These square units are pieced separately, then joined together to make up the quilt pattern. This is the middle layer of the quilt which is normally made from a cotton or cotton blend, or polyester.
The batting is there to add thickness to your quilt and add an extra layer of insulation. The thickness of your quilt depends on your own personal preference, but you need to consider that if you choose a thicker batting, it will be harder to sew your quilt by hand.
This is the third, and bottom layer of the quilt which can be a piece of extra wide backing fabric or another fabric of your choice. The fabric panels must be pieced together to create a backing for large quilts, and it is advisable to choose a backing that coordinates with the top of the quilt.
We normally recommend a sturdy machine which comes with an automatic thread cutter, which will make your life easier when moving in between different patchwork. However, if you are sewing your quilt by hand, just make sure you stock up on the right supplies.
For example, if you choose to work by hand, your needle needs to be strong enough to handle a quilt's many layers. This is essential if you are looking to cut straight, crisp lines for the top layer of your quilt. Scissors may work for simple projects, but a rotary cutter is easier on the hands and wrists and far more efficient. When making your quilt, using a cutting mat will help protect your work surface from damage, and prevent your knife blade or rotary cutter from dulling quickly.
If you do use a rotary cutter to cut pattern pieces, a full-size cutting table mat is ideal. You should also look for a mat that is graduated and fully numbered on all four sides of the mat. Keep the back stitch to a minimum stitches forwards and backwards. Trim threads regularly as they are easily caught up in rows of stitching. We are working with a dark thread in the tutorial, so that you can see the stitching. You are welcome to work with an inconspicuous or visible thread depending on the look you require.
What stitch length should I use? Generally speaking you will be able to work with a standard 2. However if you are working with a thick fabric or heavy wadding you may wish to use a longer stitch length so that the stitches are visible and pleasant to the eye.
I would recommend testing this. Once you have sewn all of the lines in one direction. Start sewing the lines in the opposite direction.
As before, start sewing on a line in the middle of the piece of fabric, and sew all of the lines in the same direction. Both of these techniques will help to prevent shifting. Work from the middle out to both edges. Once you have finished sewing, trim any remaining threads. Trim off the excess wadding batting , or backing fabric.
Cut around the fabric edge. Now your fabric is ready to work with. Take your pattern piece and position it onto your quilted fabric, you may like to think about the placement of the quilting lines onto the pattern or template you are working with.
Remember to work with your pattern as normal; true and measure the grainline of the pattern to the fabric. I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and learned some new tips and techniques that you can use in future projects. Do you know how to read a sewing pattern? How to find the right size pattern for your measurements, where to find the finished garment measurements?
Picture 6. Choose a large spot on your floor - hardwood or tile is better than carpet. Then clean your floor! This is very important, especially if you're using a white backing. Also make sure your feet are clean - you're going to be walking and crawling all over the quilt. On top of this, lay out your batting. Smooth it out as well, and make sure it's centered on your backing. The best way to smooth it out is to get down on your hands and knees, honestly.
You can either go end-to-end or from the middle out. Do what works best for you - just be sure to be very thorough! Once the outside is pinned, trim all around the edges. I normally leave a couple inches on each side. And keep the excess fabric from the sheet - we're going to be using that to make the binding! Now, if you're really worried that you might have bumps - flip the quilt over and check out the back once it's pinned around the edges. In this case, my sheet wasn't wanting to play nice see the bumps on picture 3?
Once you're satisfied, flip it back over and pin like a madperson. Seriously, pin all over. The more pins you have, the smoother it'll stay while sewing. As long as your pins are in the middle of squares, you'll be fine. You will need to change out the thread for quilting. The spool the thread at the top of your machine will be clear nylon, and the thread loaded into the bobbin will be white cotton. Or whatever color will match your backing.
Set your stitch length to the longest. Note that you can keep it white cotton on both - but I'm not a fan. Having clear nylon on top will disguise your stitches so you don't have to worry about clashing with the fabric colors. Once you have the thread loaded, it's always good to do a test run of stitches on a piece of scrap fabric - you might have to tweak your machine settings a bit. In addition, it's also a good idea to change out your needle - you'll need a new sharp one since you'll be going through multiple layers!
The best set-up for quilting is putting your sewing machine at the very edge of a table so the quilt has somewhere to go as you sew it. The quilt that hasn't been through the machine yet will rest on your lap. Try your hardest to not let the quilt hang from the table - this can cause uneven stitches and make your sewing machine work much harder. I highly, highly recommend using a walking foot for quilting.
A walking foot looks a bit like something out of Star Wars, but it does wonders for keeping your fabrics in line. It works like the feed dogs under the needle that pull the fabric through - just on top! So you get extra flattening pulling power which helps prevent the stitches from getting strained and tiny, and keeps your fabric from puckering and ruching an insane amount!
I attempted to quilt half of the quilt using my regular presser foot just so I could say, "Hey, it's okay, use a regular foot! So I'll be trimming the quilt a bit, not a big deal. We're going to be doing this the easiest possible way because I'm assuming most people doing this will have an itty bitty sewing machine like me which makes it pretty hard to do more intricate stuff. All we're going to be doing is sewing over the seam lines, which will create a nice puffy grid. Also known as stitching in the ditch!
You'll start sewing the quilt right side up, on the right side. You'll be sewing down the long side first. You don't have to backstitch for this, either, so don't worry about that.
