I am making my daughter a quilt from some vintage fabric I got on Freecycle.:D It will save me a LOT of money to make one rather than buy one, and this fabric will be great to make my first one with.
How do I attatch the soft fluffy stuff (what is it called? batting?) to the fabric? Also, is it okay to serge the squares together? Do I do it from the center out? Or, can I serge a strip and then serge that to another strip?:confused:
I could really use a basic how to from a pro.:)
I also am confused of how to do the last part so that it doesn't show where I sew it shut.
Also, how do I do applique without it ravelling if I only have a basic sewing machine?
Thanks

Okay-- here's a few things. You do applique on your machine by picking the satin stitch (on mine that means I do the zig zag stitch and then select the button hole on my stitch length, just something that's really close together. You can serge your squares or patches together. I don't like to because it gives me thick seams to try to quilt through so I just sew the patches together and then press them to one side so I can quilt. You can start from the center or sides or whatever you're comfortable and the design requires when you're making the quilt top. You attach the batting in a multitude of ways. I use frames and don't machine quilt so I may not be helpful here. I personally take the top and bottom and sandwich the batting between them, quilt or tie, and then bind as my final step. You can "bag" the quilt by basting slightly smaller batt to the top, sewing and then turning, then you either hand sew the turning opening close and topstitch the edge or attch some kind of trim like eyelet etc. (I don't usually do this on anything larger than a baby quilt) Don't think I'm helping here, so maybe someone else can explain better
-H

I don't have a serger but I think it's better to straight-stitch your squares or blocks together.

The way I layer my "quilt sandwich" is like this:
prepare a backing (may have to be pieced depending on size of quilt and what you like) that is 5-6 inches longer and wider than your quilt top. Press all seams.

Then I use wide tape and tape the backing to the floor, all smoothed out. This way when I baste it the backing won't bunch up and my quilting will be smooth and not puckered.

Then lay the batting on top of the backing, smooth it out. Same with quilt top.

I baste my quilts with curved 1" safety pins available at a quilt shop (maybe Joanns too, can't say for sure). Start in the middle and place pins thru all 3 layers, about every 5-6 inches towards the outside of the quilt. There's a tool you can get to close the pins so you don't kill your fingertips.

After the quilt is all basted you can untape the backing from the floor.

Then I machine quilt. You could also hand quilt this same quilt sandwich or tie the quilt with yarn or perle cotton.

For finishing the quilt edges you can fold the backing edges over to the top and machine stitch down (this is how I learned to do quilts growing up). Now what I do is attach a binding that is a folded 2.5" strip of fabric--this is sewn along the edge of the top of the quilt, then the backing and batting are trimmed with a little bit sticking out past the seam allowance of the quilt top (hope this makes sense), and then I handsew the folded edge of the binding to the back of the quilt.

For applique, you can do it by hand, turning edges under as you go. Or you can fuse and then do a narrow zigzag on the edge of your applique. (There are lots of other applique techniques out there too.)

I recommend reading a basic quilting book like "Quilts, Quilts, Quilts" by McClun and Nownes (I think those are the authors' names), or getting a basic quilting magazine, or going to a site like quilting.about.com for lots of quilting info.

Have fun!!

-Vicki

I'm too brain dead this evening to give a good detailed response (or read the others), but here goes.....

1) Better to use regular sewing machine to piece the top together. Serged piecing isn't as forgiving as a regular lock stitch.

2) Quilt basting spray is the coolest thing ever invented. Go to Jo Ann's, buy a can, and follow the instructions.

3) www.quilterscache.com is an excellent resource for quilting instructions.

Good luck!

spray basting rocks!! I pin smaller things still but BIG quilts I spray baste and it makes all the difference! :)


Storm

Wow! You ladies sure know your quilting :) Thank you so much for the info. I am checking out those websites today!
I will check out that spray stuff. I will be making 2 quilts if the first comes out okay. They will be twin-sized.

I like fuseable batting. No messy sprays or pins. All you need in an iron.