Making your first quilt

What do you do when you think you want to make a quilt?

We may be a bit biased at IQ, but we think you should always stop into your local quilt shop before getting started. Tell the folks there that you want to make a quilt and ask about patterns to look at. There are usually areas in each shop where they keep quite a few quilt patterns for you to peruse to get ideas and there a many books about quilting. Patterns and books will help you figure out approximate amounts of fabric you will need even if you don't use one of those patterns. You can first google and check blogs for designs you like and bring those patterns in, or even your own hand-drawn patterns, and then the shop employees can help you with fabric quantites (just please understand that figuring out qantities from drawings or patterns that do not already mention quantites, is hard, and we all ocassionally make mistakes, so please be understanding if you have not laready figured out your own measurements and yardages).

One thing to keep in mind when making a quilt and buying fabric, is that the fabric market is like the apparel market and fabric does go away so try to buy a little more than you need (including your back and binding) unless you plan on getting it done quickly, because if you go back for more in a month, your fabric may be gone.

Another option is to look to see if you have a chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild and try to attend one of their meetings.

It is nice to be able to talk your thoughts through with others who quilt, which can be done online these days, but we do think there is value in person to person contact for discussing how to get started.

Things you should have to make a quilt are:

1. A sewing machine in good working order. If it is a machine you have had sitting around or someone has given you, it is a good idea to get it serviced. Our local machine service repair man, Steve, says that sewing machines are like cars, if you let them sit and don't run them at least once a month, the parts dry out and your machine may not run properly and may even break down. You do not need a special machine with all the bells and whistles. A basic sewing machine is fine but it is pretty important to either be able to drop the feed dogs or cover them with a plate (in older machines) for free-motion quilting (any quilting with curvy lines). For free-motion quilting you will need a free-motion quilting foot and for straight-line quilting you will need a walking foot that fit your machine. It is also quite useful to have a 1/4 inch foot for your machine piecing as most quilt patterns call for a 1/4 inch seam and it is a little hard to sew a 1/4 inch seam with a foot that is bigger than a 1/4 inch.

2. Good cutting and measuring utensils are useful, specifically a rotary cutter and self-healing cutting mat along with a long 6 1/2 or 8 1/2 inch by 24 1/2 inch clear acrylic ruler with measuring marks on it (we like the Creative Grids products).

3. Good quality all-cotton thread is the preferred thread for piecing quilt tops together because it wear on teh cotton fabric over time as much as a polyester thread does.

4. Good quality, all-cotton fabric is preferred for quilting and you really will find a better quality and better selection of fabric patterns at your local, non-chain quilt/fabric store (we carry fabrics that are not available for the chain stores to buy). There is a big variation in the greige goods that are used in fabrics and you can ususally be sure the quality is consistent to a point, at a small, local, quilt or sewing shop versus the big chains that carry different types of fabrics and different qualites within the types.

5. Batting in your choice of cotton, polyester, wool, bamboo, alpaca, silk and blends.