Beginners in patchwork quilting have many questions in their mind. Here we present with various patchwork quilting tips. The first thing that a beginner will ask is: ‘what will be easier whether to make a patchwork quilt or a cushion?’
What I will suggest is that one should forget cushion and straight go for quilt. I say this because why to make a cushion when you always want to make a quilt.
A better option will be to purchase a Jelly roll. A jelly roll (remember it’s not a mouth watering jelly dish) is basically a roll of fabric having 40 pre-cut that are 2 and a half inches wide and 42 inches long. Hence, using this one can start with patchwork quilting straightaway. There are many shops that provide with these jelly rolls. There are few quilt shops like The Fat Quarters that have good collection of jelly rolls and have know how of these jelly rolls.
How to start with making your first patchwork quilt?
Firstly sew 3 jelly roll strips along the length have quarter seam allowance and also keep pressing all of them in one direction. Then measure the length of the strips that you had sewn and now cut all of them into six inch segments.
After this is done, you can start with your fun part by adding your own creativity to it. You can play with these blocks and create your own design.
The best way to do this will be spread these blocks onto a large table or floor in such a way that there are nine segments across and ten segments down.
You can keep moving one block to other until you find a perfect design of your choice. Don’t get afraid just keep experimenting after all this is your first time and it’s your quilt and you are having fun with it.
Next when you have finally set up a design sew all the blocks together starting from row one into the row of nine blocks. Keep doing this until you have sewed all the ten rows with corresponding blocks.
Then in the next step start with sewing the rows together. Start with sewing row one to two and then the sewed part to row three and so on. Like this sew all ten rows.
This completes the quilt top portion.
Now to complete the quilt one needs to purchase wadding and a backing around six inches long from your finished portion of the quilt.
Now lay the backing onto a table with opposite side facing you. Then put the wadding on backing portion and next put the competed portion of your quilt onto that wadding part. Make sure that right side of the completed quilt fabric is to face you.
Now start with quilting by using running stitches and a thread to match the quilt. Next trim the entire extra portion from wadding and backing to proportionate them with the quilt top. After doing all this you are ready to bind your quilt.
I would prefer to do this by cutting strips that are 2 and a quarter inches wide, and then iron them half way to opposite sides together. Now match the raw edges and sew the binding strips from the front and also hand sew the back portion.
I hope this simple process will works as a good patchwork quilting tips for the beginners.
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