Tips

Tip 1: Seam Rippers are not your enemy if you know how to use them. 

Method One

Post by Spool.

The Bad Ass Quilters Society posted this first tutorial on their Facebook page. I suggest following them. Here is what I learned using this method. First, it is faster. Second, I have to slowly rip about 1 or 2 inches in for it to work properly for me. That likely has to do with practice.

Method Two

A second seam ripping method works just as fast for me and I discovered it by watching innumerable quilting tutorials. Instead of ripping "between" the fabrics as in the video above, you flip the fabric to one side and with the sharp end of your seam ripper, take out every 3rd or 4th "thread"--see I don't know the lingo yet. Then after you take out several, just pull the two fabrics apart. The plus side to this method is that at one of the fabrics has longer threads for easier removal of the "ripped threads."

Another thing I didn't know is that you use the U-joint of the ripper for actual ripping. I was using the pointed prong and that was taking awhile. In method two, I still tend to use the pointed prong and that is okay.

Tip 2: Every quilter has a different method of doing things. It really helps to talk to multiple quilters or watch multiple tutorials.

Leah Day, who has become one of my favorite machine quilters after her post announcing another machine quilting class on Craftsy, says the same thing. I appreciate any quilting teacher who says that you should check out other methods/techniques. I am taking one of Leah's machine quilting classes on Craftsy, and she is AWESOME!