Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have always been fascinated by quilts. Growing up we had an elderly women who i visited regularly. She had a room set up, with a large wooden...and for the life of me the word im looking for slipped..age i guess. lol. Anyways..she would show me the quilts her and the church women were working on. I grew up around Amish, and they quilt some what the same way. Nowadays, i guess they use a sewing machine. Is that due to modern technology, faster and easier ways? Does anyone quilt without a sewing machine? I would love to learn how to quilt, and teach my girls. We actually cut up some material and i'm teaching them to hand sew pieces together to make a family quilt or blanket. I dont think that would be classified as quilting. lol. But the colors and designs fascinate me. Anyone here quilt??
I do. You and your daughters are peiceing a quilt top and yes, that is a big part of quilting. A beautiful top makes the quilt. Hand quilting is done in quilting frames. I don't know where you could find the larger ones. Perhaps the someone from the Amish community could sell you a pair. Due to lack of space, I use the small oval ones which set on legs which I bought at a craft store that sold quilting supplies. The machine quilting is quicker and easier, but I love doing it the way my mother and grandmother did. Which ever methoud works for you is the way to go. Can you find someone who quilts in your area? Sometimes craft stores have classes, or get some good books on the subject. Your first effort will not be perfect as you have to learn as you go, but don't give up. It is a very satisfying and useful craft. Hope this helps, and good luck.
I quilt also. I love it and am so glad I had great teachers (my mom and grandmother) to show me how. It's nice to hear that you want to also include your children in learning this fun and creative craft. I too have been teaching my children and even some of their friends. It almost seems magical watching all of those pieces of fabric coming together to make a beautiful and most the time practical piece of art.
If you want to learn how to make pieced quilts or block quilts, there are a lot of great books and magazines for beginner quilters. There is also some great websites that have a wealth of info. It's best to start with a simple quilt pattern like say a four patch, or a nine patch or even a rail fence. If you try and start to hard and you struggle, it's easy to get discouraged and become disinterested. The flying geese pattern, the snowball pattern or blocks that use 1/2 square triangles I consider to be the next step up.
When it comes to buying fabric, I usually buy a 1/4 - 1/2 yard over what the pattern calls for. This allows for shrinkage and any mistakes when cutting. There is nothing worse than running out of fabric before you finished a quilt. It's especially frustrating when the fabric is no longer available. Any left over fabric can go into a scrappy quilt. Also, it really does pay to buy good quality fabric from a good quilt shop. It makes a world of differnce in how easy thread goes through your fabric and it makes the finished product look better.
As far as cutting the fabric, I prefer to use a rotary cutter, large ruler and mat. It saves tons of time and you don't have to deal with the fuss of a template. There are a few quilt patterns where a template is needed. I haven't gotten into foundation piecing or paper piecing, but I would like to eventually learn at least paper piecing.
If you want to learn how to hand quilt, check with a local quilt shop or see if there is a quilt guild in your area. They may know of someone who hand quilts and may be willing to teach you. You might even check with an Amish community near you. You never know, they might even be willing to teach you as well. The Amish do beautiful work, I don't think I have seen anyone else do better.
Machine quilting has become more of the norm as it is faster and easier. My mom who has a quilting machine can quilt at least three queen sized quilts in a day (mostly doing meandering). Where as my grandmother who still likes to hand quilt, it can take her anywhere from two weeks to a month to quilt one. It mainly depends on how intricate her quilting design is and how long she can sit at any one time before her back gets tired.
I have quilted a couple small quilts on my sewing machine. It wasn't all that easy, but mainly because my sewing machine dosen't have that big of a throat space. I do not have the paitence to hand quilt plus when it comes to hand work I'm all thumbs. So if I'm in a hurry to get a quilt finished and off to whomever it was made for, I tie it. If I have time and it's to big for me to quilt with my sewing machine, I usually send it to my mom.
That was great advice thank you. The pieces we have sewn do far we havent done in a frame. We've just been holding it by hand. lol. The girls find it fun trying to piece them together, so as long as their having fun, im not gonna complain. When we get settled, i would like to find a class.
That was great advice thank you. The pieces we have sewn do far we havent done in a frame. We've just been holding it by hand. lol. The girls find it fun trying to piece them together, so as long as their having fun, im not gonna complain. When we get settled, i would like to find a class.
