Hybrid Piecing Circling Swallows – 1

Hybrid Piecing gives me the best of both worlds. It is one of the advantages of printing the shapes on fabric with Inklingo.

Hybrid Piecing Circling Swallows

When I print the shapes on fabric with Inklingo, I can combine hand and machine piecing in a “hybrid” and get the best of both worlds.

Circling Swallows is a great example and it is something you can try yourself with the FREE Diamond Triangle Square shape collection! Every Inklingo quilter needs the free shape collection.

PART 1: Hybrid Piecing – What to print?

1. For hand piecing, I print all of the shapes (above).

2. For machine piecing, I print one sheet of shapes to use as a template (above) to cut more shapes.

I don’t usually print all of the shapes for machine piecing because I don’t need the sewing lines to get accurate results. Instead, I print one sheet of fabric and layer it with unprinted fabric to cut more shapes.

In effect, I just print a “fabric template” (above). No acrylic! No measuring! Accurate shapes.

3. For hybrid piecing, I print all of the shapes so I can switch from machine piecing to hand piecing whenever the mood strikes me.

Advantages of Hybrid Piecing

I machine piece for fast results. (Impatient? Who, me?)  I hand piece the inset seams for lovely, relaxing continuous stitching and portability.

In Part 2 I will show you how I decide which shapes to machine piece (fast) and which seams to hand piece (portable) for this design. Please stay tuned!

Framing Samples

If you follow me on Facebook and Instagram, you know I have been framing some of my samples and quilts for the bathroom, the stairwell, and the family room—and I’m eyeing every other wall. (Windows are lovely but they can be limiting.)

My Circling Swallows is destined for the laundry room. Okay, Russ?

I framed this hybrid hexagon piece showing the back. (The front is pretty too. It’s all ONE fabric.)

The way we press hexagons is beautiful!

You can see my hybrid piecing strategy for hexagons and more photos in a previous article and I will share my hybrid strategy for Circling Swallows in Part 2, coming soon.

Everything You Need to Know to Print on Fabric

In the meantime, if you want ALL of my best tips for printing with Inklingo, you need Six Simple Steps with Scraps, okay? It is a PDF to download, so you can have it NOW. No shipping. No waiting. Only $20 for the most important 59 pages! Monkey says you need this, okay?

See you next time!