How to Quilt a Quilt
So you finished your first quilt top and you are so excited about it because it is beautiful.
But what next?
One of the most influential things I have ever read about how to quilt a quilt was at The Inbox Jaunt. Their #1 way to ruin a quilt top? Leave it in a box and never make it into a quilt. Now whenever I question if I’m making the right quilting decisions I remind myself that at least it isn’t in a plastic box.
There are a few ways of getting your beautiful project from quilt top to warm blanket:
A Long Arm
I’ve never used one of these. But if you are super intimidated or have a large quilt, you can take it to someone who owns a beast of a machine and, for a small fee, they will quilt your quilt in perfect digitally determined lines.
Walking Foot Quilting
This is how I have quilted 100% of my quilts. Your walking foot is this beast of a presser foot. It has its own feed dogs built in so that all the layers of your project go through the machine at the same rate.
This is perfect for straight line quilting and beginning quilting because:
- You can do it on your home machine.
- Your machine takes a lot of the control so that you don’t have to be particularly deft.
Free Motion Quilting
One of my crafting goals for 2019 is to figure this out. Basically your presser foot becomes so light that it is putting almost no pressure on your quilt top and you can make fun designs using your home machine.
I feel like it must take a lot of control, deftness, and patience. I can be a little short on (some of) those three things, so I have to build up to this.
Hand Quilting
This is for the truly dedicated among us. There are a number of ways to do this but you will need a lot of time and an amazing needle system to make the thousands of stitches needed to quilt even a baby quilt.
That is not my jam so I don’t know that I will ever hand quilt anything. However, if you ever go to a quilt show and see someone’s work who has hand quilted a piece then you will be amazed at the patience of those artists who manage to make their hand stitches look as neat and precise as a sewing machine.
Remember: As long as you are taking your quilt from quilt top to warm blanket then you can only improve it. Even if the seams are not quite as straight as you would like. That’s what practice is for.