Novice wants to create large quilted wall hanging

[Decoded]

I'd like a large pictice for my wall and as I have no painting ability thought I would sew one. I've never quilted before but used to be quite good at sewing and have seen pictures, essentially of random pieces of material sewn together, although I accept there's far more to it than that.

Can anyone advise how I make a start. Do I need to buy/ create a pattern? Do I sew the front materials onto something?

I'm keen but clueless, but do have sewing skills.

The simplest quilt you can make is a crazy squares one.
You cut your remnants into squares as small or large as you want. You then sew them into strips the overall length you want. Then you sew the strips together in rows until you have the width you want.

Then you purchase and sew in a layer of fill- cotton, wool, polyester

Then you attach a backing- can use an old flat bed sheet

Then you do the quiltng step to sew all three layers together- your crazy squares layer, the fill and the backing. Several methods for this. You sew a floral pattern for example. Or sew along the lines of the squares, or even just do a center sewing in the middle of each square.

Finally, you then sew some edging to cover the raw edges. You can save back a few strips and use these if you want to continue the quilt effect, or you can just use a contrast material.

There are lots of patterns/how-to guides online if you feel like you need something specific to follow, but I did my first quilt without one (exactly like PlanDeRaccordement said).

Many thanks both; that's very helpful.

There's plenty of free patterns around, that you can adapt to your preferred colour scheme - helenhowestextiles.co.uk/kitsandpatterns/tigertiger.html this sort of thing for example. She's also done a lovely series of trees, e.g. helenhowestextiles.co.uk/quilts/4Htrees.html - which might offer inspiration?

Does anyone have advice on how OP should hang her quilt? I want to hang my quilts for display, but can't figure out how to do it well. Especially on interior (plaster board) walls. TIA.

I'm not a quilter, just an admirer. The ones I've seen have been attached to wooden battens top and bottom (velcro? magic?) and then the wood can be fastened to the wall. Sort of like Roman blinds.

The vids I've found on Utube seem to all show something being sewn (like a sleeve, or corners) on back of the quilt to hang it. Not sure how that works with a plasterboard wall, though... I'm not great with raw plugs. Someone I know used butterfly clips hanging from a rod to hang the quilt I gave her -- her DH is a builder, though, so quite capable of hanging a curtain rail on any kind of wall.

Re the wall itself it's easy to get special Rawl plugs for plasterboard - they're get and look a bit like anchors, so you put it through and it grips the back of the board.

And yes, clips on a rod like a bistro curtain (does anyone still do that?) would work too

I am pretty sure I'll end up destroying the wall before I could put up a curtain pole well. It's just too soul-destroying to try to do things like that.

But I hope OP is not like me & quickly figures all the task out.

I took a patchwork course to learn how to make quilts, OP. I couldn't have learnt any other way. Am very naturally practically disinclined.

No! Plasterboard is easier than solid walls for drilling and hanging, honest! www.screwfix.com/c/screws-nails-fixings/plasterboard-wall-plugs/cat12000001?brand=rawlplug

I've stuck command hooks on my kitchen wall to hang a quilted panel. It's worked very well, still firmly attached to the wall. Just check on the packet what weight they will support as there are different types