# Sewing - Quilting info from begineers needed



## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Okay - on another thread people have requested a Beginners BOM or swap, or at least instructions leading to a group doing a block, etc.

My question...
Where would the beginning point of the instructions be? How much should Karen and I (and any knowledgeable helpers) figure you know to start this process?

I have found in other things that sometimes I figure a person knows more than they do, because I've been doing it so long.

So, if you are at all interested in the tutorials, or beginners swaps, or tutorials on sewing, quilting, crocheting - etc.

Where is the beginning point?

Thanks, Angie


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

I don't know how to choose fabrics. I know what's pretty, but I don't know how to combine prints, what fabrics to use, etc.

I know how to sew a straight seam. That's about the extent of my sewing knowledge. I know how to back tack at the end of a seam and how to leave my needle in place to turn a corner.

I don't know how to get sharp corners if I'm not using squares. I don't know how to attach the back to the front and bind it. I don't know what sashing is. Etc. Etc. Etc. 

I cut with scissors, not a rotary cutter and mat, so I even need to know how to get my pattern pieces to be consistent in size. I really need to know everything. Operate on the assumption that I know absolutely nothing and you won't be too far from the truth.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

First, discuss fabric. You don't want to put Walmart fabric in the same quilt as high end quilting fabric, so you need to get that straight. You should all be using the same quality fabric. I suggest, if you all don't want to spend $8 a yard on fabric, that you shop at JoAnn's and get some nice midgrade fabric. If you all shop in the same 100% cottons dept of JoAnn's, you should be able to keep in line with the grade of fabric and the color selection (matching it all up later on). Buy best thread. That would be Mettler cotton. Some people use other brands, but when using cotton fabric, you should use cotton thread. Do not use Coats and Clark's dual duty. It has been drasticly downgraded.

Next, a lesson in care of fabric. To wash out the sizing or not? At any rate, you need to shrink the fabric. I spay the fabric down and iron it. Other people use the washer and dryer. If you are going to put it in the washing machine you need to nip off the corners to prevent fraying. Don't overdry.

You cut off the selvadge edge.

Choose an extremely simple pattern with straight lines only. No diagonals, therefore, no triangles. Use a light, a medium, and a dark. Here again, you have to ask for lights that are darker than white, and darks that are lighter than black. For instance, you take a square and cut it in half so you have two equal rectangles. Take one rectangle and cut it in half so you have two equal squares (three pieces). Now, cut your fabric in strips, with all of the strips the width of the rectangle. Here is where the lesson in cutting with the rotary cutter is, as well as how to cut with scissors and how to mark for seam lines for those who need it. Lesson in straight grain of fabric.

All of the light and dark fabrics are then cut into squares. The medium fabric is cut into rectangles. You sew the light and dark squares together to form rectangles. Lesson in sewing straight lines, length of stitch, do not backtack. Press the seams. Lesson in pressing the seams. 

You then sew these to the medium colored rectangles. Press the seams. You purposely turn the three piece blocks as you sew them together to get a crazy quilt effect.

With this type of quilt pattern, you can't really make mistakes when you are putting the blocks together, and you can't really make mistakes when you are making the blocks. You can also chain piece. A person who doesn't know anything about colors can usually figure out light, dark and medium. A quilt store will be happy to help a newbie pick out colors, or often another customer will help.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Any other beginners want to give some idea of where to start?

(thanks for the info Maura)

Angie


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## PETSNEGGS (Oct 7, 2005)

Angie, I agree with the "right from the beginning". Not everyone that wants to learn to quilt even knows much about sewing or the terms. The info on terms would be great. Info on what is needed to start out with, and how to use. I was a mess the first tme I tried to use a rotary cutter, and I still don't know how to fully use my plastic squares. I'm sure there is all kinds of stuff I could be doing much better. But I am sorta self teaching by asking in this forum. Pressing verses Ironing seams????? I couldn't tell you and don't know if I do mine right or not...
So my thought would be to start from the very beginning and everyone can jump in and learn from what ever point they need to...
I also thank you for considering doing this for us... not that you and Karen don't already have enough to do...


