What tools do I need for quilting?

You've decided you want to start quilting. Great!

Now. Where do you start?

The first question to ask yourself is, are you going to stitch by hand or by machine? I've yet to piece blocks together by hand or quilt by hand - I'm not confident enough with my stitching, but I am determined to have a honeycomb design in my own quilt, so I need to get practicising. The honeycomb design involves cutting out hexagon shaped fabrics using paper templates and piecing them together. But more on that when I let you know about my christmas project...

My experience of using a sewing machine up until 3 years ago was limited to textiles GCSE where my project was to make a swimsuit for the larger lady. I wasn't great - my mum ended up sewing most of it for me. I got an A for the actual swimsuit... and a B overall. I fear my coursework let my mum's sewing skills down!

My Cypriot mum was a seamstress before she came to England and is a whizz on the sewing machine. She used to sew her own outfits, such as this lovely dress and this skirt and blouse number:

My beautiful mum

Her sewing skills were also put to use during the 80s making some rather interesting outfits for my sister and I. (Think shorts and crop tops in luminous grafitti style fabric. I'll have to find a picture for you...)

And now my mum is called upon for numerous alterations to curtains and clothing (we're a short legged family and often need a trouser hem turned up!). All these years since being in England she has had the same machine:

New Home Model SW20I8E

For those who don't know New Home is actually Janome. The machine (touch wood) has been going for 30+ years and it is still working fine thanks to services my dad has carried out on it over the years. So, this is what I work on, lugging it (it's quite heavy) between my parents house and my flat when I want to use it.

I want to buy my own but between buying a flat, renovating a flat, and getting married I haven't had the opportunity to save up. Any machine recommendations for quilting would be gratefully received. Please leave a comment! I would want to spend a maximum of £400.

Anyway, so that is my the machine I use. A 30+ year old sewing machine. And here are the rest of the tools I have collated:

Tools for quilting:

1. To me, one of the most important tools for accurate quilting is the green cutting mat that all the tools are sat on. My mat is 17" x 11" and cost c.£12.
2. The rectangular plastic transparent "quilt-n-sew" ruler by Sew Easy is the second most important. Mine is 12" x 6.5" and cost again c.£12
   These two products ensure that you can line your fabric up squarely and accurately your fabric. 
   Being just a little bit off can throw a pattern when you come to sewing and piecing together.
3. The triangular plastic ruler (with yellow grid lines) is called an "Omnigrid 96 Triangle" and is used for making half square triangles. I bought mine from the quiltroom.co.uk, it appears in a lot of their Jelly Roll patterns (which is when I first came across it/needed to use it).
4. An iron! Ok, we've all got one of these, probably.. but it is so important that you use it! It is so much easier to sew blocks together when the seams are pressed and everything is neat.
5. The two blue things are "Quilt clips". I bought these when I was working on a larger quilt. I struggled to machine quilt when there was so much bulky material to manouver. I rolled up the side that I was not working on and attached these clips to keep it all in place. It was much easier to handle after that. They cost c.£3.
6. Quilting foots. I have two - the thin one is for free-motion quilting. I have still not got used to it and I'm still practicing! I want to move away from straight lines! The larger foot is a walking foot that helps move all three layers of fabric that you are quilting along together. A must have. They cost c.£10 each (I think!) 
7. Hemline curved quilters safety pins. These curved saftey pins are supposed to make it easier to pin and hold in place your 3 layers together before quilting. I've had mixed results with them. They are helpful to a point, but I still find getting the basting really flat and smooth tricky. Any tips for other products to use would be lovely. I've heard of sprays that can be used but I'm reluctant to use sprays on a baby's blanket?
8. Rotary cutter! It's a must. I'd say 3rd most important tool! (So really should be at number 3 in the list. Sorry.) I put the scissors in there, but it's only to keep threads shorts and neat. The rotary cutter is a must for straight accurately lines. It is also a quick way to chop up the fabric. Do not use your cutter for anything other than fabric, though. It will blunt easily. (I used mine on my wedding stationery and soon had to go out and buy another blade.) My cutter is 45mm and cost c.£13 
9. Stitch unpicker... I shouldn't need it, but I do. It's the little yellow tool on the bottom right. (It's my mums. She's had it for years and is held together with sellotape!)  It saves so much time - especially when you're annoyed that you have to back track for not sewing correctly in the first place and are furiously unpicking your error.
10. Either side of the stitch unpicker are tools to draw on your quilting design. I have tried a little chalk tool (the grey one) that is supposed to brush off once you've sewed over it and an air erasble marker that slowly disappears. My only gripe is that it usually evaporates a little too quickly for my liking! They were c.£3
11. Flat flowerhead colourful pins. I love them. I won't look at other pins now. They are great because they don't create bulk (ahem, flat head), they are nice and long, and the colourful flower-shaped head makes it so easy to find the pin when you've dropped them onto the carpet. Seriously, better than your foot finding them! I bought them from cottonpatch.co.uk (it has a great haberdashery) and cost me £1.60.
12. And finally ... my embroidery hoop. I originally bought this to embroider a christmas stocking I made. But, having read the 2012 Love Patchwork Magazine I found a great tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman that shows how to use the embroidery hoop to practice your freemotion quilting. I've already given it a go. Results in another post. (I need more practice.) If you can't find the magazine in the shops, the tutorial was originally from Elizabeth's book "The Practical Guide to Patchwork".

And that is that... any more for any more?!
Anyone have any other suggestions? The more tools the merrier....

My quilting project: Sailing Boats Baby Blanket

My latest project is another baby blanket. This is my fourth baby blanket so far, and with a large Cypriot family and with 3 friends getting married next year I am pretty sure that it won't be my last!

