Quilting Basics:
…creating with style, stitching with ease.
Besides the visual and tactile appeal of this age-old craft, the real beauty of quilting for home-sewer lies in its simplicity. You need minimal special equipment (most importantly an appetite for fabric and creativity!) to produce fabulous, time-honored results.
Getting Started
A quilt is a “fabric sandwich” comprised of two layers of fabric (top and backing) filled with batting and held together with stitches (the quilting). The quilt top usually is pieced or appliquéd; the backing is typically a solid fabric; the batting can be lofty or dense; and the quilting stitches are produced by hand or machine. The basics presented here will give you a foundation and confidence to try your hand at this treasured craft. For inspiration and more detailed technical direction, look to the many quilting books and magazines on the market today, hands-on classes, quilting friends and your local quilter’s guild. Most of the materials you’ll need to get started are already in the sewing room (needles, pins, thread, scissors, marking tools, beeswax, measuring tools, thimble, fabric scraps and batting).
Paintings In Fabric, Collages of Color
Today’s quilting fabrics are many and varied: cotton, cotton/polyester, silk, velvet, satin, linen, denim, corduroy. 100% Cotton is often favored by quilters because of it’s special qualities. It’s strong when wet, creases easily, absorbs moisture, wears well and is available in a wide range of colors and prints. The most popular cottons: broadcloth, calico, poplin, chintz and polished cotton.
- Check fabrics for colorfastness: For washable fabrics, soak each fabric individually in very warm water for 15 minutes; swish and remove. If water discolors, repeat, adding cup of vinegar. Still not colorfast? It’s best to choose another fabric, rather than jeopardize color-bleed on your finished quilt.
- Preshrink fabrics, using the same method you’ll use to clean the finished quilt. Fabrics often shrink; if not dealt with at this stage, the finished quilt will have puckered seams after cleaning.
- Damp-dry and press each fabric.
- Look for fabrics designed specifically for quilt backing in widths up to 108”.
- Choose batting based on the loft (thickness), which determines the warmth or springiness of quilt.
- Chose fabric colors and designs that you love and want to live with:
- Purchase ¼ yard cuts of each fabric and make a few test blocks.
- Mix fabrics: large- and small-scale prints; solids and print; lights, mediums and darks of the same color.
- Incorporate accent colors for unexpected spark.
- Trust yourself and have fun. You know the colors and prints that put a smile on your face.
Calculating Yardage Requirements
Although seemingly tricky, you’ll learn with experience to turn the process of fabric estimation into the art of fabric guess-timation. As a beginner, always overestimate.
- First determine the finished size of your quilt (there are no standards). This is the approximate size you’ll need for the quilt backing and batting.
- Yardage required for the quilt top depends on the design. To estimate yardage: Examine the pattern; measure the pieces in one block, adding 1⁄4” to each and noting the quantity of each color; then multiply this number by the number of blocks in the quilt.
- Measure sashing strips and ¼ inch to each side of each. Multiply by the number of strips.
Quick Cuts
TIP Take time when cutting to ensure extreme accuracy for piecing
- Quilting pieces can be cut quickly and most accurately using a rotary cutter, cutting mat and clear plastic ruler.
- Fold the fabric in half crosswise, selvages matching. Hold the selvage edge, letting the fold hang free; shift one side of the fabric until the fold hangs straight. This foldline is the straight of grain.
- Place the fold along a gridline on the cutting mat. Trim across the fabric, taking care not to move the fabric. After every few cuts, check to be sure the cut edge is still at a 90-degree angle to the straight-grain fold.
- Cut off selvages and discard. They don’t shrink uniformly, which can wreak havoc in the finished quilt. Cut all pieces for blocks, sashing and binding on the crosswise grain unless otherwise specified.
- Cut sashing and binding strips after completing the quilt top to ensure accurate measurements.
- Cut squares and rectangles from strips (multiple layers if desired). Cut triangles from squares by cutting diagonally.
Piece Makers
Most quilt tops are pieced from small fabric shapes. Beginners should choose a simple geometric, such as a rectangle or square. Cut from different fabric colors or prints, the same shape is pieced to create a block (pieced fabric square.) Several blocks will be sewn together for the quilt top. Other shape options include triangles, diamonds and curved shapes, all of which are more difficult to construct. The number of possible combinations for making blocks is unlimited!
Use 1⁄4” seam allowances and stitch accurately so all pieces fit together exactly. Press as you piece, pressing seam allowances to one side toward the darker fabric. On bias edges, finger-press, as pressing with an iron can distort the grain.