The only time you might need a frame is if you are actually quilting, which in essence means you are sewing or tying two layers of fabric together usually with some sort of batting in between the layers. If that is what you are doing, then you are actully quilting. If you are just piecing fabric together to make a quilt top, which would later become one of the layers of fabric, then you are quilt making. If you are actually quilting, then something that might help make the process go easier is get a large embroidery hoop. This will help hold the layers together and tighten up the area you are quilting. Try and start in the middle and work your way out to the edges.
So what type of quilt are you making? Is there a pattern name? Or is it a crazy quilt?
It was actually my husbands idea. we just got some material, cut shapes and piecing it together sorta like a puzzle. Not how quilts are made im sure. lol...but their having fun.
It was actually my husbands idea. we just got some material, cut shapes and piecing it together sorta like a puzzle. Not how quilts are made im sure. lol...but their having fun.
Quilt tops can be put together any way you want. There dosen't have to be any rhyme or reason to the shapes or sizes of the pieces or how they are put together.
Do a google image search for crazy quilts. It was a very popular way of making quilts for quite a long time. Crazy quilts usually incorporates all different types of fancy stitches that look like they join the pieces together. (mind you the stitches were only for show and didn't actully hold the pieces together.) When crazy quilts first made the scene they were made up of various types of fabrics, a lot of which were velvets, silks and satins. They were generally made from the scraps of fabric left over after making dresses or curtains and other such finery. More often than not the quilt top was foundation pieced, but not always.
Also do a google image search for Take Twenty quilts or Crazy Eights quilts. Both quilts use various sizes of rectangles and squares. There looks to be no rhyme or reason as to how they come together. There of course is, but you don't see it when you look at the quilts as a whole. Niether of these quilts use foundation piecing. Not as a general rule anyways.
The above mentioned quilt styles or patterns are only a small exmple of how quilts do not have to be put together in any sort of way or that all of the pieces have to be the same size and or shape.
So don't ever think that what you and your family are doing to make a quilt top is not how quilts are made. You are having fun and you are creating a unique piece of art that is also going to be functional. That is what quilting is all about.
I went to this quilt festival for the first time and I was shocked to see what they had. They had lots and lots of beautiful fabric which was unique and kids stuff was just outstanding. Quilters sure know how to make their stuff look easy but really it is not. lots of detailed work. I do admire someone that does it. You have to be very patient. I bought lots of ribbon and fabric and I actually finished making a lovely skirt.
I went to this quilt festival for the first time and I was shocked to see what they had. They had lots and lots of beautiful fabric which was unique and kids stuff was just outstanding. Quilters sure know how to make their stuff look easy but really it is not. lots of detailed work. I do admire someone that does it. You have to be very patient. I bought lots of ribbon and fabric and I actually finished making a lovely skirt.
I think what takes the most paitence is the quilting itself, especially if it's hand quilted. But whether a quilt has been hand or machined quilted, it takes time to choose the right quilting design/s or to decide how much quilting you want to do. Quilting can make or break a quilt. To much quilting or not the right design/s takes away from the quilt and all you see is the quilting and not the the quilt as a whole.
Making the quilt top itself, for me is pretty easy. One of the hardest parts is trying to match up corners as perfectly as possible. The other hard part is trying to find the right fabric. I have this problem with getting an image in my head of the fabrics I want in a quilt (i.e. the pattern or design on the fabric or the colors) With all of the lovely quilt fabrics out there, I still can never find the right "one/s". LOL!!!
To me what takes the most patience is sewing clothes. Then if they add a lot of details and embelishements it's even more astounding. Trying to adjust a pattern to fit, or even creating your own pattern is more than I can take. I admire those who can make an outfit look easy to make.
If I were to have tried making a skirt with ribbon embelishments, it would probably be in a heap in a corner of my sewing/craft room.
You can teach yourself how to quilt. There are many quilt forums on the net. Let me know if you want some recommendations. Here are some of the bed quilts I have made and still in the process of making. I do machine and hand-piecing, machine and hand quilting as well. Got too many wall quilts to post. Ask away if you wish.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There dosen't have to be any rhyme or reason to the shapes or sizes of the pieces or how they are put together.
I admire those who can make an outfit look easy to make.
