Quilting for a total novice

[Lemoncanine]

Let me start by saying this is a Life Goal, and as such is at the moment entirely unachievabke, BUT I want to get to the point where I COULD do it, so…

I have always wanted a really lovely HUGE quilt for our bed (super king). I won’t ever do proper paper piece patchwork, I know myself well enough not to embark on that, but I’ve really admired some of Jane Brocket’s bright simpler quilts.

So: given that at the moment I can’t even thread or use a sewing machine (not part of my schooling, and haven’t yet learned it yet in adulthood) what steps do I need to start taking to make this a reality? I’m 51 now, maybe I could do this by 55???

The Missouri Star Quilt Company on YouTube has lots of video projects that are inspiring. They use chain piecing on a sewing machine* with a consistent quarter inch seam. Most of the designs are based on 12 inches square so you can do combinations of 2,3,4 and 6.
Pam and Nicky Lintott books are also a good start. They take precut fabric packs, where the colour matching is all done for you, and make complicated patterns. I made a “tumbling blocks” quilt from their “Antiques to Heirlooms” book using a jelly roll (forty 2.5 inch strips) and two contrasting fabrics.

My first “quilt” was actually a duvet cover made from DD’s baby clothes. Huge 9 patches with 2cm seam allowances (!) the colours were all over the place but it has enormous sentimental value.

*Paper piecing a king size quilt would be a marathon task!

If you're in SW London the quilt shop in Hampton court is a great resource. It's also a lovely area for a day out.

I started quilting when my kids were babies and I couldn't even thread a sewing machine when I started. A few hours here and there during nap time and i ended up making quite a lot of quilts, one I hand quilted and gave to my in laws and another I did all the piecing but found a lady locally with a long arm quilter who did the quilting for me and I finished by hand finishing the binding. It now sits in my blanket box. So if you did want to buy a hand made super king size quilt I'll happily send you a photo 😂

Well I absolutely recognise the never-finished projects problem!!

ok, I hear you all: start small and find a teacher!

hampton court is about as far across London as it’s possible to be from me - we are NE not SW! Any recommendations?

https://thehackneyquilter.co.uk/pages/about-contact?srsltid=AfmBOoooqwhgsXT5cZIGUmAWyVzs8rYyuM9-JFM-biP7ZVZVP4qwfnNE

@Lemoncanine , I did a search on 'quilting classes north east england' and there were a few results. Home | The Quilt Shop is an example.

Homepage - High Street Quilting
Workshops | Just Quilting

Another two.

Oh, sorry. You are NE London not the NE. Shame as Great Yorkshire Quilt Show, Doncaster - Grosvenor Shows looks interesting.

Some good advice already. I also like the missouri videos.

Definitely learn to use the sewing machine first ! There's a shop in Islington Ray Stitch who do various beginner courses in person and provide machines so that way you can get some guidance to start.
I learned to sew with a machine for my first quilt, I did a simple pattern from Craftsy and used precuts. It was quite straightforward but as others have said a King size is hard to fit in a machine for quilting. You would need very thin batting.
I have done a king size but minimal quilting to get around this problem. The quilt as you go i oddly found quite hard! But is generally accepted as a good way. There's a few videos around on this method.

Oh, goodness, yeah, I've only done one actual quilt and that was lap quilt sized with big zig-zags for the quilting. I have a fairly big flat bed machine with a lot of harp space and wouldn't want to shove anything bigger through it with anything but straight lines. it's quite the work out 😂

High street quilting is my nearest quilting shop. It's one grotty high street that it's on but the shop itself is lush. I'm only an occasional quilter, more of a dressmaker, but having a nice shop to browse round is quite motivating when it comes to keeping at it.

@PickAChew lucky you - it looks wonderful! But a long long way from London!

lots to think about - you have all given me a push to at least take a first step!

@PickAChew
I was touring that area a couple of years ago and was travelling by bus from Newcastle to Saltburn. My quilter’s eye was caught by that shop window and I nearly jumped off.
I’m sorry I missed it as it would’ve been more of an attraction than the Angel of the North!
I also follow the Last Homely House lady who seems to have a bottomless well of creativity.

