What is chain piecing?
When you start sewing a quilt there are basically two different approaches.
Sometimes its all about slow quilting and sewing which means consciously taking your time and sew slowly and carefully.
Sometimes however, we wanna save time and make a quilt as fast as possible. Therefore we are looking for the most efficent ways for saving time when putting together a quilt top.
One of the most efficient and fastest way of sewing units and blocks of a quilt together is by CHAIN PIECING!
If you wanna see the technique in action - scroll to the bottom and watch the video.
Basically Chain Piecing is a method of sewing together blocks or units of a quilt one right after another in a long chain. You do not lift your sewing foot in between or cut the thread.
Chain piecing is a very simple method, saves time and it also saves thread! Sounds interesting for you – well lets get started:
Step 1: Cut your pieces and get organized
This is how I like to do it: bring the two piles of pieces that need to be sewn together next to your sewing machine and line them up while you are sewing.
Step 2: start your chain
Take your first two pieces from the piles, put them right sides together and start sewing.
Step 3: Continue
Bevor you come to the end of the unit stop for a second. Take your next two pieces from your piles, put them right sides together and place them right in front of the sewing foot.
Slowly start sewing again and continue stitching off of the first unit for several stitches and feed the sewing foot with the second unit you’ve just placed in front of it.
Don’t lift your foot and don’t cut your thread!
Step 4: repeat
Now repeat the above steps until all your pieces are sewn together:
sew your unit together - continue stiching off the unit - take your next pieces - bring them in front of your sewing foot - and continue,…
When all your units are sewn, cut the thread and you just created a long chain of pieces! Cut the thread between the pieces and move on with your quilttop!
Have fun with this new technique and enjoy!
Video Tutorial:
See the technique in action!
