CHAIN PIECING

Teach your Rookies chain piecing soon after they pass the ¼” seam test!

If you’ve quilted a long time, you’ know about chain piecing. Chain piecing is feeding patchwork units through your machine assembly-line fashion. Chain piecing saves thread because your bobbin lasts longer and because very few threads need trimming.

Once your Rookie knows how to steer properly for a perfect ¼“, guide her (or him) through constructing a first block. Have plenty of fabric pieces ready; show how paired units can be fed, one after another, with only two or three “air” stitches in between.

As joined units come through the machine, clip apart and finger press (or quickly press at the iron) so you and your Rookie speedily build the first block. Your Rookie’s heart will swell with pride when the block, completed and neatly pressed, goes up on the design wall. 

Depending on the chosen QOV pattern, you may find you are barely able to keep up with your Rookie as you cut and press while she/he sews.

BIGGEST BENEFIT OF CHAIN PIECING—NO MYSTERIOUS “UNTHREADING”!

Remember when you first started machine sewing? 

Did your needle come unthreaded each time you pressed the foot pedal, infuriating you and making you feel dumb? The “unthreading” happened because you stopped sewing with your “take up arm” (a threading slot toward the front of the machine) at the bottom, or in the middle, of its movement cycle. 

“Unthreading” is the single-most mysterious and frustrating phenomenon for the new machine sewer. BANISH unthreading from your UOW sewing day with chain piecing!