We don't have much left up here and what there is is mostly in business parks that are hard to reach by public transport and sometimes hard to find parking anywhere near so it's quite a treat having it on a high street. Definitely more of an attraction than the angel though worse for the bank balance 🤣

A super king size mattress in the UK is 180 x 200cm. The bedspread I linked in my pp is 250 x 260cm. I can't see that size of quilt fitting in a sewing machine.
Would the quilting be done by hand?

And as if by magic @Lemoncanine this book may also help

I've been a quilter for a couple of decades. I prefer piecing and only rarely do the quilting as well. I have to admit that my first king sized quilt still isn't finished, I started it in 1997. The piecing was ok and went quite quickly but it was before you could send quilts out to be quilted so I had to do it myself and it was so heavy and exhausting.

If I were you I wouldn't start with a king sized quilt. I made a table runner and then went straight into a king sized quilt, and as I've said, it's still unfinished even though I've made dozens of quilts since. Maybe start with a bed runner for the bottom of your king sized bed, or a set of place mats. Some techniques, like binding the quilt, are much easier to get the hang of with a small project than the massive weight of a large quilt.

There are plenty of places in the UK that will do your quilting for you, but it will cost quite a bit, I would say at least £250 for king size. I paid €350 for my last quilt to be quilted, plus €45 for the wadding (the puffy bit in the middle) and quite a bit for an extra wide backing that I can't remember exactly, maybe €60.

If you are absolutely determined then the most straightforward would be to buy two layer cakes. A layer cake is 40 or 42 pieces of 10" squares. They generally come from the same collection by a designer so they go together nicely. If you have two layer cakes then you can do an 8 by 10 layout which would work out at 76" wide by 95" long, you could then add borders if you needed it to be bigger. Sew the squares into rows and then sew the rows together. It's best to have a quarter inch seam, but as all your squares are the same size it doesn't matter if your seam is a bit off so long as it's consistently the same size. I usually pay around £40-£50 for a layer cake, if it's a lot cheaper than that check that it's a full 40 pack, sometimes they sell pack of 20 squares.

oooh, this is such a kind and helpful response, and you've revived my rather flagging enthusiasm.

Layer cakes - brilliant idea, and I can immediately see a set I really like the idea of. And absolutely, I can also see that sending it away for the actual quilting is likely to be pretty much essential, if I really do get it together to make something as big as I'd like to!

Place mats are a brilliant idea to start with - if you have advice on those please do send it! I am going to go some googling straight away. We're about to have a spare bedroom with a spare table, and that will mean a craft set-up that can actually stay out, which will be transformative.

I think for place mats it might be nice to do something like a fussy cut log cabin like this or this You could use Christmas fabric for the centre block. Because they are place mats you don't need to worry about getting the finished size exactly right, because you don't need to join the blocks together. You also don't need to worry too much about the exact size of the strips. This video shows how to do it in a quilt as you go way, if that interests you.

The economy block is another one that comes together quickly, I like this woman (Karen Brown) and follow her on YouTube for really clear how-to videos. You can combine the economy block with the log cabin by putting strips onto the the outer edges of the economy block until it reaches the size that you want.

Missouri Star is a good channel on YouTube for ideas and a huge volume of videos but for really good techniques and precision and an incredibly calming demeanour I love Donna from Jordan Fabrics the best (she died recently, far too young but her legacy is amazing). If you want to learn how to do really good binding with good mitred corners then both Karen Brown and Donna Jordan would be the ones to look at.

I probably should have warned you at the start that either you will make place mats, decide it's not for you and walk away forever OR you will become totally addicted and end up making loads of quilts that you don't even have a home for and going on quilting holidays.

If you're in the UK then Rainbow Fabrics https://www.rainbowfabrics.co.uk/collections/quilting-cotton are often worth a look. They do deadstock of lots of different types of fabric and have a section for quilting cotton. They sell by the metre and it's a pretty good discount on what it costs in a proper quilting shop, the downside is that there might be some minor printing errors and choice is limited. They have some Christmas fabric in at the moment.

I think this would look amazing fussy cut for centres of a block. https://www.cottonpatch.co.uk/tilda-merry-little-christmas-fabric-paperscenes-artichoke

Or this https://www.cottonpatch.co.uk/product/craft-cotton-company-christmas-traditions-lamps-per-1-4-metre-1925

I'd recommend trying here. I did a beginner sewing machine class and then a dress making class some time ago and both were great. She does quilting classes but haven't ever tried doing any myself

In person group sewing classes - Cheekyhandmades