How to Chain Piece Quilt Blocks
If you have a bunch of blocks to piece together and want to do it the fastest, most efficient way, you need to know how to chain piece. Chain piecing is an assembly-line technique for sewing quilt blocks that saves time and uses less thread than sewing them one at a time. It’s very simple and easy to learn. Here’s how to do it:
- Start with a stack of quilt blocks or units you want to sew together.
- Sew the first block. When you get to the end of the seam, feed the next block or unit under the presser foot so that it almost touches the first block. Sew directly from the first block onto the second one without cutting the threads or raising the presser foot (unless you need to adjust the position of the new block.) With practice, you will get very fast at this.
- When you have sewed all the units, they will be attached by a thin thread that looks something like this:
- Use your rotary cutter or scissors to carefully snip the threads between the blocks.
That’s chain piecing!
(Post photo by Flickr.com user qusic. Used under a Creative Commons license.)
Excellent basic book with good instruction for basics quilts.
Worth buying.