Quilting Basics

For the past week, I have been piecing a quilt, and while I know that most people know that a quilt consists of pieces of fabric sewn together, I don’t know if they understand “how” these are put together to make a quilt.

Designing and making a quilt starts with math (ugh). After the design is chosen, the size of the blocks as well as any sashing has to be figured out so that you end up with the correct size top in the end. Quilting always uses 1/4 inch seam allowances, so this has to be added into the size of the cut pieces. If you want a 6″ finished block, you will need to cut the block 6.5″ by 6.5″ to end up with the correct size.

For this quilt, I have two different size pieces to make to create the finished block. One way to speed up the process and have accurate pieces is to make a long strip and cut it into the correct sizes. For this quilt, I cut a 2.5″ strip of one fabric, and stitched it to another strip of a different fabric that measured 4.5″. I made sure to iron the fabric so that the seams go in the same direction, then I lined up 3 of these strips and then cut them in 2.5″ and 4.5″ pieces.

Once these are cut, they are combined once of each size to make a finished 6.5″ block.

When piecing the block, there are 2 important things to pay attention to. One is when the block is sewn together, you must make sure that the intersections meet up perfectly.

And by making sure the seams are pressed in the correction direction, this intersection will fit together correctly. This also helps the quilt top to lay flat.