Getting Started with Quilting

Detail of a nine patch quilt

You know that feeling when you snuggle up in something handmade? It just feels better, cozier, and warmer...

Quilted patchwork is designed to last and to have a visual impact. It's maker intentionally cut pieces apart, arranged them into a graphic pattern, and stitched them together to make a strong visual statement.

You can picture the thoughts and steps that go into this process of tearing down and building back up. When you see a handmade quilt, you appreciate all the choices that went into the making of the patchwork, and all the stitching that will hold it together for years to come.

You can imagine someone saving parts of beloved but old clothes that they can't quite toss or donate.

And you know that this has been going on for generations - salvaging, upcycling, and recycling -  keeping patterns and memories alive.

A quilt is a one-of-a-kind creation. It comes from a lot of thought and a lot of playing around with colors and patterns. It brings warmth, protection, design, and history into our lives.

The Process

Making a Simple Block Quilt

​Cutting up and then reconstructing patches of differently colored and patterned fabric into something new is a satisfying creative endeavor.

You get to play around with contrasting and complimentary colors, and patterns and themes of whatever is printed on the fabric. Then you get to organize your patches into simple grids or complex patterns - it can be as bold or subtle as you want.

What kind of fabric makes you happy? Micro-prints of flowers in shades of green, or tiny pandas holding loaves of bread? It’s time to indulge yourself, and combine your favorite fabrics together into a simple block quilt that will hopefully be your first of many.

After gathering all the materials we need, we’re going to go through 6 steps to make a simple quilt.

[Note: this post includes links to sewing tools and accessories available through Amazon.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you). Clicking through will take you to an Amazon page with several best-selling choices.]

For the basic basics, you need fabric for the front, fabric for the back, batting for the middle, scissors, pins, a ruler, a quilting needle (for hand quilting), hand quilting thread (as well as regular needle and thread if you baste), and a thimble. Expanding the list are a sewing machine, a rotary fabric cutter, and a cutting mat.

Do all colors go together well?

Sure - you can do anything you like with combining colors! 

Treat your quilt like it’s a picture. It could be an abstract picture, like a block quilt or a crazy quilt. Or it could tell a story, like a quilt with embroidery, or a quilt made of themed t-shirts. You could even make a Landscape Quilt.

You can play around and pre-view your quilt by laying out pieces on a floor, table, or bed and stepping back to see what it looks like.

Lay out enough pieces to give you a sense of what the combined fabrics will look like – and then experiment with other fabrics until you get combinations you like.

Or, you can give in to a sense of randomness. Take your cut pieces, toss them into a pile on the table, and build blocks from whichever fabric pieces you happen to pick up next.

Go with your gut - with the combinations that are pleasing to your eye and get you excited about the project.

For a first quilt, sew with cotton (let’s leave wool quilts, or even upcycled sweater quilts, for another time).

STEP 1

As you go through fabric to choose for your project, make sure each piece of fabric still has some life in it.

There are many sources for fabrics. Quilt-making is a way to recycle fabrics from clothing, blankets, etc. that are too worn in some places but still have some life left. 

If you’ve got a favorite fabric but it’s worn pretty thin, now’s the time to baste another piece of fabric underneath it so it can be included in this quilt.

Of course, you can also use new fabric.

You should make sure all the fabric you're going to use - new and old - is clean and pre-shrunk. Wash brand new fabric to remove sizing and chemicals, and wash old fabric to remove stains. 

I like to make a quilt that can be thrown in the washer and dryer, so I also prepare all my fabric by washing it in warm water and then throwing it in the dryer. That way, fabric that hasn’t been pre-shrunk won’t suddenly cause puckering at the seams the first time it’s thrown in the dryer.

