Some basic patchwork/quilting questions!

[sethstarkaddersmum]

Does anyone here know anything about patchwork and quilting? I went to the Quilt Museum at the weekend and also bought a book on Lucy Boston's patchwork and am feeling very inspired but I have never done either!

I am an experienced sewer - used to do quite complicated dressmaking. I would start with something small like a cushion before I work up to a whole quilt.

My questions are:

1. can anyone recommend a good book on techniques etc?
2. does anyone these days do patchwork from genuine scraps, ie cut from old clothes?
3. is it all sewing machine work or would I be able to do some of it sitting cosily in an armchair after dinner?
4. how hard is it to design something yourself and make it look decent? I don't want to just passively make stuff from kits, but I don't have huge confidence in my artistic ability.

thanks

I have a friend who has made entire bed sized quilts from hand piecing. It's the traditional way and probably easier because you can be more accurate in lining up pieces. I think she's self taught basically.

For books raid the library for Amy Butler, or the one called "seven easy pieces", or maybe start with a magazine? There will be a few book on patchwork in any decent sized library. Also there are quilting shops and they would have books/advice.

this looks good for example but I don't have it.

Like all these things I think if you have an eye for putting colours together you should be onto a good thing.

See also her and here for some inspiration.

Try crazy quilting first - there is no cutting templates. Exactly the same theory as crazy paving, just sew scraps of cloth together, start cushion sized and see if you like it.

PS I went to the V&A exhibition as well, really enjoyed it

Hello ? patchwork and quilting is totally absorbing as a hobby. I?ve never been a particularly creative person, nor a particularly talented sewer, but I am turning out items that I am really proud of, and that people seem (by and large) very pleased to be given as gifts! I?ve converted my mother and two of my friends already.

If you can sew, I think you will have no problems. Patchwork uses a ¼ inch seam ? that?s quite important to make patterns work, and takes a bit of getting used to as it is tiny. But that?s it really. Quilting is quite a different skill, even if you do it by machine, but very satisfying.

In answer to your questions?

1. I bought the Jelly Roll Quilts book by Nicky and Pam Lintott when starting out. The instructions for the patchwork part of things are very clear and well put together, though they don?t give any guidance on quilting ? just say ?now quilt and bind?!. I?ve heard good things about the Encyclopedia of Quilting and Patchwork Techniques by Katherin Guerrier. To be honest, you can probably get most of what you need to know from the internet, I would think. There are some excellent sites out there. Most of what I know, I've looked up online or made up.
2. Yes, they do. I?m planning a quilt at the moment that uses offcuts from other projects (not quite the same thing) but google memory quilts for some ideas for quilts using old clothes. I think you need to be a bit careful that fabrics won?t shrink at different rates when washed but you could prewash everything to avoid that. I?ve started keeping 100% clothes that would have been thrown away because they are stained or torn so I have things in my stash I can use.
3. You can definitely sit in your armchair. I?m making an appliqué quilt where the squares are all done with hand appliqué. Lots of people do patchwork piecing by hand (though I always use a machine) and when it comes to quilting, hand quilting is a definite possibility. I love hand quilting, though it takes me ages. It?s actually simpler than doing it by machine, I think, if not as speedy. I think Moondog does all her piecing and quilting by hand - try searching the archives for her posts about it.
4. It is super easy. The first quilt I ever made was very simple ? rectangles of patterned fabric stitched into strips, with some neutral strips between them. Required nothing but the ability to sew in a straight line, but looked amazing (from a distance). If you?re not confident about your artistic abilities, then start off using fabric ranges rather than making your own colour choices ? that way you know everything will co-ordinate. Moda produce some stunning ranges of fabric ? go to somewhere like fatquartershop.com to get an idea (there are lots of online retailers in the UK as well, but their website is the best in terms of seeing what?s available, I think). You can buy fabric packs designed specially for quilting that are already precut ? e.g. 40 5x5 inch squares. Just stitch them together and off you go.

If you live near a quilt shop, then you could see if they offer beginners classes. Liberty do some introductory classes too if you are in London. But I don?t think you really need a class to get started, particularly if you can already sew. Just give it a go.

I always hand piece my quilts, english style over papers - I like to sit and sew in small bits. I use new fabric, but have seen some ace scrap quilts.

My first book was a WI one, and it was a great, non faffy book.