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Gals - I'm going to level with you.
I sew, I'm not a fancy quilter. I've done most of the swaps here for the last 3 or 4 years. I started with something simple in Melissa's one block swaps, and then after about a year of those - I started doing the swaps here. The ones here intimidated the heck out of me. But I started with something rather simple; and I've done 3 or 4 years of them now. I do just collect the blocks and enjoy seeing how everyone does. It's especially great to see someone with a shakey, weak 4 patch two or three swaps later doing something like the stars we started out this year. And we help each other and encourage each other. We have talented ladies in those swaps, but most of us are not the 'artistic' 'quilting purist" and we keep it that way because Karen and I really want the beginners in those swaps, and we'd love the purist to join in - but we don't always use 100% cotton and/or 100% cotton threads. We use blends and polyester or blend thread, etc.

To me - quilts were a functional invention. They were made out of what cloth was left over after wearing clothes out, or outgrowning with no one around to hand them down to. To me, that's the mentality of where I start thinking 'quilting'. I love the artistic quilting and I love the purist quilting - that's something to work towards if the functional, pretty, any material quilting strikes a cord in your soul.

Most of you've seen my sewing and some of the quilt blocks I do, so you know my work as well as you can via photos or quilt block swaps. They are not perfect, but most of them look pretty darn good.

Lately I've taken a class and learned to paper piece (also called foundation piecing) it's fantastic and less fussy cutting with rotary or scissor, but you do need rotary and a few tools to do it. But it's so precise - I'm liking it .

I guess I'm saying this, due to the fact some beginners want help learning to do a quilt block, and sashing, and then putting it together. I've only done a one or two putting together - that would be something that we could work out together and I'm great at finding web sites that give more instructions and visuals.

If you are looking for the 'Quilter's Guild" type of 100% cotton fabric and 100% cotton thread. I may not be qualified. But if you are more of the 
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2004/06/27/gees-bend-al-af/
use what you can and what you've got and have fun - then I think I can help encourage you and give you some ideas of things to try with what you have to work with - from there you can work up to where you can be the 100% cotton, 100% cotton thread artistic type of quilter.

So, just to not raise your expectations with what help I could give to the beginners - just laying it on the line.

I'm just me, and I just sew - and I love to see someone else enjoy doing it and learning enough to try it THEIR WAY.

Angie


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## Beaners (Feb 23, 2005)

I kind of, sort of, understand fabric. I mean, I understand it to sew regular stuff. But I don't always "get" quilting fabric.

I really get stuck on cutting with scissors. It seems like everyone talks about rotary cutting. But I don't have the materials, so I need to know how to do it with scissors.

What designs are possible for the blocks? What should beginners especially avoid?

What order do you sew the pieces in? How do I make "sharp" corners? Even with ironing and plain squares their corners are still a little puffy.

Once you have blocks how do you connect them?

Once you have all the blocks connected, how do you connect the top and bottom? I understand that this is the actual quilting, but how do I keep everything lined up? (Especially without getting a huge quilt frame.) Do you pin it?

Kayleigh


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

I totally agree, and don't mean any disrespect or criticism to Maura. After all we did ask...LOL! 

But I view those things as what you need to learn when you have become accomplished enough to actually make a keepsake or heirloom quilt; but not as a beginner.

When you're just learning for the first time, Walmart fabric and Coats & Clark thread are perfectly fine. After all, you don't want a lot of money invested when you're just learning because you most probably not put together your very first quilt and, if you do, it will only be for memory sake. Trust me, it will be far from perfect (my first two completed quilts were downright embarrassing!), but you will be amazed at how you improve with each one!

For a newbie, they need to know how to cut accurately, the proper machine settings (stitch length, tension, etc.), how to press (as opposed to ironing) your fabric, seams and blocks, how join blocks so you don't stretch the bias, the order the pieces go in making your blocks, tips on match points, correct batting to use, how to make a backing big enough to fit, how to square it up, how to quilt it, and how to bind it.

The other stuff comes after that and I think it would be WAY too overwhelming to the newbies to go into all that detail. After all, that would be an entire tutorial unto it's own! 

That info would, however, be a good tutorial to add to our list for future tutorials! How to choose, cut, pin, and care for fabric is valuable information for any type of sewing whether quilting, garment making, sewing accessories or home items, etc. and should be included at some point.

I will add that Angie makes a good point in that we don't strive for perfection on this forum. We strive for us all to just do the best we can from where we are at in our abilities and knowledge at this particular time. 

