The Art of Darkness

Quilting: Patchwork

January 28th, 2008 by Cobwebs

Trick or Treat QuiltI suppose, since I blather on about quilting so much, that it might be nice to actually talk about how to do it for a change.

Quilting strikes many as too daunting a task to attempt; something that requires arcane knowledge and maybe a long apprenticeship. Nah. If you can sew two pieces of fabric together, you can quilt.

A quilt is just a fabric sandwich: A top layer of fabric (which is often made of pieces sewn together); a middle layer of batting; and a bottom layer of fabric. The three layers are held together by stitching. That’s it.

The stitching can be highly decorative–indeed, there are many gorgeous quilts where the top is just plain fabric and the stitching is the star–but it can also be nothing more than straight stitches used to tack the three layers together.

Patchwork is a good place to start: There are many easy patterns, you can play with loads of color combinations, and if you have a lot of scrap fabric left from other projects you might be able to use some of it.

I’m not going to go into great detail about calculating yardage, color combinations, or anything else; there are a zillion books and Websites out there that do it better than I ever could. All I want to do is try to wrap your head around the idea that making a quilt is totally within your grasp.

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