This one is for my cousin's baby boy due in November. It's so hard finding designs for baby boys. I've chosen a beautiful Sailing Boats quilt pattern from the wonderful jelly roll masters, Pam and Nicky Lintott of The Quilt Room, a beautiful family run Dorking-based quilt shop. They have published many books on the Moda pre-cuts: jelly rolls, charm packs and layer cakes. This design is from their book Two from One Jelly Roll Quilts.

 

image © David & Charles from "Two from One Jelly Roll Quilts" 2010

The original design used American Jane's Happy Camper jelly strips from Moda. Try as I may I couldn't find this anywhere. I then stumbled across Bungle Jungle by Tim and Beck. I found the jelly roll from Hulu Crafts and I love it! The designs are full of primary colours, animals, dots and squiggles and is perfect for boy or girl. 

It's been 10 months since I last got quilting... I can't wait to share with you my progress! I've started building the blocks, and have already had a couple of "oopsidaisy" moments. More on that and my lessons learnt in a future post.

PS...A facebook update from my poorly sister

(This is a throw I made her as a housewarming present in 2010. Seeing it being used for comfort and warmth is great... just how quilts should be used!)

My first quilt

Originally written for my previous blog, I wanted to share with you my first experience of quilting. I hope you enjoy my tale... feel free to leave a comment - I would love to hear other people's first experiences of quilting - what went right and what went wrong...!:

Three years ago my love’s sister was pregnant. I have always been a fan of handmade cards as a personalised addition to special occasions, but the arrival of a baby required something special.

My mum suggested knitting baby booties… But I cannot knit…this is my mum’s forté and talent, but unfortunately one that she couldn’t seem to pass on! Growing up our home knitted jumpers would be adorned with the characters de jour: Roland rat, the shoe people (I had the ballerina shoe), you get the idea.

My brother sporting Roland Rat. My sister and I in Thumberlina I believe.

 

Then she said crotchet a baby blanket. Crotchet? I can’t knit! How would I crotchet! Then I remembered back at uni my friend Peggy used to quilt, old school style. I’d sit there cutting out paper and fabric hexagons. I would pin them together, folding the fabric edges over the smaller paper templates (alas the paper templates were not made out of love letters as traditional used) ready for Peggy to hand stitch them together. It was relaxing, and therapeutic. (This method of quilting is called Paper Piercing by the way).

Immediately I started researching the Internet for quilting how tos for baby blankets and places to buy fabric from. I soon stumbled upon Alex Anderson’s great beginners book Baby Quilts with Love. It has an excellent entry level section on how to cut material, the tools needed, and how to piece the fabric together. The instructions were clear and well ordered and the designs graded in complexity. Perfect.

Next I travelled down to Kew Gardens to Tikki London – a gorgeous patchwork quilt shop. The owner Tiina patiently went through the basics with me. She set me up with the cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter I would need and also went through helping me select complimentary fabrics. I never realised that I would have to think about complimentary tones, patterns, and how to visualise them all together.

And I began. I was nervous about every cut at first. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. It was quite an expensive gift. Would it turn out ok? Would it fall apart? Could I remember to sew? I hadn’t sat at a sewing machine since Textiles GCSE where I made a swimsuit for the larger woman. The coursework got an A… and I’ll be truthful… my wonderful ma did most of it. There were a multitude of worries as I sat down at my mum’s 1980′s New Home (now Janome) machine. But the were unfounded, because in fact it did turn out rather fine.

My love’s family were overwhelmed that they would have this personalised blanket for their newest edition…something that would be able to remain in the family for years to come. And it was the bestest feeling seeing the new baby playing and learning her first experiences on the blanket I made. From there on in I was hooked. However, I’m not saying my first attempt was perfect: I learnt a lot of things that I would/would not be doing the next time round, so for any new quilters out there here are my top tips:

• do invest in the  right tools. It may be pricey, but it makes life so much easier in the long run
• don’t bother washing the wadding before quilting. I did and regretted it. It was a pain to dry and thinned it overall.
• do measure twice and cut once. Accuracy is the key here. And no one likes wastage!
• don’t waiver from the 1/4 inch seam allowance otherwise you’ll have problems joining the blocks up at the end. If you think you’ve got it wrong unstitch the pieces and do it again
• do iron the seams flat after sewing the pieces together… it’s just neater and quilting is about precision and neatness
• don’t beat yourself up if you find quilting the top tricky. I still struggle, so stick to straight criss cross lines at first. It’s easier
• do have patience, but most of all…HAVE FUN
  

…and here it is… My first quilt. Design by Alex Anderson called Beachcomber Baby

Why we are here: for the love of quilting

My first quilting blog post!*

So why are we here?
I started quilting 3 years ago and instantly fell in love with the craft. After my first venture, a baby quilt, I knew I had discovered a new creative hobby to indulge in and I didn't want to let go!
I have made a multitude of gifts for friends and family since then, but I have also bought a flat, renovated said flat, changed job, become engaged and most recently got married. Often, as much as I didn't want to, my hobby got pushed to the side due to time, and money constraints.

But now I have created this blog to follow my progress as I finally decide to focus my hobby, improve my skills, and I attempt to make my design and quilt my own patchwork quilt over the next year having never made an item that I have kept for myself.

If you are learning to quilt too I hope you find my blog useful and if you are an experienced crafty one please respond to my pleads for help and advice! I'm sure there will be many along this journey.

*A little cavaet... I did start a blog over at iwanttobeacreative.wordpress.com/ in April 2012, but I foolishly decided to start 11 weeks before my wedding. How on earth blogging and organsing the final details of a wedding was going to work, I don't know! So here I am, starting over again.