Quilty's
Information for New Quilters
Quilty's
Information
for New Quilters
When I first decided to start quilting I was lucky enough to live opposite a veteran quilter who was more than happy to pass on her experiences and knowledge. My friend spent time going through the basic steps with me and gave me a list of equipment that I would need, explained what certain words and phrases meant in the world of quilting, these words can all be found in my dictionary, and which books would be helpful when starting out.
As I have been extremely lucky I thought I would pass on my good fortune to others who are interested in getting started in quilt making.
I hope these tips help, remember though there is nothing quite like being shown, so if you can attend a beginners quilt course - DO.
So here goes ...
Preparing the Quilt for Quilting
45mm Rotary Cutter (Olfa)
18" x 24" Rotary Mat (marked with a 1" grid)
6" x 24" Acrylic Ruler (marked with ¼" increments and with 30°, 45° and 60° angles)
Good Fabric Marking Tools - Quilters Ultimate Pencil, Washout or Fading Fabric Pens
Plastic Marking Tools - indelible Pen (for templates)
1 Pair of Good Scissors for cutting Fabric
1 Pair of Scissors for cutting Paper and Plastic (for templates)
1 Good Iron
1 Mini Iron (Clover)
1 Ironing Board
1 Sewing Machine (or as many as you can buy!)
¼" Foot for your Sewing Machine
100% Cotton Thread (grey is a good colour for sewing all colours together)
Hand Sewing Needles
Quilting Needles (both for the sewing machine and by hand)
Batting (there are several different kinds, cotton, polyester and cotton and wool)
You will also need FABRIC!
Always use 100% cotton fabric. Cotton is easy to quilt and can be ironed nicely as well as providing minimum seam distortion.
There is a difference in opinion among many quilters as to whether or not you should pre-wash your fabric. Some do, some don't. However, if you want to be sure that your fabric won't shrink and want to be sure that the fabric is colourfast then wash it before you starting cutting it.
If you are going to pre-wash your fabric use only warm water. You can tumble (or air-dry) your fabric once it is washed. If the fabric does run then keep rinsing it until the water is clear, if the water never gets clear do not use the fabric in your quilt.
If you decide again pre-washing, remember that your fabric may run and may even shrink a little when you do wash your quilt, although if it does shrink a little it will shrink about the same amount all over and this will mean that your quilt will have that antique puckered look.
The best places to buy fabric for quilting is at the specialist quilt shops, the ladies who work in these stores are knowledgeable and very good and helping you select colours that will work well together.
First of all remember never ever ever to include the selvage edge in your quilt, always cut this off when cutting out your pieces.
Fabric should always be cut with the grain. One or more of the straight edges of your cut piece should follow the LENGTHWISE (runs parallel to the selvage edge) or CROSSWISE (runs perpendicular to the selvage edge) grain of your fabric.
The LENGTHWISE grain does not have much stretch at all.
The CROSSWISE grain does have a little more give in it.
The edge of your piece that is going to be on the outside of the block MUST always be cut on the LENGTHWISE grain.
Border strips should be cut on the CROSSWISE grain as this uses the least amount of fabric.
Preparing your Fabric For Cutting
Lay your fabric right side down with the selvage edge away from you on your cutting mat. Now fold your fabric in half so that the selvage edges are together and the wrong side of the fabric is on the inside of the fold. Fold your fabric in half one more time making sure to align the folded edge with the selvage edges. Run your hand over the folds to put a hand crease on the folds.
Rotary Cutting
So your fabric should now be laying folded as described above on your cutting mat with the selvage edges away from you and the bulk of your material to the left of you.
Take your Acrylic Ruler and align the horizontal grid line on your ruler with the lower folded edge of your fabric, make sure that you have left at least 1" of fabric exposed to the right of the ruler.
Hold the ruler firmly in place by applying pressure with your fingertips.
Take your Rotary Cutter, (if you have a locking rotary cutter remember to open it and be sure to close it again when you have finished using it), and place it at an angle to the cutting mat with the blade against the right edge of your ruler.
Roll the Rotary Cutter along on the right side of the ruler and cut through your fabric.
You should not have a straight edge from which you can now measure all further cuts.
Now cut the side strips you need for the quilt you are making. Before cutting make sure you have measured correctly.
Once you have finished cutting out all of your fabric you are ready to start sewing your quilt blocks together, but first you should lay out your quilt on a large table or the floor so that you can make sure you are happy with the design.
Once you have laid the quilt blocks out you can start sewing them together. Seam allowances should always be ¼" unless otherwise specified by the pattern you are following.
