue dots press it with a hot, dry iron to set the glue. Don't  use steam! This glue is completely washable, so much so that even one burst of steam will absolutely dissolve the glue without so much as a trace remaining, believe me.

Work your way around the quilt, including the corners (as shown) gluing and pressing as you go.

It was a joyful sight to observe the attached binding, all around the edges, as the quilt dropped off the ironing board and to the floor; the binding didn't budge!

The next step was to move the quilt to the cutting table and mark my stitching line, 1/4" from the edge. I always do this, it was a snap to mark without the bulk of pins beneath! I find the stitching line helpful because I always use a walking foot to stitch down my bindings and can't judge the seam allowance well enough with that foot attached, the line is one extra insurance step toward accuracy.

Stitching down the binding was smooth sailing all the way, the glue never got hard; it was soft and pliable, plus it held firmly, the entire time!  A word of caution: make sure that you use WASHABLE School Glue. The components of this glue guarantee a complete and clean wash out. The link for the tutorial I saw is here. I happened to have the clear school glue (leftover from the sparkle bottle) but the white school glue seems to work the same way, both dry clear.

There you go, tried and true!

Life is Good!

Monday's Mission: Time Saving Strategies and Multi-tasking

This is the final installment of my time management crash course. I know you are all breathing a huge sigh of relief! Hopefully, over the past four weeks you've gleaned a tidbit here or there. Today I am going to share some of my tips for time saving over the long haul; time invested in one spot that will pay out rewards in time saved. These three chicken pies, ready for the oven, is a good illustration of how I manage to save a bit of time now that will pay off later. If I need to take food to someone I will often put together a chicken pie ready to bake. These can also be frozen at this point, if I'm cooking chicken and assembling one I will do several at the same time; it really doesn't take any longer to do that, and the bonus, I will stick one (or two) in our freezer for a meal for us later on. That's maximizing time now for later! I do this with meal planning for the week, and draft my grocery list from that menu. It's the same thing for sewing projects. I always make sure that I have everything I need before I begin, and if I am stitching a gift item I will often do several (a pattern or technique that is familiar yields happy results!) and stash them away for the proper occasion. These little tricks work for me. It's all a matter of prepping, taking care of those little, preliminary, steps ahead of time. Another, recent, example: I have a long list of thank-you cards to write. I addressed and stamped all the envelopes, paired them with the note cards (and the pen) and set them on the kitchen counter, in plain view. Whenever I have a free moment I will write one or two and they're good to go! I don't need to devote hours on end to doing them all at one time, nor is it necessary to look up the address for each one as I go or hunt for stamps over and over, that's already done! You get the idea, I'm sure you can come up with lots of similar strategies once you begin thinking, and prepping, ahead.

As far as serious multi-tasking, that's not one of my strong points. I like to jot down tasks, however small, the moment they pop into my head so that those competing thoughts don't distract me from the job at hand. I know myself well enough to understand that I need to stay focused, my productivity depends on it; but, if I make notes, I'm confident that I won't forget those tasks, thus removing that worry, and can turn my attention to them later on when I'm ready.

That's it! I believe I've covered it all. You have stated your objective at the outset. You know now where you spend your time, you're aware of your time wasters and hopefully you have developed a plan to skillfully combat them. You've looked at goals and understand how you need to work around your priorities to reach them. Today you've examined a strategy, through specific illustrations, that might assist in preparing your own work that can yield hours saved in the future. Good luck with your own plan for organizing, I hope this has helped as you begin down your time management path.

Plan your work and work your plan!

... and take time to enjoy each and every day...

Life is Good!

Cool Tip!

I was going to entitle this post "HOT" tip, but it's really not that at all... it's a "COOL" one. How many times do you finish piecing a block, press it flat and transfer it to your cutting table for that final squaring up only to discover it's anything but square? For me the answer is fairly often. I compensate when joining the blocks together but it's rarely a precise proposition. That is, until, I've learned to just cool it! As eager as I may be to square up those just-finished blocks if I leave them on the ironing board to cool completely before trimming they are, usually, just perfect! So simple, it all comes down to patience. Time spent cooling now is time saved struggling to get the blocks to fit together later. Sew cool!

Life is Good!

Need More Time?

Nothing like a trip to the local discount department store to reveal products I didn't even know existed, (imagine that, apparently this is an "as seen on TV" product, too!) and time saving products, at that! Just think of the mere moments you can shave off your morning routine by not having to actually bend to clean your feet while showering! Just adhere these suckers to the bottom of your shower (don't miss this safety tip, particularly if you're accident prone like me) and you're good to go! Who knew? What will you do with all your new-found time?

Life is Good!