Quilting Tutorial

First step: Buying the fabric, I am no good at coming up with how much to buy but it is better to buy more than you need instead of not enough because bolts of fabrics definitely have dye lots and if you have to go back and get more black (or whatever) fabric, it's not going to match exactly.

When you get home, wash and dry the fabric (with like colors). If it's 100% cotton you'll want to preshrink the fabric before you sew it together so it doesn't shrink after washing when you've put the quilt together and it will distort the pattern.

Next step is pressing the fabric. I use the hot cotton setting with steam, it seems to get the really deep creases out.



Next I cut the fabric into 3 1/2" strips using a mat and a rotary cutter along with a clear ruler type thing.


Then I pinned the strips right sides together all the way down the length of the strip.


Next I pressed the seams open.


I have found that pressing the seams open instead of to one side gives a much flatter look. It takes more work when you have to pin things and sew, but I think it's a lot nicer over all look.


Next I used my mat, ruler and rotary cutter to cut the strips into 3 1/2" rectangles.


After I cut all the strips, I carefully pinned the strips together so that the squares would alternate. I use the small quilter's pins because you can sew right over them and they don't bind up the sewing machine. (Be careful with them though, once you drop one on the carpet the only way you find it is in your foot later.)



(This is what I'm talking about by being really careful pinning things so that the seams stay open, note all the pins used.)
Also notice: I line up the blocks with each other by the center not worrying about how the rest of it doesn't match up. What matters is that the 4 blocks are square and match up right, not the edges because you can trim those later.
I did this for all of the rectangles.

Once I sew the 2 rectangles together and pull out the pins, I press the seams open.

(See how this gives a nice flat look by having all the seams open instead of to one side or another.

Right side of block:


All of my blocks for pressing:


Then I used my 6" ruler to center the block and trim off excess.


Jack helped take a picture:


This is a cut block set on the fabric that will be used for the border and the backing.


A rough idea of what the quilt will look like with 4 blocks sitting on the border/backing fabric.