{"id":206,"date":"2008-01-28T08:24:09","date_gmt":"2008-01-28T12:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=206"},"modified":"2008-03-30T14:53:28","modified_gmt":"2008-03-30T18:53:28","slug":"quilting-patchwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=206","title":{"rendered":"Quilting: Patchwork"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src='http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/trickortreat.thumbnail.jpg' class='contentimg' alt='Trick or Treat Quilt' \/>I suppose, since I blather on about quilting so much, that it might be nice to actually talk about how to <EM>do<\/EM> it for a change.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;s it.<\/p>\n<p>The stitching can be highly decorative&#8211;indeed, there are many gorgeous quilts where the top is just plain fabric and the stitching is the star&#8211;but it can also be nothing more than straight stitches used to tack the three layers together.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->A couple of suggestions to get you started:<UL><LI>Start small, so you don&#8217;t get overwhelmed and discouraged.  Make one block and turn it into  a throw pillow, or use it as a motif on a vest or jacket.<\/LI><br \/>\n<LI>Stick with squares or triangles in the beginning.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coloradocollege.edu\/Dept\/GY\/C_Antonuccio\/Cathesownquilts\/pages\/Drunkards%20path.htm\">Curves<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/qnm.com\/articles\/feature39\/index1.html\">trapezoids<\/a> are a lot fussier and can lead to swear words.<\/LI><br \/>\n<LI>Unless you&#8217;re an experienced seamstress\/tailor, start out with tightly-woven fairly lightweight cotton or cotton-rich fabric (often marked &#8220;calico&#8221; or &#8220;quilter&#8217;s cotton&#8221;).  It&#8217;s much easier to handle than other weights and blends.  Also be sure to wash and iron all the fabric before cutting; otherwise it may shrink unevenly or bleed, leading to more swear words.<\/LI><\/UL><br \/>\nIf you&#8217;d like to try something a little more ambitious than a single square, consider a set of placemats, a wall hanging, or a baby quilt.  There&#8217;s a nice patchwork placemat tutorial <a href=\"http:\/\/twinmommyproductions.blogspot.com\/2007\/10\/patchwork-placemat-tutorial.html\">here<\/a>, and any set of blocks can be adapted for a wall hanging.<\/p>\n<p>When you&#8217;re finally ready to jump into a full-sized quilt, check out Crazy Mom Quilts&#8217; <a href=\"http:\/\/crazymomquilts.blogspot.com\/2007\/11\/quilt-long-week-1.html\">quilt-a-long<\/a>, a series of single-block tutorials with lots of pictures.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a wealth of fabric colors and patterns available, so you can make your quilts as gloomy as you like.  The one above is &#8220;Trick or Treat,&#8221; a baby quilt I made using Halloween-themed fabrics (buy them on clearance after Halloween and stash &#8217;em until you need &#8217;em).  Here are a couple of other quilts, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/attic\/gallery_dk.php\">October Stars<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/shadowmanor.com\/store\/product.php?productid=16218&#038;cat=243&#038;page=1\">Danse Macabre<\/a>, that use a darker palette.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a nice little capsule history of patchwork quilting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.etsy.com\/storque\/section\/thisHandmadeLife\/article\/the-story-of-quilts\/763\/\">here<\/a>, for further reading.<\/p>\n<p>So what are you waiting for?  Dig out that cute skull-print fabric you weren&#8217;t sure what to do with and start quilting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doom-it-yourself"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}