We want people to just learn the basics, then progress or perfect their skills independantly from there -- _if_ they are so inclined. There are so many professional help websites to help you improve once you have those basics; but for the newbie, they don't even know for sure if they are going to enjoy quilting yet. To fill them up with overwhelming information and choices is defeative; it's just too much info all at once. After all, there's enough to learn in the beginning just learning the basic terms/skills/etc. :lookout:


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## Peacock (Apr 12, 2006)

IMO, the first piece of advice is to *not make a quilt*. No! I don't mean don't _quilt_, I mean make something smaller! 

I think a lot of newbies start out very ambitious and think they'll just jump in and make a bedspread - even if it's made with a simple pattern - and get so discouraged in the process that they decide quilting isn't their thing. That's what I did, I started out making a quilt for a full size bed! Not good. Fortunately I did not give up, I ended up tying it instead and it looks very nice. But it spent a full year in my closet after I put the "sandwich" together and found out that actually _quilting_ was the tricky part, not piecing! 

I moved on to smaller things just to say I _finished_ something nice, and in the process learned some skills that translated nicely to bed-size quilts. And that's what you should do, Angie. Start folks off with small stuff like placemats, potholders, small wall hangings, table runners, maybe a quilted tote bag.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

edayna - I think you are correct - that's the thing we have to start with what we have and build up to whatever.

And those that do only 100% cotton/100% cotton thread - they usually have passed the growing pains and are their type of 'artist'. 

I just want them to know I in NO way diss them, just want to help others start very small and take small forward steps and let them climb to that level, if they wish.

Angie


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

Exactly, edayna, and that's why we don't want to overload or overwhelm the new quilter. Once you simply know the basic proper "techniques", they will apply to any quilting project. 

We will be suggesting that they start with making a potholder, then a small wall hanging, and then go on to an actual small quilt. 

I was totally self taught and made the mistake of making an actual twin size quilt for my first quilting project. Oh my!!! It took me a year to complete, I often felt very defeated, and it came it out down right embarrassingly awful looking. Although I had this huge sense of accomplishment afterwards, I didn't quilt again for several years. It was just WAY toooo much! 

It wasn't until I started over with a small project and got my bearings, didn't get overwhelmed, and just worked it through, that I started to actually enjoy quilting. Even today, if I'm making a big quilt I tend to get overwhelmed when I first start. I think it is still that, subconsciously, I relate back to that first experience. I'm willing to bet the same thing happens with others and that's why we want to make the first experience a pleasant and satisfying one!


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Okay, here's a sore point with me. If you are going to teach someone something, teach them something. I am self taught and made many errors along the way. When I teach a quilting class I give my students the benefit of my trials. I teach them right up front the difference between fabrics. Why not discuss the difference between cotton and cotton blends? I like to take a piece of cotton fabric, spray it with water, then press it with a hot iron. What happens? Of course, I'm careful to use a fabric I know will shrink a lot. What happens when you take a piece of high end quilting cotton and rinse it then press it? What happens when you take a low end cotton that has a lot of sizing in it, rinse it and press it? It's not whether you use Walmart fabric for your first quilt or Moda. It's, do you know what happens to it after a wash and set? You don't want to combine these two types of fabric in one quilt because the Moda fabric will make the Walmart fabric look bad, and the Walmart fabric will wear faster than the Moda. Certainly, for something that is going to be dragged through the mud or washed in an agitating machine with bleach, you'd use an "inexpensive" fabric. Or denim.

As for shopping at JoAnn's for mid grade quilting fabric, that is for BOM, since most people can shop at or order from this store. I have had trouble matching my stash with BOM fabric.

Coats and Clark's dual duty used to be a pretty good thread. It is now made in Mexico with short short fiber and they use animal rendering to pull it all together. This really gunks up your machine. Some people use a rayon, but rayon is stronger than cotton and you may find that it wears the cotton fabric, causing pulling away from the seam. This isn't to say that you can't use dual duty, but a student should be taught the options.

As for making a pot holder, this is a wonderful suggestion, and a good way to try out a pattern. I would only suggest a full sized quilt as a first project if the person was in a quilting class and churning out a block every week with someone to hold her hand.

I find that the worst scenario isn't in the fabric or thread or difficulty of pattern. It's not sewing a straight line.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Maura - you have some really good points. I sent you a PM with some ideas to discuss.

Angie


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

Maura, thank you and I truly do understand your point, and that is definitely something I think we should cover; however, I want to that as a _separate_ tutorial. Something that we could cover for choosing fabric/thread/needle sizes/etc. for both sewing and quilting. Would you be willing to consider doing that tutorial?