Using vintage fabrics? Here's a tip:

Evelyn Siefert Kennedy, an expert textiles preservationist, outlined some advice in an interview about preserving vintage fabrics:

 ...(she) uses distilled war to ensures that there are no mineral deposits, and a fiberglass screen to support large pieces when she hand-washes them. "It helps you lift the piece without damaging the fabric," she says. 
She recommends that once you determine that a vintage fabric is washable, you follow this procedure: Soak the fabric in cold water for 20 minutes. Drain. You may need to soak again if the water is dirty. Then soak it again in a mixture of 4 tablespoons of baking soda per quart of water. The baking soda breaks down the pollutants in the stain. It is excellent for getting rid of mud or ink. You may need to repeat this process. If you need to remove grease, use Murphy's Oil Soap. If you need to remove rust, use Whink, a commercial soap. A paste of lemon juice and salt will also remove rust. 
If you need to do general washing, use Woolite. Do not use bleach. If you must whiten the fabric, use a 3 percent solution of hydrogen peroxide mixed with cold water in a 50-50 ratio. Do not use bleach with metal or metallic fabrics. Do not put precious pieces in a washing machine or dryer. Wrap the washed piece in a towel to blot-dry it. Then lay it out flat on a towel and let it air-dry. "

STEP 2

The next step is cutting fabric into usable pieces.

You need to understand fabric bias and make sure to avoid cutting your fabric on the bias. There are times when you want your fabric to be stretchy, and that’s when you cut it on the bias. But for this project, you’ll want to cut it on the grain.

Here’s a good explanation with helpful photos of selvedge, bias, and grain

Is some of your fabric wrinkly and going to be hard to cut and sew? Then now’s the time to plug in the iron and wrangle the wayward cotton into ideal flatness!

Our first, simple quilt is going to be same-size squares sewn together.

How big do you want your quilt to be? How big do you want your squares to be? If you want your squares to be 9 x 9, and you want your quilt to be for a twin size bed, you’re going to want a finished product that’s close to 39” x 80”. So, you’ll have 5 squares across, and 9 squares down, for a total of 45 squares.

When we stitch squares together, we generally stitch a ¼” seam, so when figuring out the math, if you want your squares to be 9” in the finished quilt, then you’ll cut the squares to be 9.5” square.

Once you’ve plotted out the size square you want, and figured out how many squares you need to make the quilt the size you want – counting the ¼” seams in the equation – then you’ll cut your prepped fabric.

Use a rotary cutter and cutting mat (or just a pair of scissors) and a good ruler. Then, cut your fabric into the pieces you’ll need, making sure that you’re cutting parallel to the selvedge.

STEP 3

Time to get stitching!

Lay out the fabric in a grid – just the way you want your quilt to be when it’s finished.

I suggest you sew the squares of the top row together – working left to right until you’ve got the 5 squares all stitched together in a row. Then sew the squares the same way for the remaining rows.

Then iron the seams open, one row at a time. If your quilt is 5 x 9 squares, then you’ll have 9 rows of 5 stitched-together squares.

Now, stitch the rows together, starting with the top two. Iron the seams open as you go.

When you’re finished, step back and admire your quilt top!

STEP 4

Assembling the 3 pieces, aka the quilt sandwich.

Because you’re working with fabric that can slip and slide, you’ll want your batting and back to be bigger than your quilt top. That way, if it sides a bit one way or another, you’re covered. So, cut a piece of batting for the middle – and make sure it’s about 2” wider and longer than your quilt top.

Batting can be wool, cotton, or poly, in sizes from 45 x 60 (crib) to 120 x 120 (King).

Next, you’ll need to cut a piece of fabric for the back – or piece together some fabric for the back. Make sure this bottom layer is 1” wider and longer than the batting layer – just so you don’t run into shortage problems if the quilt top shifts a bit. (Note: if you’re sending your quilt of to a company that will do the stitching for you, using a long arm stitching machine – then check in with them about how much extra they’d like on the middle and bottom layers.)

Lay the three pieces, one on top of the other, on a table or on the floor. Smooth everything out so there are no puckers or ridges.

Now you have to baste the quilt sandwich together – by stitch basting, by spray-basting, or by pin-basting.