Lucy Bostons quilts are amazing - I went to visit her house and actually got to touch them, and seeing High Magic was amazing. So inspirational to see what she did when she was nearly blind

thanks all. This is tremendously helpful. I'm v excited and am now eagerly reading through all the old MN quilting threads. Didn't know Moondog did it!

will say more later but 3 demanding children to deal with right now

i have just made my first quilt from a jelly roll that I bought at my local Quilting shop. I kinda made it up as I went along.

I have now booked a beginners class but I have this book
"Magic Pillows, Hidden Quilts" by Karin Hellaby. The Title is misleading as it is an excellent beginners quide. It has clear instructions for many types of common "blocks" 9 patch, snowball, log cabin, attic window, pineapple. And also how to finish your quilt.

I also borrowed some books from the library.

There are also some good tutorials & ideas on this blog.

Thanks for all this helpful & interesting stuff.

I've ordered the Katherin Guerrier encyclopaedia now as I've seen it recommended in several places. Magazines are a great idea.
It's amazing browsing all these online shops - I had no idea it was such an industry. Clearly there are a lot of people out there with a serious jellyroll addiction

My plan is that it will give me something to do in the evenings when I sit watching crap tv with dh. He's actually getting quite keen (it was his idea to go to the Quilt Museum, oddly) - he's a mathematician and into tessellation - he wants me to make him a Penrose Tiling quilt which I've said I will do one day but it might have to wait until I've learnt the basics first

CMOT - am v that you have been to Hemingford Grey. I would love to go there one day. I actually have a letter from her after I wrote her a fan letter when I was young - she invited me to come and visit but then died before I got the chance .

High Magic is amazing but all the ones in the book are fab - they are so dramatic and non-twee. Have you read the Greene Knowe book which is based around the quilt? I love the idea of doing something like that, working life histories into a quilt.

Theres a fab book about a Penrose tiling quilt which you must read first. I'm a physicist, and quilting fits nicely with my love of geometry

We went to Hemingford Grey because of loving Green Knowe books. Her DIL is delightful, and the house is lived in, so alive

You can definately piece and quilt all by hand, I do, although I too am a beginner and haven't ventured larger than cot sized at the moment.

This blog is full of quilting projects as well as very clear how to's, both hand and machine, just do a quick search, I am attempting this one next!

CMOT - did you know there's a new film of The Chimneys of Greene Knowe? here

Diana Boston seems like quite a remarkable personality - to devote herself to her MIL's legacy as she has done is a very generous thing to do.

Right, I have the Guerrier book - I think now I will just buy some nice fabrics and start with a cushion.

there are many great websites out there that can give you the basics:

www.quilterscache.com/

www.quilterscache.com/H/howtolinks.html

free patterns (with instructions) www.quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html

I also like www.ohfransson.com/ for lovely fresh modern looking quilts.

the "dummies" series is good too - quilting for dummies is comprehensive about the basics and easy to follow.

Brilliant links, Shongololo - thanks

It's interesting not just how many online quilting shops there seem to be but also how different their styles are. Some of the first ones I looked like seemed to be full of fabrics that I considered horrifically naff but I've found some now that are more my style. Same with the quilts pictured - I really didn't like a lot of the ones pictured in that Guerrier encyclopaedia (or else they just don't compare with Lucy Boston's) but I'm starting to find ones I like now.
(Those Oh Fransson ones are nice.)

It's interesting starting to develop tastes in something you never knew much about before!

(I have to admit I find some of the quilting blogs a bit scarily full-on, but then they do seem to be quite often written by people who run quilting shops so I suppose it's reasonable for them to be a bit obsessed.)

oh I agree. My MIL started quilting going to lessons. Everything had to be done by hand - why?? That's why we have machines!!

If you follow some of the links on oh fransson, to the modern quilters guild and the sew mama sew website, there are lots of examples of gorgeous but modern quilts without all the fussyness. The fabric choices make a big difference too - a lot of fabric shops have quite conservative tastes, you have to rummage to find really nice fresh looking fabrics.

Oh Fransson is a wonderful blog. In a slightly different but equally contemporary style you could try and get hold of Material Obsessions which is on Amazon - some really inspiring ones in there. I do have some other links to great blogs - will try and dig it out.

A great resource for technical info on just about any aspect of quilting is Quilting Board. They are all terribly nice, mostly retired, obsessed by quilts and very American. And their quilts, by and large, are not my thing. But I've learned a massive amount from there and there is nothing they don't know about quilts.

