Last week I took my first quilting class at my local Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft store.
I always wanted to learn how to quilt and I was lucky enough to get an excellent teacher and a practically private class (just me and my sister-in-law :)).
Quilting is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it! After crocheting and knitting for so long it’s great to be able to work with materials that you can modify and create very fast just by cutting and sewing.
Here are 4 things I learned from my first quilting class:
- Different shades of the same color have a great visual effect. It’s great to start with 3 shades like light, medium and dark for your first try (see the picture below).
- Measure accurately – quilting is basically made up of squares or shapes that you prepare in advance and then sew on together. Because there are so many possible shapes, it’s crucial that the base measurements of all the shapes are going to be accurate, otherwise you won’t be able to sew them together properly.
- Learn how to sew a straight line BEFORE you start quilting 🙂
- Ironing is key – once you sew the pieces of fabric together, it’s very hard and frustrating to undo them so if the fabric is even a tiny bit rippled, the thread is going to mess up your piece and you’ll have to create one from scratch. For best performance, make sure to iron the pieces of fabric often and make sure they are straight and ready for sewing.
- When ironing, it’s very important to always iron with the direction of the threads – either horizontally or vertically on the fabric, and not diagonally. Otherwise, the iron is going to mess up the shape of the fabric and stretch it out.
If you have never taken up Quilting, I’d suggest you go to your local crafts store and pick up a class – it is such a fun skill and the possibilities are endless!
Although I think that you can learn anything crafty by yourself, I highly suggest a lesson in person with a teacher in case you are not very skilled in sewing because it’s very easy to mess up and get frustrated.
Enjoy!!! 🙂
