Sometimes making a patchwork quilt can be perplexing and troublesome.

When you bought your first quilt pattern or book, it looked like it would be so easy.  And the instructions included in the pattern sounded pretty straightforward as you scanned them in the quilt shop.

But, when you got the pattern and your fabric home, it was a different story. 

Cutting the fabric looked like it would be so simple.  After all, how hard can it be to line up a plastic ruler on a piece of fabric and then run a rotary cutter through the fabric?

Zip, zip, zip.  Five strips of fabric cut, and then you opened each strip only to discover that there was a bend in the center of each strip, making it unusable.  And the $12.95 you spent on the fabric is now wasted. 

But worse, the fabric you truly love is now no longer available anywhere.  You’ve checked every fabric and quilt store in your town and every town within driving distance.  You’ve asked all of your friends.  And you’ve done a massive search online. 

That fabric is nowhere to be found – you bought the last fabric on the last bolt on the planet.  And the trip home from Mars or the moon will just take too long.

So much for that plan.  Undaunted, you keep going.

You find another fabric, ask seven experienced quilters what the secret to cutting straight strips is, and finally, the seventh quilter tells you.

Oh, it’s probably not that the others are keeping secrets; it’s just that they have cut so much fabric, they can do it in their sleep, and they forget all of the steps.  Or is it?

There are no secrets here! 

We love to share our best quilting tips, shortcuts and techniques, because we remember how it was when we first learned to quilt, and we want to spare you the suffering.

And now it's even easier to find the information you are looking for. Just enter a quilting word in the Search box, and all of the related articles will appear.

Don't find the information you are looking for?

Send us an email: . Chances are if you are asking, many other quilters have the same question.

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren and 

m. mouse, the Official How-to-Quilt Siamese Cat - who loves to nap on a quilt

www.How-to-Quilt.com

Specializing in Information for Beginning Quilters