Right now, I think I'm looking at just a very basic quilting tutorial.


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## jersey girl (Nov 21, 2005)

I think this is a great idea. Keeping it simple and starting from the absolute beginning is the way to go. I am stummed at the number of people that come to me and want to learn to quilt. Some want to make many quilts, some just want to understand the process, espcially since I hand quilt everything I make. You do need to start with color and print selections. A wall of quilt fabrics can be overwhelming. 
On a side note, I have never paper pieced and would love to try it. There are no classes around here though. Does anyone know a really good book on it?
I am excited to see this come about. Congrats on a great idea.
Joanie


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=224527&highlight=paper+piecing

jersey girl - here's where I did one block paper pieced and showed all the steps. Then TC did one from these instructions and she'd not ever done paper piecing before.

Give it a look and see what you think. I've done a few blocks now, and it really is neat, but a little fabric wasteful, but sharp.

Angie


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## gowvu (May 15, 2008)

With a quilt made of squares, the easiest way to get sharp corners is to sew whole strips of squares--the whole length or the whole width of the quilt. Then press all of the seams in the first strip to one side. Press the seams of the NEXT row to the opposite side. When you go to sew them together, the "bump" formed at the pressed edge will match up with the "bump" from the other pressed edge. It would be easier to do this with a picture!


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

gowvu said:


> With a quilt made of squares, the easiest way to get sharp corners is to sew whole strips of squares--the whole length or the whole width of the quilt. Then press all of the seams in the first strip to one side. Press the seams of the NEXT row to the opposite side. When you go to sew them together, the "bump" formed at the pressed edge will match up with the "bump" from the other pressed edge. It would be easier to do this with a picture!


Giving away trade secrets, girl! To expand, you can make a number of pieced blocks and then make the quilt appear much harder and larger by using nine or sixteen patch blocks in between them. I love those checkerboard squares!


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## jersey girl (Nov 21, 2005)

Thanks Angie, going to check it out now.
Joanie


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## Candace (Jan 14, 2008)

Can we even get more basic than cotton versus blends? I am a very capable crafter and can sew pretty well, etc. As someone who wants to learn to quilt, I am stuck just picking out a pattern. Yes, I know I can stitch some squares to some rectangles and make a block but what trips me up is that, although I appreciate the very practical history of the quilt, I still want something that has some artistic potential also. If I can't find a pattern that flips my creative switch, I am stuck. So, does anyone have a suggestion for a good book/pattern that is suitable for someone new to quilting but who has experience sewing? I REALLY, REALLY want to participate in the red & white swap being planned for later this year but I have yet to find some pattern that has that "it" factor. 

So, I think having something to start with - a vision, if you will - is what motivates me to want to learn how to do something. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a couple of block patterns to start with and then as you instruct, everyone would be learning at the same time versus several patterns going at once. If someone gets stuck or has a question, the answers would apply to what everyone was learning. 

Either way, thanks for starting this discussion because I learned a lot reading through them and it helped me identify what the "stopper" has been for me. I just want to get to the point where I can actually think about buying the material!! :frypan:


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Just an update, we do have a lesson one and probably a lesson two in the works. Hopefully we'll have the probable date of posting it soon.

But keep giving input into this... it will help the lessons/instructional be what YOU need.

Angie


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Maura said:


> Okay, here's a sore point with me. If you are going to teach someone something, teach them something. I am self taught and made many errors along the way. -------
> I find that the worst scenario isn't in the fabric or thread or difficulty of pattern. It's not sewing a straight line.



Maura, I agree completely. I'm also self-taught, for better or worse. I didn't even understand the concept of a quarter inch seam until about four years ago! lol
And as one who has watched one too many quilts made of WalMart fabrics (It was my first one, I didn't know!) fall apart in the washer, after fading profusely on the bed, I agree that something that you want to _last_ should be made with better quality fabrics.

But I think just as bad as not sewing a straight line is not making consistent seams. 1/4" here, 3/8" there... It seems so small that it wouldn't matter, but it will make the whole works look wonky. And a beginner won't have enough experience to trouble shoot and look for the likely problem. They'll just see that it "doesn't look right."


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Erin P. There's a trick to that. Look out for the Lessons.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

My trick is a 1/4" foot! lol 
I'll admit it. It's a crutch and I use it unashamedly! 
(You should have _seen_ my inconsistent seams when I'd just use the edge of my foot, though)


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