My taste is very much modern bright colours - I can't really be doing with traditional quilts. I'm making a very traditional one at the moment for my mother and my heart isn't in it so have decided after this I'm going to make things I like as it makes such a difference.

I love the idea of Modern Quilt Guilds. I know there's one in the East Midlands but am desperately hoping someone in London who knows more about quilting than me will set one up. Would love to meet some like minded quilters. All my friends think I'm crazy.

I've just looked at the Quilting Board and I'm roffling at how nice and polite they all seem to be to each other - no-one ever says 'Sorry but I think your block is vile.' Must be quite restful compared with MN....

I know! I hang out there sometimes as a counterweight to the bile on here. The most heated it ever got was a gentle dispute about copyright. It's the Netmums of quilting - "u know your quilt, hun". Just don't look at the recipe section. But say what you will, those women know how to quilt. Ugly fabric notwithstanding.

So, what are you going to make first?!

My first project is going to be a cushion, which I will design myself.

I could do something safe and fairly monochrome but what I want to do if I can make the colours work is a cushion for dh based on a beach in Dorset we go to sometimes.
there would be white triangles for the sails of boats somewhere, probably in the centre, and blues for the sea and whites for the chalk cliffs and greens for the grass at the top. The challenge is what to do about yellows for the sand as this seems even to my inexperienced eye to be one colour too many - but thinking about it, as sand is actually not really bright yellow but can be quite beigey, I might be able to tone it down enough for it to work.
I haven't worked out the shapes I'm going to use yet! Maybe squares.

I have a big quilt in mind which would represent the woods in springtime which I can see much more clearly - different green coloured triangles, with Ohio stars in white for wild garlic flowers. But this would have to be a massive one for a king-size double bed so I don't want to launch straight in. Anyway I want to have some fun building up a stash of fabrics first - I want to use lots of different fabrics because of all the different colours of leaves.

sethstark - if you fancy a "trees" quilt you could take inspriration from Twiddletails's Geese-in-the-forest

If you don't like it in her colourway then you can see others here

If you fancy seeing a copy of each block pattern then you know where I am

that's very pretty Dizzyday. It's amazing how well those bits of red work - I would never have predicted that.

hello fellow quilters
I started a year ago by doing a course on English patchwork - however as shongololo said, everything was made by hand over paper - it would have taken me about a decade to make a single bed sized quilt I reckon.
Anyway, for inspiration I love to look atKaffe Fassett's quilts. They look just gloriously bright and lush really...

If you are into tesselations then this book is lovely. My mother has it and I covet it and it has some gorgeous quilts in it. Some of them are Jelly roll which are good for a beginner as you just need to lay them out and sew them together until you have enough strips of the required width.

I don't know where you live but there is a big quilting show at Sandown Park some time in June which are great for inspiration but also for cheaper materials and supplies. there are usually some really great book stalls there with dozens of quilting books. You have just missed the big one in Malvern and I think there is another one in Birmingham in August but I haven't ever been.

To be honest, I think you are wise to just do your own thing though and a cushion is a good thing to start with. There aren't actually that many kits out there anyway so it is restrictive.

I would suggest that you did an evening class if they do them round your way. I have done 3 so far and they have been very useful in picking up techniques and gaining confidence.

I personally prefer hand sewing. Not quite so uniform but when you are quilting you get a less rigid quilt as you do with machine sewing and it is easy to sit and do it in front of the telly rather than being tucked away from the rest of the family with your sewing machine.

Anyway, happy sewing.

I was thinking about this thread last night and a book I find useful and strangely enough I came across a book this morning - it might be helpful if you are worried about design and the artistic side of things. Colour Magic for Quilters is a lovely book.

This one and also and this one are lovely too.

I love the Crazy Mom Quilts blog too. Did anybody else see her mosaic of quilts for 2009 that she posted for New Year. 44 quilts she made in one year.

44 quilts in one year sounds a bit obsessive to me, unless you have a shop, or a very large family.

Thanks for the brilliant links, especially the tessellations book. Does anyone here use quilting software? I like the idea of it but it looks a bit pricey!

I have Quilt Wizard. It's the very cheap version of EQ. It can do quite a lot but isn't great for anything that isn't block-based quilts. V handy for calculating fabric and trying colour combinations. I did toy with EQ7 whch has just been released but realised I would rather spend the money on fabric...