Chain-piece by stitching multiple units together without backstitching or stopping between each. Use a 15-stitches-per-inch stitch length, shortening it at the beginning and end of each unit in lieu of backstitching.
Artful Appliqué
More intricate curved shapes are usually machine- or hand-appliquéd onto flat fabric or onto pieced squares. Use tear-away stabilizer under the backing fabric to prevent puckering.
Blind stitch, blanket stitch or satin stitch to secure them. Press appliquéd areas from the wrong side only. For machine appliqué, decrease the needle thread tension and use bobbin thread that matches the quilt top.
Putting It Together
After completing the quilt top, you’re ready for layering, basting and quilting.
- Cut the batting and quilt backing so they extend 2” to 4” beyond the quilt top on all sides. If the backing must be pieced, press seams open. Allow polyester batting to lie flat and relax for several hours before cutting.
- Press the quilt top and backing separately, and mark quilting lines on the quilt top right side before layering. Pin-mark the center of each edge of the top, bat and back.
- Wrong side up, tape the backing to a large flat surface (floor or table), making sure it’s smooth and taut, not stretched.
- Place the batting on the backing, then the quilt top (right side up on the batting, matching pin-marks. Smooth, but don’t stretch, pinning in place.
- Beginning at the center and working toward the edges, baste a starburst to secure the layers together.
- Pin-baste one quarter of the quilt at a time, using 1” rustproof safety pins. Pin every 2” to 3” in parallel rows spaced 4” to 6” apart (illustration 2). Or thread-baste, using white cotton thread (avoid darks, which can leave a colored residue on the fabric), a large milliner’s needle and a long running stitch. (illustration 3).
- Do not baste on drawn quilting lines or on piecing seams.
- Untape the backing, then fold the raw edges over the batting and pin to the quilt top. This prevents raw edges from raveling and batting from catching on things during quilting.
Time to Quilt
TIP: Refine your quilting stitch, machine- or hand-produced, as exquisite quilting can elevate even the most modest quilt from mediocre to magnificent.
Quilting holds the “fabric sandwich” layers together, while adding dimension and surface interest to the quilt.
Plan the quilting sequence before beginning. Generally, begin anchoring the quilt horizontally and vertically, then anchor any borders. This stabilizes the layers. Next stitch along any sashing strips or between blocks, starting at the center and then working out. Finally, Quilt within the blocks and borders.
For machine quilting:
- If possible, use an even-feed presser foot to avoid puckering.
- Use a size 11/80 or 14/90 needle.
- Use 100% cotton thread or fine monofilament nylon thread, opting for the same color throughout.
- Use a stitch length of 15 stitches per inch.
- Stitch continuously with as few starts and stops as possible.
- Continually check for tucks in the backing by feeling through the layers in front of the needle. Ease in excess fabric before it reaches the needle.
- Roll one or both sides of the quilt into a cylinder that will fit on the machine bed and sewing surface; secure with pins. Unroll as you quilt different sections.
Beginners should opt for machine-guided quilting (machine dogs active) until they are more comfortable and experienced handling and manipulating so many layers. Free-motion quilting (feed dogs covered or dropped) requires the quilter to advance the fabric in a steady rhythm, following the quilting design lines, and is used to quilt designs with sharp turns and intricate curves.
Stitch-in-the-ditch quilting is the easiest and most common method, giving definition to blocks, boarders, and sashing Outline quilting, stitching ¼” from the seam lines to emphasize designs, and channel quilting, stitching in evenly spaced horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines.
For hand quilting
- Use a size 7 or 8 betweens needle.
- Use approximately 24” of thread (100 percent cotton is best). Longer lengths will cause tangling frustrations.
- Use small, uniform running stitches that go through all thicknesses. Take two to six stitches, if possible before pulling the thread through.
- Keep an even tension, pulling slightly taut for proper dimension
- Do not backstitch. Instead, bury a knot at the beginning and end of each thread length.
Finishing Touches
Finish quilt edges with a mock binding (fold the backing fabric over the quilt top raw edges and edge stitch in place) or double binding (use a separate strip of straight-grain binding fabric cut wide enough to make two layers for a durable edge).
© 1998 HSA, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce this publication for distribution at no cost to consumers. No commercial or other use of this material is authorized. The Home Sewing Association is a nonprofit organization representing the home-sewing industry’s efforts to encourage the development of sewing skills.
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