I always sew straight down the first seam to begin with, and then you can sew the very edge of the quilt together if you like. Then you can go back to stitching in the ditch. Continue to do this for the next couple rows. Remove your pins after you sew the seam to the left of them. By this time you'll notice you have quite a bit of fabric bunching up on the right against your sewing machine - the easiest way to combat this is to roll the quilt up on the right so you can keep sewing. You'll keep rolling it until you get halfway and then flip the quilt so you're sewing the other side.
Continue sewing and rolling until you finish all the seams. Then, turn the quilt so that you're sewing down the short side and repeat - sew and roll until the middle, and then flip and sew and roll again. Your finished quilt will essentially look like a puffy grid.
This is easier to see on the back. Chances are you've got a lot of tiny puckers in the fabric and this is okay. It's my opinion that a patchwork quilt should LOOK like it was made at home. All those little puckers give it character! At this point, if your backing fabric has shifted, or all the layers didn't line up in some way, just trim a little off the edges of the quilt. This happens, and once again, it's okay! And plus, if you have a tiny little machine like me, or you don't use a walking foot, some shifting is almost guaranteed to occur!
Also keep in mind that once you wash the quilt the first time the puckers will even out and it will look positively lovely since you didn't prewash the fabrics. There are a two ways to do this - you can buy bias tape in store or you can use the excess from the sheet.
I'm going to show you how to use the excess from the sheet because bias tape is expensive and I'm on a budget. The first thing you need to do is to cut your sheet into strips. Note that I always cut straight strips.
I might be using a bias tape maker, but I don't cut the fabric on the bias - I cut on the straight grain. I haven't had any issues with my binding wearing out because of this. I just wanted to clear that up because I had a question in the comments about it. You'll need to switch back to the standard presser foot for this. Now we sew the strips together! Take two strips and lay them on your work surface as shown in the first picture and pin. Now take your ruler and draw a diagonal line.
Cut away the excess fabric. Sew along the line you drew and then press the seam flat. Once it's pressed, cut off the bits hanging out! The final part!!!
Get out your ironing board, iron, bias tape maker, and bring your gigantic strip of fabric Feed the fabric into the bias tape maker wrong side up so that you can see the bottom of the seams and push it in until you can see the fabric through the slot in the middle. Find find something tiny I used a little crochet hook to stick into the slot and drag the tape through.
Once it's out you're good to go! Hold the finished bias tape down and drag the bias tape maker in the opposite direction and iron the new bias tape that forms. Feed the bias tape off the opposite end of the ironing board from the fabric strip.
Make sure the seams feed through nice and flat and that your fabric doesn't bunch up in the bias tape maker and you should be fine! Once you've fed it all through and ironed it nice and flat, fold the bias tape in half and iron it again! Now you're finished!
If you had any shifting or weirdness, now is the time to make things nice and square. Above are pictures of my quilt after I trimmed it. Includes the awesome fold for getting beautiful, easy corners. You'll line this raw edge up with the edge of your quilt. Starting on one of the long sides of the quilt around the middle, pin the raw edge of the bias tape to the edge of the quilt, leaving a 6 inch tail of bias tape. Continue pinning every six inches or so until you reach the corner.
At the corner, extend the bias tape over the opposite edge. Then, fold it back so that it forms a triangle and goes to the left the original pinned strip. Now, fold the strip back over the triangle so that the folded edge lines up the with the raw edge and the strip can now continue down the shorter side of the quilt!
If you've done this correctly, you'll have a little triangle fold as shown in the last photo. Do this for every corner, and keep pinning every six inches or so until you come around to your starting point.
One of my favorite things about quilting is the wonderful community of people who are willing to share their experience and knowledge. Amy, thank you so much for this great article. Thanks you for this! This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
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When choosing fabrics think about color and scale First think about what can we learn from fabric collections: they contain well coordinated colors and prints in a variety of scales. If that still feels overwhelming, a good jumping-off option is to use a single print for inspiration Find a focus fabric and choose your color scheme based on that fabric.
Pick different shades of the same color Here are a couple examples from a recent patchwork quilt for my son. September 1, By Amy. About Amy. A few works in progress March 25, Previous Post Next Post. Reply CherylB September 1, at am Excellent topic! I still struggle with color choice. Reply Sandra Nachlinger September 1, at am Very helpful. Reply Kim B. September 1, at pm This is a fantastic post Amy! Reply Tami September 1, at pm Thank you!
Reply Rosemaryflower September 2, at am Amy, this is my biggest struggle. Reply Lara B. September 2, at am Great post Amy, with lots of helpful advice — thanks! Reply AmyScrapSpot September 2, at am Thank you so much for breaking this topic down a bit!
Reply Buffy September 2, at pm Such a great post! Well written and excellent info. Reply Michelle September 5, at am I loved your advice in this post. Reply Karen September 8, at pm My favorite part of quilting is also fabric shopping and then laying the quilt out once I have my fabric cut. Reply shonascrochetandcraft January 28, at am Thank you. Reply Rachel Milgroom January 28, at am Great post! This article was very informative. Reply Roxy Waterhouse August 15, at pm Thanks so for the extensive overview of quilt sample selection Amy.
Reply Kathy September 15, at pm Question, can you use white in a quilt when most of the quilts uses light beige. Reply Amy September 16, at pm Just to clarify, are you talking about putting white and beige in the same quilt or replacing beige with white?
Reply susanbanthony48 November 3, at pm Thank You Amy for all your tips. Reply Bridgette February 23, at am One of my favorite things about quilting is the wonderful community of people who are willing to share their experience and knowledge.
Reply Washiela February 25, at am Amy, thank you so much for this great article. Reply nancyt August 1, at pm Great post and simple, informative advise. Reply Kate August 25, at am Thanks you for this!
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