Then, baste stitch down the middle of the pieces, securing them together. Run some additional basting top to bottom and side to side. You want the quilt pieces secure enough so you can do your top stitching.

Alternatively, you could secure the layers together with safety pins, pin-basting the layers together.

STEP 5

Putting it all together.

You’ve got several choices here. You could just tack down the three pieces in several spots, or tack down with buttons, hand stitch, machine stitch, or pack it up and ship it off to a company which you can pay to do machine top-stitching for you.

If you’re finishing your quilt with hand stitching, you may want to use a round embroidery hoop, a craft frame, or a square Q-Snap frame. Stitch in a grid pattern, diamond pattern, swirls, or any way you’d like; you could purchase quilting paper or a quilting template, use tailor’s chalk or a disappearing ink marking pen to map out where you’re going to stitch.

Superior Threads has helpful descriptions of the qualities of different quilting threads

Here you have a choice: do you want your stitches to be more functional than decorative? Then you’d choose a color that’s close to your fabric. But you may want to use a contrasting color – or colors - to add a layer of design to your quilt. You may even want to go big with some sashiko - or big - stitching (more on that below).

You can also machine stitch the quilt layers together. The thread chart below (screen grab from superiorthreads.com) shows approximate amounts of thread needed for machine sewing the three layers of a quilt together, for the top feed only. If you want to use the same thread for the machine's bottom feed, you'll need to double the amount.

Screen grab and how to estimate your explanation below from Superior Threads:

Use a running stitch, using the rocking technique. I try and keep my stitches as regular and consistent as possible, about 1/8” in length.  I like to have my rows of stitches about 2” apart – that way, I know that when I throw the quilt in the washer/dryer, the 3 layers are tacked together enough that the batting won’t clump.

Start your stitching at the center of your quilt and work your way to the edges.

You’ll want to use quilting thread and quilting needles. Coats & Clark sells Hand Quilting thread which is cotton-covered poly; Gutermann sells Quilting thread which is 100% cotton.

Quilting thread is heavier and stiffer than regular thread. It’s a bit wire-y, so it doesn’t knot up as you’re doing your stitching.

Professor Pincushion has a wonderful tutorial on hand-quilting your layers together.

You don’t have to do small stitches – you can stitch your quilt layers together using big stitches – stitches that measure ¼ to 3/8 inches in length, rather than 1/8 of an inch in length.

Screen grab from Wendi Gratz’s Big Stitch Quilting post at Shiny Happy World:

Here’s a tutorial from Wendi Gratz which walks you through how to sew big stitches.

STEP 6

The final step is edging your quilt, adding a bias strip to all four sides, and mitering the corners.

Let's look at a couple of super-helpful videos that show how to finish a quilt, both from Rebecca Mae Designs:

How to make bias binding. 

How to bind a quilt.

Time to pat yourself on the back – especially if your mitered corners turned out well! You did it! 

You're a quilter now, and I'm super-proud of you! You want to make another one, right?

Photo via Victoria & Albert Museum: Applique cotton coverlet. England, circa 1851

Links to Free patterns and Instructions

You might want to try a simple 9 patch block quilt next, or a simple square quilt with half square triangles, featured on Sew Mama Sew.   

How about a quicker project, like a baby quilt, from Diary of a Quilter?  

Free downloadable quilt patterns and instructions can be found at Fabrice Editions and AccuQuilt.

There’s another way to create a quilt, called Quilt As You Go. Rather than creating the quilt top, and then putting it together with the middle and bottom layers, you create the three layers for sections of your quilt, and then join the separate quilt blocks into a whole.

Abby Holverson has uploaded a free tutorial for Instructables, called Quilt-As-You-Go.  Thank you, Abby!

Below are some super-helpful quilting books that will help you get started. Click through to Amazon for more information. [As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).]

Next, check out How to Make a Quilt from Fabric Scraps and Sashiko Stitching. See some amazing quilts we've pinned to our Quilting Pinterest Board.

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