How to Pin and Lock Patchwork Seams

 

 

Hello Friends,

 

A recap from last week when I talked about my daughter. Many of you sent me sweet remarks and I so appreciate them. As many of you said, by the time she came home from school, she was back to her happy, spirited self. Phew.

 

Today, I'm sharing How to Pin and Lock Seams to achieve the perfect point in your patchwork.

 

Locking seams is when seams in patchwork meet up without overlapping. Many precise quilters strive to have these seams lock perfectly. To ensure locked seams, place the top unit’s seam away from you and the bottom unit’s seam towards you as you feed the units into your machine. When the units are stitched together, the machine will slightly push the top unit’s seam into the bottom’s unit’s seam, ensuring a perfect stitch.

Okay, so what does all that wording really mean. Here's an example. We are constructing a pinwheel block. We have pieced our half square triangles and stitch together the top and bottom units of the block. Now, we need to stitch the top and bottom units together.

 

In the next series of photos, we break down two techniques: pinning and locked seams. As a beginner, I highly encourage to pin. As you build confidence, the less you’ll pin.

Here are our top and bottom units on the left side of the photo below. The block on the right side is where we want to be: a perfectly locked unit with perfect points.  

 

  

To stitch together the top and bottom units, we pin the center point by inserting the pin through the intersecting seams of the top unit.

 

  

View the tip of the pin from the right side of the unit to verify the pin is coming through precisely at the point.

  

With the same pin, push the pin into the bottom unit by inserting it at the point on the right side of the unit.

 

Push the top and bottom unit together. Make sure the pin is evenly through the unit.

 

 

 While holding the two units together and even, insert two more pins to each side of the first pin.

 

Remove the first pin. Feed the units into your machine. Aim just a hair to the right of the point. Remove the pins right before the area is stitched.

Tada. A perfectly locked and stitched point. I pinwheeled the seams and pressed.

 

 

Enjoy,

Sandra