The easiest and most efficient way of doing this is referred to as chain stitching. This is the method where you sew quilt blocks together one after the other in a continuous line with a couple of stitches in between each block.
This also means you will use least thread.
After you have sewn pieces together press them with a hot iron (no steam) before sewing the next seam.
This is another area where you will find a difference of opinion among quilters, do you press the seam allowance to the side or do you press the seam allowances open?
Once again the choice is yours, I have done both and prefer pressing the seam allowances open, however, when I am using light and dark fabrics I do press the seam allowances to the dark side so that you don't see them through the lighter fabric.
Preparing the Quilt for Quilting
Your quilt top should now be completely sewn together.
Make a Quilt Sandwich
To get your quilt ready for quilting you will have to make up a quilt sandwich from your quilt top, quilt batting and the quilt backing fabric.
The quilt backing should be 3" bigger than your quilt top on all four sides. Depending on the size of your quilt top you may have to piece your backing.
Lay your quilt backing on a large flat surface with the wrong side facing up. Make sure the fabric is smooth before you secure the backing to the surface using either tape or clips.
Take your batting and lay this on top of the quilt backing, making sure to smooth out as you go.
Now take your quilt top and place this, right side up, on top of the batting. Make sure the quilt top is centred on the backing and smooth out as you go.
Baste Your Quilt
Once you are happy that your quilt sandwich is smooth you can baste your quilt together.
Basting can be done with pins, basting spray, stitches, etc.
Whichever method you decide to use you should always start from the centre of the sandwich and baste toward the edges, making sure that you do not move the fabric around as you and go and remembering to smooth out the fabric and you baste.
You should baste horizontally, vertically and diagonally.
Now that your quilt is basted you are ready to add your binding. There are two types of binding, double fold and single fold. Double fold binding is the most durable and should be used on those quilts that are going to be handled a lot. Single fold binding should be used for wall hangings and quilts where there will be little handling.
Double Fold Binding
This type of binding is cut 4 times the desired finished binding width plus ½" for seam allowances. ie., for ½" double fold binding you will need to cut 2½" wide binding strips.
Single Fold Binding
This type of binding is cut twice the desired finished binding width plus ½" for seam allowances. ie., for ¼" single fold binding you will need to cut 1" wide binding strips.
Adding the Binding to your Basted Quilt
You will need to cut enough strips of fabric to equal the total length required to bind the whole quilt.
Position the strips perpendicular to one another with raw edges aligned and the right sides together. Mark a diagonal line across the wrong side and sew the strips together using the chain method detailed above. When you have finished you should have one long continuous binding strip.
Trim the excess fabric from the joins so that you have ¼" seam allowances and press them open. Trim off any dog ears. Fold under 1" at one end of the bind strip and press into place.
Fold the strip in half lengthwise with the wrong sides together. Begin at the centre of the top of the quilt and place the binding strip (starting with the end where you previously pressed 1" into place) against the right side of the quilt top, align the raw edges of the binding strip and the basted quilt.
Start sewing the binding to the basted quilt (through all layers) 6" from the end of the binding strip, with a ¼" seam. Stop sewing together when you are a ¼" from the corner. Backstitch then remove your quilt from the machine. Clip any extra thread off.
Fold the binding strip upward to create a diagonal fold and finger press in place. Hold the diagonal fold in place and bring the binding strip down in line with the next edge. Make a horizontal fold so that the binding strip aligns with the quilts raw edge.
Start sewing again at the top of the horizontal fold, sewing through all layers. Sew the binding all around the quilt raw edge turning the remaining corners in the way described above.
When you get to the starting point place the raw edges under the folded edge. Finish sewing to the end and backstitch to secure before removing your quilt from the machine.
Turn the binding over the edge of the quilt to the back and hand sew in place using tiny invisible stitches. Make sure you cover the original binding stitches. Fold a mitre in each corner as you get to it.
There are a number of items that are really nice to have, these are not only nice to have they are essential items for someone who has decided that they really like quilting and are going to continue making more and more quilts.
Ott-Lite
Complete Guide to Quilting book from American Patchwork and Quilting
Cutting Table (Sears have a really good one)
Quilt Books
Quilt Patterns
Quilt Magazines
Access to the Internet as there are loads of free patterns and tips out there for quilters
Quilting Stencils
Quilty's
Tips and Free Patterns
Contact me at quilty@quiltalotamus.com
© Both the name
Quiltalotamus and the image are copyrighted.