Quilt Making – It’s Not That Complicated!

carolynbHow complex or simple it is to learn something new simply depends on the way it is taught! Quilt making can be broken down into simple steps.

First, decide on the size of quilt you wish to make. Is it for a king size or queen size bed or one for the kids?

Once decided, pick the quilt material that you plan to use and pre-wash it. Simple hand wash or machine wash and drying will do. Iron the material.

If you have chosen a particular pattern for your quilt, cut blocks accordingly – square, round, triangle etc. Also cut and sew the border strips for them. Now even if your block moved a little the thicker borders allow for stitching.

Now lay out the blocks as per your pattern and begin sewing one to another until all the blocks are sewn.

It is time to now lay down the batting and backing! Allow it to be one inch extra than the quilt top cloth. You can choose between a low and a high loft batting, depending on whether you want slick and smart quit or a warm a fuzzy quilt! Also thickness is determined by whether it will be a hand or machine quilt. For machine quilt a thin (low) loft is preferred and for a hand quilt a thick (high) loft is used. Also keep the backing and the batting piece 1 inch bigger than the quilt top.

Once you choose your batting, layer the quilt top, batting and backing in that order. With a needle and thread make a stitch every 5 or 6 inches to keep all layers in place and not allow for any shifting. Alternately, if you do not want to stitch, you can pin the layers together. You can also use a wooden frame to lay all the layers clamp them together, so they do not shift.

Now you’re ready to either hand stitch or machine stitch and tie the layers together. Once done, take it off the frame.

Finally, iron the quilt all along the edges, choose a cloth for binding and bind it along all four edges to give it a beautiful border and to keep all the layers secure. Sew it either by hand or machine stitch as per your preference.

Read More:Free Motion Quilting (FMQ): Tips for Getting Started | Quilting Tutorial