I recently discovered a sewing product out there in Quiltworld that I found to be very interesting, useful, extremely helpful. It's called Quilter's Grid, or Fusibile Grid. Many different companies make it, and it comes with different sized grids. I bought a bolt of 1 inch fusible grid by Pellon.
The fusible grid allows you to place small squares of fabric on the fusible side (glue side up) in nice neat rows by aligning the edges of the fabric squares with the lines on the grid. You then press the squares. (Don't "iron", you will disturb the squares and move them out of alignment! PRESS with the iron--place the hot iron on the squares, press down, count to 10 or so, and then pick the iron up and move it to a new section, and press the new section. Continue pressing until all small squares are fused to the grid.) The picture below shows a 9" piece of grid with 1.5" squares laid out on it. The blocks will eventually finish off at 6". This means that you need to take into account your seam allowances when cutting the correct size of fusible, and your squares. You will lose 1/2" for every seam you sew because of seam allowances. I would also give the squares on the outside edges a little extra length sticking off the grid to make the final squaring-up process as accurate as possible. (I do this with all my paper-piecing blocks too!)
After your squares are pressed and fused onto the grid, flip it to the back and fold the first row onto the second row, right sides together, and crease the fold with a fingernail. The fold may or may not be on a grid line. Sew along the fold with your usual quarter-inch seam. Slit the fold, or trim off a sliver off the length of the fold, iron it open.
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This shows the slivers of 2 folds that have been trimmed off so the seam
can be opened and pressed flat. Each is only about 1/16th of an inch wide. |
Some people prefer to slit the seam open with a sharp seam ripper or scissors. I found it was quicker and easier to slice off a sliver. Because you are actually cutting off some of the seam allowance by cutting slivers, you might want to give your seam allowances a little more width (as in a "fat quarter-inch," which is the opposite of a "scant quarter-inch!")
Repeat with row 2, and all the remaining vertical rows.
Now do the same thing with the horizontal rows. Your block will become square again as you sew all the horizontal rows.
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Recap: Step 1: Cut the fusible grid to the correct size.
Step 2: Align the fabric squares on the fusible grid. Press in place.
Step 3: Sew the vertical seams. Slit or sliver the folds and press open.
Step 4: Sew the horizontal seams. Slit or sliver the folds and press open.
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You can use any size fabric squares on the grid. Regardless of what size squares you use, you will get perfect corners every time! Just sew a seam! No points to match, no sewing square to square or row to row! If you are going to do a lot of small squares (think Irish Chain quilts or postage stamp quilts), then Fusible Grid would save you so much time and effort, and your results would look phenomenal!
The picture below shows a blue square made up of 2.5" squares, (to finish off at 2" after you sew the seam allowances, and a character made of 1/2" squares. (That's not a typo! One-half inch squares!) Who would ever sew 1/2" squares? No one!! But you COULD if you wanted--the fusible grid makes it possible with little effort.
Front Back
Notice that the 1/2" squares are the same size as the seam allowance. I did not iron these open, I just ironed them all in the same direction.
After you have your beautiful blocks finished up with all their tiny squares aligned perfectly, now what? If you sew these blocks to each other, you would still have to align and match all those little squares, right?.... Maybe not! Use sashing strips! Or put the blocks on point with corners! You can easily match your blocks now!
One more VERY helpful hint before I wrap this up. If you have an area of your quilt block that uses a lot of the same fabric, you don't need to cut individual squares to place on the grid! Just cut one strip or rectangle or square of fabric big enough to cover that area! When you sew the seams, vertical and horizontal, it will give the ILLUSION of having placed individual squares!
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This is ONE large piece of fabric pressed to the fusible grid! I
sewed the center seams only, but you can see that it looks like 16
little squares are sewed in the center.
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I hope you will give Fusible Grid a try! I'm so glad I discovered it!
