Quilting

A quilting machine is used to fix pieces of cloth together into a blanket that is made of smaller pieces of cloth. Most quilts used to be made by hand, now they are machine made.

Blanket binding that you purchase is cut on the straight grain and can only be used on straight edges. To bind curves, you must have bias binding.

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I would try calling fabric stores located in Edmonton. Lots of times stores will have fabrics with themes of local interest.

A quilt with a family album incorporated into it.

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In my opinion, always use 100% cotton. Very few people are allergic to cotton. Wool batting, or polyester can cause rashes.

Polyester batting will 'crumble' to granules and dust after a few years of repeated washing and abuse. Stick with cotton, especially for baby.

Something else to consider . . . If you are going to hand quilt the baby quilt, use a 'needled cotton batt.' It is easier to quilt. Also, it is a good idea to buy a cotton batting that does not contain little pieces of the 'hull' and seed ( some batts will have bits all through it. ) Those hulls and seeds will eventually bleed small amounts of cotton oil, leaving a stain on the quilt that will NOT wash out.

We're sorry, but you can't. Light in the Valley is a copyrighted pattern, which is strictly protected by shape, design, and even colors used.

The Company Store has a variety of affordable quilts that are produced exclusively for them at various overseas plants. As with most textiles, very few companies now manufacture in the United States.

Using an embroidery hoop to secure the fabric, one can make a simple canopy drape to hang over a twin size bed with about six yards of fabric. To make a fuller, more elaborate canopy for a queen or king size bed can take as much as 24 yards of fabric.

A friendship quilt is usually one where there are many contributors. Friends will get together and each make/sew a block of their own. Oftentimes they are signed by the maker. All of the blocks are of the same size although they may have a pattern of some sort within the block. Then the blocks are all sewn together to make the quilt. They are usually made to record memories of friends or family. Many times they are made for a particular person to honor them with a gift for their birthday, retirement, or if they are ill. Putting the quilt together is also a nice social gathering of friends and neighbors.

You follow the lines on the pantograph with a laser pointing down on the pantograph on the back side of your quilting machine that is on a frame. This is when using a paper pantograph. There is also 'groovy board' pantographs. These are wooden boards that a stylist that is attached to your machine runs in while moving the sewing machine on the frame.

The squares for this quilt will need to be 8 1/2 inches, that includes the 1/4 inch seam allowance for stitching them together. The finished blocks will be 8 inches square.

Many quilting clubs, guilds and women's groups continue to have quilting bees. However, early in the 20th Century, the abundance of inexpensive manufactured blankets and bedspreads made the homemade quilt less of a household essential and more of a treasured heirloom. During and after the Second World War, increasing numbers of women took jobs outside the home and had less time or need to sew their bed coverings themselves. Whereas the quilting bee turned a slow, difficult chore into a social occasion, today the practice of quilting is a hobby and an art form.

A pounce wheel is a very useful tool for marking stencil lines or quilting lines on the quilt top, or for use in transferring markings for hand or machine embroidery. The pounce wheel is a small round metal disk with very sharp, hardened teeth that have been beveled to a point. The wheel is mounted at the end of a handle so it can be easily guided across a surface. Using a paper stencil, or other paper pattern, roll the pounce wheel over the lines of the drawing and it perforates tiny holes in the paper. The paper is then placed on top of the fabric to be marked. A pounce pad, filled with powdered chalk, is then gently rubbed over the surface of the paper, leaving a chalk line that is transferred through the paper onto the fabric. This is a quick and easy transfer method; it is accurate; safe for all fabrics, and is non-toxic. The chalk can be easily brushed away after the stitching has been completed.

Yes. It is a variation on a 9 patch and looks quite simple to make. In order to make my description make sense let's number the units, 1 through 9. With 1, 2 and 3 being the top row, 4, 5 and 6 being the middle row and 7, 8 and 9 being on the bottom row.

It can be composed of two colours. (I have seen them made with more, but two colours allows the pattern to pop out.) Let's say, blue and white.

There are four corner units (1, 3, 7 and 9) each consisting of a four patch composed of four half square triangles.

The middle units consist of a two rectangles to make a square (half blue and half white). This would be units 2, 4, 6 and 8.

The centre square (unit 5) is one colour.

Let's say the centre block is white. Let's lay out all the parts.

Put unit 5 in the centre, and put unit 2 above it, so that the blue borders the white. Place unit 4 and unit 6 on either side of unit 5, so that the blue on them borders the white. Then put unit 8 below the white centre square so that the blue borders the white.

Unit 1 will have 4 little squares that are half square triangles - so half white and half blue. Arrange them so that the blue corner of one of the squares is against the blue corner of units 2 and 4. Arrange the other three triangles of that unit, in the same orientation. so that the blue is aimed towards the centre block and the white is aimed away.

Do the same thing with the other little triangles in the other three corners.

That is what a Single Wedding Ring block looks like. I have got the pattern in an old quilting book - and it has those little half square triangles arranged to make a white square on point in each corner, but I have never actually seen it done that way. Hope that helps!

Cotton is a good choice for quilting. It offers durability and is easy to maintain. Stains are easily removed as well and the material is ever so soft.

Most quilts are made with 100% cotton, that has a fairly tight weave for durability. ( Egyptian cotton is way too tight a weave for hand quilting, but will work fine with machine quilting. )

Quilts cotton are identified by the way we use them, how long you use them and where we use them

1. Batik fabric has a tighter weave than traditional cotton.

2. Flannel and brushed-cotton are stretchier

3. Silk is absolutely gorgeous but it is slippery and frays like crazy.

4. 50% Polyester with cotton composition

You just go over the last stitch back and forth for a few seconds, this makes it sturdy enough to hold. if you like you can do the same over the first stitch.

To tie a quilt by hand, you go to each point where four squares meet and place a piece of yarn/thread that you then tie. To do this by machine, you would place each intersection under the needle, sew an x, then pull enough thread out to tie a knot by hand.

It might be possible to use a mattress pad as a quilt batt (filling) but it would not be the best option. Mattress pads are not made for frequent washing, and the fibers in their filling would be prone to shift and bunch, distorting the thickness of the quilt. Many mattress pads made today are not made of cotton but of a blend of synthetic fibers of questionable quality.

You can use about any fabric to make a basic quilt . . . HOWEVER - If you want the quilt to stand up to the test of time, chose only good quilters cotton. They have a softer look than blends, and are durable, not to mention, that few people are allergic to natural fibers.
Quilters cotton fabrics are ( as a general rule ) even weave, which means the same number of threads run in the warp and the weft. The ideal fabric is 75 threads per inch in each direction. ( 30 threads per cm )
Pima cotton is 132 threads per inch ( 52 per cm ) to the weft, and 100 treads to the inch to the warp ( 40 threads per cm ). Bedsheets are generally made from pima cotton. When quilting through pima cotton, it is very difficult to needle this fabric. This is the main reason NOT to use bedsheets to back quilts.
A looser weave fabric can be an even bigger problem, since you may only be catching 1 or 2 thread when you hand quilt.
It's a good idea to buy your fabrics at a good quilt shop, and avoid 'seconds' or knock offs. You put a lot of work into making a quilt . . . Make it an heirloom that will last generations.

I believe it is a thin fleece batting that you can iron your quilt top and backing to, thereby eliminating the need for basting or pin-basting before quilting.

I have embroidered signatures on numerous quilts . . . Use very small stitches, usually a stem stitch.

? ? ? I am not sure what you need to know.

A quilt pattern, is the method that you piece bits of fabric together to create a pattern or image.

There are so many different patterns, and more are being created every day !