Basic Patchwork Skills for Quilt Making (video tutorial)

Maybe you have never ever sewn patchwork.  You know how to work your sewing machine, and that’s it!  You’d like to start making a quilt, perhaps?  You are in the right place!

I have created a series of videos to get you started down Quilt Making Lane.  Most of these topics are steps you might come across while following a quilt pattern.  If you have questions after you watch this video or you feel like I’ve left something out, just ask or let me know in the comments.

Basic Supplies

 

 

For a list of the supplies I discuss in this video and links to purchasing them, please visit this post.

The fabrics I’m showing in this video is the collection “Wild Bloom” by Bari J.

I failed to mention in this video that fabrics come in collections.  You may or may not want to purchase them that way.  A collection of fabrics are fabrics that were all created to work together, meaning their color palette, variety, and overall design.

 

How to cut fabric

 

 

Cutting fabric with a rotary cutter is the quickest and most efficient method to cut fabric for patchwork.  Your grandmother and great grandmother would have KILLED for one of these babies.  You can purchase a 3 piece set of rotary mat, cutter, and the ruler similar to what I’m using in this video right here.

If you want to obsess over fabric with me, I post new fabrics on Monday every week.  See all those posts here.

 

What is “right sides together / RST” and how to sew a 1/4″ seam

 

 

Right sides together is the reason your clothing doesn’t have seams on the outside.  The seams of your shirt, dress, pants, whatever are on the inside of your clothing, tucked away out of sight, right?  This video shows how that is accomplished.

Also detailed, is the 1/4″ seam which you are going to hear a lot about.  You are going to hear it so much in fact that a pattern is going to instruct you to use it, and you are going to be like, “I KNOW!”  The 1/4″ seam (quarter inch seam) is almost a given when making a quilt.

 

How to alternate seams + How to press seams + How to nest seams

 

 

Patterns might ask you to alternate the seams of a row, and in this video I show you what that means.

It might be too much effort to deal with “better practices” when you are just starting out.  You want to learn to create patchwork and if you burden yourself too much with perfection you could become discouraged.  Eventually, and with time these finicky actions will come effortlessly with just a little mindfulness and care.

 

 How to make Half Square Triangles / HSTs

 

 

The half square triangle is one of the most basic shapes in creating patchwork.  If you make quilts for any amount of time, you are bound to run across the need for a HST.  In this video I demonstrate their making from start to finish using a “Quilt in a Day – Half Square Triangle ruler” (you can purchase that ruler here).   There are also a few other methods of making HSTs that I go over in this post with some close up pictures.

 

How to make flying geese

 

 

Flying geese are another basic shape in creating patchwork.  They also don’t require any special tools to create them.  You’ll do just fine with your basic patchwork supplies.  If you prefer a step by step picture tutorial you can find that here.

 

How to add corners to rectangles

 

 

You may note that this is very similar to making a flying geese unit.  I like this method as it can make something that looks difficult crazy easy.  It may not look so difficult in the video, but place that little unit inside a quilt block with other units and magic can happen.  The first time you see it you’ll be like, “whaaaat?  That was easy.”

So there you have it, BASIC PATCHWORK LESSONS.  I apologize for my low quality video skills, but hey, I’m a quilt maker, not a video maker.

My site features lots of tutorials and I also sell my own quilt patterns.  When you finish a quilt or are almost finished, you might want to think about labeling your quilt.  I also create customized labels to help you along with that process, you can find my labels here.

If you are here just because you like watching quilts be made and you’d never try to make one yourself (though I encourage you to!), I also sell my quilts right here.

Thanks for reading and watching!

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