So I've been inspired I want to make a quilt (or 2) where to start

[LovesBeingWokenEveryNight]

Obviously I've done the most important but a added a million to my board on pinterest but where to start in rl. Do I start with the pattern or with the fabric?

Whats the easiest pattern to start with? How do I cut out and keep everything the same size, do I need a rotary cutter?

Thanks

I did my first bit of patchwork last weekend, it's very satisfying :)

I made a cushion first, as a practice to see how it went, I bought a pack of pre cut squares, which made it so much easier!! If its the first time you've done patchwork it makes your life simpler :)

I'd love to make a quilt but I can't figure out how I'd do the sewing inbetween the squares on a whole quilt because it'd be too big to fit in the gap in the sewing machine, does that make sense? Anyone know how that works? :)

Think you take the end bit and the foot off and go freestyle!

Hmm precut sounds good but might work out lots more expensive plus I wouldn't get as much choice in fabric.

I had a play at a patchwork doorstop and therefore am thinking of patterns where you maybe don't have to be so accurate

Really wanted to make one for each of the dc having seen a real lovely picture of a baby sleeping under one made for her on fb

You roll up the quilt very tightly and hold it with bicycle clips.
I think some machines do have too small a throat to do it easily, but in that case you can handquilt - you just do running stitch and it's much faster than you would think. You could even do something fun like different shapes in each square rather than quilting along the seams.

I have an app called blockfab which gives cutting guides for loads of different quilt blocks. When i started i had just squares in mind, but this is much more fun to do and the results are far more interesting. Ive not been sewing long, but I'm producing much more exciting things than I imagined I could and having so much fun. Mostly I'm creating lots of different blocks which will eventually go in a quilt for DD, but also some cushions so I can finish some projects quickly.

Go for it, it's brilliant (and I'm addicted)

I started 3 years ago & love it! Couldn't even thread a machine to start with and borrowed seeing machine from friend, for about 4 months in the end.

I went to local quilt shop and bought pre cut squares to start with. Sewing them together in pairs and then pairs together was pretty easy but wanted to find out how to do the borders, quilting and binding so went on a 1day Saturday course. Was bliss having whole day to concentrate and having teacher show me how to do all the basics.

So, I made a whole but tiny quilt at the class and learnt all the techniques. Bought a quilting sewing machine, bigger throat & quilting table, 1/4 inch foot (v important for accuracy). I've made about 8 quilts since and various bags, toys, crafty things. Love it. Have bought the rotary cutter, mat & rulers too.

Can highly recommend jelly roll quilt books from Pam & Nicky Lintott. Has all techniques described in the back too

Oh & easiest but most impressive pattern to start with is a disappearing 9 patch. I used 3 charm packs and made a fab single sized quilt for the sofa. Looks much more complicated than it is.

Thanks for the tip on rolling it up and holding with bike clips!! I'll give that a go :)

The disappearing 9 patch looks lovely! I'll give that a go next

Try Ebay for squares, they aren't too expensive there. The cutting is a time consuming and it will be easier to construct a quilt if you know you basic shapes are accurately cut. Ideally you need a rotary cutter, mat and ruler if you are going to cut them yourself which can be pricy.

You can create a design with squares which are based on colours rather than lots of different shapes, something like a basic 4-patch or 9-patch square here. Once you have the basics of quilt construction sussed you can move on to more complex patterns and cut your own blocks.

A friend is a sewing teacher and has a lovely blog - one of her recent things has been how to make a patchwork quilt, a series of tutorials. They're here

I started years ago before there was much of a WWW! So I bought a book and started with a sampler quilt as that meant I made lots of different blocks, after that I was hooked so I started getting the kit that makes things easier, rotary cutter and mat are the top of that list.

These days there are masses of tutorials online, 100s on YouTube alone, about any aspect of quilting you can imagine, so if you can't find/afford a class these are the next best thing.

Here's a link to my Pinterest board with quilts I've made

Thanks everyone all very useful. Will certainly consider using bought squares then. Now just to decide on which patten to try first and which fabric to use. Design isn't a strength of mine so hoping I pick ok

I think I'd go for what they call a jelly-roll - basically it's a selection of strips, rolled up together, and carefully chosen so they complement each other. You can make very easy log-cabin patterns then, which look great and are dead simple, with loads of online demos.

And is a fantastic and amazingly quick way to use a jelly-roll to make a wonderful, complicated-looking quilt...I haven't had a chance yet, but I'm dying to try it.

Wow love that thanks