Wednesday 27 February 2008

Easy and virtually free patchwork quilt – Part 5

Read part 1
Read part 2
Read part 3
Read part 4

Before we get on to assembling the quilt, you need to organise some supplies. A quilt is a 3 layer sandwich:

The quilt top - the pretty bit you have spent ages making.
The wadding - the soft fluffy insides of a quilt that makes it warm.
The backing – usually plain fabric.


Wadding and backing basics

There are loads of different types of quilt wadding. (Americans call it batting) Some is made from natural fibres like cotton, some from polyester, and some are a blend.

The polyester wadding is inexpensive, and comes in different thickness. It doesn’t shrink when washed. I used 2 inch polyester wadding in the first quilt I ever made. We use this quilt everyday on the sofa and it has turned super soft and snugly.

The cotton wadding gives a more traditional flatter look, and generally I prefer this, especially for art quilts that hang on the wall. It will shrink a bit when washed so either pre wash it, or embrace the antique puckered look you'll get in the future. The cotton wadding is more expensive but lovely.

There are more expensive alternatives like wool or even alpaca if you want to go for warmth.

If you buy wadding on the internet it is generally sold in pre-cut bed sized pieces, so you will probably get quite a bit of wastage. Most fabric shops will sell quilt wadding by the metre and this is your best bet for avoiding leftovers. John Lewis also sell wadding.

I bit a rather expensive bullet a while ago and bought a whole bolt of cotton wadding.  It seemed a big outlay at the time but it was sensible because I make alot of quilts.  I haggled the price down with the fabric shop man because the wadding had gone a bit bobbly.  

Extra thrift tip:  Keep all scraps of wadding, however small.  It makes very good stuffing for soft toys. 

For the backing you need another piece of fabric just larger than your quilt top. My local fabric shop sells bed sheet seconds for £2 so I often use those for backing. Also I use cream calico quite a lot as  it’s very reasonably priced. Recycle an old bed sheet if you have one spare. If you don't have a spare I bet your Granny has. If you want the backing to co-ordinate with your top you could buy some matching cotton.

Your quilt will probably be wider than your backing fabric so you will have to join 2 or 3 lengths together. It might seem like a waste, but put the seam down the middle, not to one side. I know it means ending up with 2 thinner off cuts, but an off centre seam looks like a mistake. You can always use your off cuts in another patchwork project!


Similarly if you need 3 widths to make up the desired size, put your seams symmetrically like this:


Of course if you are using a bed sheet no joining will be required!

Hope you like my little diagrams! Please don't reproduce them without asking me first.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

When do we get back to the "drink gin" bit?

I've been following those instructions religiously, and I have to say it is going well - although I don't have any photographs of my gin-drinking progress.

Rach said...

You can have a gin any time you like during the process. In fact I'd go as far as to say your results may even be enhanced by the addition of gin, at least until the next day and you look at your wonky sewing.

Anonymous said...

who said anything about sewing?

Anonymous said...

I am trying to maintain the illusion that my instructions are of some use to someone, not just some gin soaked surfer

Rhonda said...

Hey, Rach...they're of use to me! I was actually quite excited to find your column here. I prefer brandy or bourbon, though, if that's okay. :)

I just started quilting about four months ago when I pulled everything out of my linen closet, looked at the pile of things I no longer use, and thought, there's got to be something I can do with this.

Bingo: make a quilt! The first one consisted of a couple of sheets, a solid navy blue one for the back and for the top, a solid dark red cut up with some tan from an old bedskirt and a few prints I got on clearance. The batting was an old mattress pad. I had about $5US in the materials on that one.

This second one I'm working on now has an old futon cover for the back and $8 worth of fabric samples I got at a garage sale from a former fabric sales person. I hated to do it, but I had to buy batting this time; luckily, it was on sale at 50% off, so I only spent $7.

Rhonda