Quilting - Why I love it

Quilting – Why I love it

January 19, 2020

I have enjoyed sewing since I was a child.  I used to create all kinds of things from scrap material.  I also learned to sew carefully and use patterns through 4-H.

There are 2 parts of quilting that are really quite different. 

Part 1 is making the quilt top.  Using pieces or material that are sewn together, piecing, or sewn on top of each other, applique, a design or picture is made.

Part two is sewing the layers together.  This part is actually called quilting.

I love quilts that are pieced together.  In pioneer times women used the pieces of a worn out garment that still had wear in them or the scraps of material for things they had sewn and made them into beautiful useful quilts.  I love that women who were thought to be unable to understand geometry or trigonometry used those skills without knowing it to create patterns on diagonals and all kinds of other angles to create blocks that work together to make intricate pattern covering a whole quilt. There is a lot of math and fractions involved in figuring out how many pieces at various angles combine to fit together with a different block with a different number of pieces at different angles.

My Hunter Star Quilt
Hand quilted on lap frame

Sewers, now seldom use fabric that had been part of a garment in their quilts, preferring to use new good quality material but it is still cut into the pieces needed to create the patterns.

The quilt I am working on now is called a diamond chain.  It is a version of an Irish chain pattern that is a very old pattern.  When I create one block I can’t see how the quilt top is going to work.  It isn’t until several of the 8 1/4 inch blocks, which are made out of 4 1/2 inch blocks, which are made out of smaller pieces are laid together that the pattern emerges.  I love that!  When the quilt is finished I will have little squares that look like a chain going diagonally across the quilt and in the middle of the chains I will have a diamond made out of 4 colors of material.  All I will have done to create the beautiful geometric design is sew some squares and triangles together.  I find that amazing.  I love looking at quilts I see and figuring out how the blocks are put together to create the overall pattern.

It takes precision to sew the blocks so the corners meet correctly.  Being off by 1/8 of an inch doesn’t always matter when you are sewing but it does on a quilt top.  I like the challenge of getting it right.

So I love pieced quilt tops.  I love the ones other people make and I love making them.

When the top is ready it is layered on top of batting, the fluffy layer that makes a quilt warm and a bit puffy and a piece of background cloth.  Then it is time to sew the layers together to do the quilting.  This is done by sewing all across the quilt through all the layers.  Usually quilters either pin, baste – sew using really big temporary stitches, or spray glue the layers together so they don’t move during the quilting process.

Quilting is done either by hand and or machine. Until recently the quilting lines usually went along the seam lines in the quilt sometimes adding detail.  Currently a method of sewing in designs across the quilt top disregarding the quilt pattern has become more common.

In order to hand quilt the fabric needs to be snug.  Quilters may put the whole quilt on a frame.  The edge of the quilt is tacked to boards.  The boards are supported at table height buy wooden legs.  If the quilt is large a large room is needed for this process.  I have worked on a frame in my mother-in-laws house.  It’s fun because usually a group forms to work on the quilt and you chat and enjoy the time together.  It however, is hard on one’s back to lean over the frame to work and a whole room of the house is out of commission until the quilt is finished. 

Currently quilters often use a lap or hand frame that might be about 18” across.  They then quilt a section of the quilt and move it to the next area until the quilt is finished.  Hand quilting is simply a matter of putting the needle in and out of the fabric along the lines that are to be quilted.  Even and small stitches are admired in hand quilting.  I love quilting on a hand frame.  The easy in and out of the needle is relaxing, perhaps therapeutic.  I quilt while I watch TV.  As long as you are not in hurry to finish the quilt, this is a marvelous way to spend some time.

I have done a bit of machine quilting.  Straight line machine quilting makes sense to me.  Usually following the seam lines of the quilt much like hand quilting you stick the layers together.  This is great for quilts you want finished quickly.  Free motion quilting is a new method for me.  Using a special presser foot one disengages the feed dogs on the machine.  This means the sewing machine is no longer pulling the material though at a regular speed.  The material only moves when you move it.  The action of free motion quilting is like that of holding a pen still and moving the paper to make the picture. 

Free motion quilting is beautiful. when other people do it!

Manitoba Sunrise Quilt,
My first attempt at free motion machine quilting.

Free motion quilting goes against everything I know.  A phrase I was told many times when learning to sew, “Don’t’ push the material, let the feed dogs do their job.”  A second one was, “The machine can only sew straight ahead.  Don’t pull the material sideways – ever!”

So now free motion quilting requires me to go against the two most basic rules of machine sewing.  Then, one must learn to move the material at the same rate they are making the machine make stitches. Even though I spend quite a bit of time practicing and have made one quit with free motion quilting I find it very difficult.  However, there is so much potential in this method I intend to keep on trying.

I love quilting.  I love piecing the quilt top and I love hand quilting.