Tips & Tools for Piecing Smaller Blocks

As we get closer to another round of Sewcialites, I thought it might be helpful if I shared some of my favorites for piecing small blocks.

For those of you unfamiliar with Sewcialites, it’s a sew along, hosted by Fat Quarter Shop, with a block released every week.  Each block is designed by a different designer and is available in a 3″, 6″, or 9″ size.  If you participated in Moda Block Heads, it will feel somewhat similar.

This is the second round of Sewcialites…you can see some of my round one 3″ blocks above.  You can still grab all of the patterns for round one as well as scope out the yardage requirements for this upcoming round (it kicks off next Friday) at this link.

I plan to make the 3″ blocks again and I know some of you will be as well.  I thought it would be helpful to film a little video about my must-haves for piecing small blocks.  You can watch the video here.

During the last round of Sewcialites, I shared this info in two different blog posts here, and here.  Those two blog posts included a lot of great information about piecing small blocks so I combined a lot of it into a video format so you can reference it.  And I am listing all of the tools I mentioned in the video, below (as well as in the description box of the video itself):

1. I will be using Faultless Spray starch to starch my fabrics prior to cutting the pieces for each block.
2. Good rulers to prevent shifting when cutting fabrics and squaring block units are a must.  I love Quilter’s Select rulers when I need to be very particular about my cutting.  They shift less than other rulers and I can be more precise.
3. I am generally not a pin user unless I have to–when working with small pieces pinning will help with accuracy.  I really like Little House pins as well as Magic Pins (fine, patchwork size) right now.
4. I am an Olfa 60mm rotary cutter user–pretty much all of the time.  I seldom use anything else!  However, for cutting small pieces, a 28mm rotary cutter is very nice.
5. A finer thread will provide nicer piecing results.  Many people don’t realize that the thread you choose can add bulk to your seams.  I always use Aurifil 50 weight thread in the color 2021 for all of my piecing.
6. Tailor’s Clapper to help flatten seams.  The fancier one pictured is from Modern American Vintage.
7.  Triangle paper can be nice.  The one pictured is extra nice (in my opinion) because it fits right on a 5″ charm square.  It’s the Primitive Gatherings brand.
8. Use a white on white fabric for your background.  I know many of you may be using these sorts of fabrics for backgrounds because they are prettier than a white solid.  But, I bet many of you might not realize that they have a bit more substance to them than a white solid (or even other quilting cottons).  They are so crisp, especially with a little bit of starch, and you’ll certainly notice how nice they are to piece with.  They really are nicer to piece with for small piecing (as well as larger piecing)!  The white on white pictured is from Coriander Seeds (29147 11).
9. Press all seams open.  Pin at intersections.  This is especially important when you are pressing your seams open as they will not naturally want to nest together as they do when pressed to the side.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I’ll be back again tomorrow with the next video/blog post in our Oh, Happy Day! sew along.  See you soon! Corey