patchwork newbie need some help!

shazba

Hi i have been thinking of something new to do and came up with idea of making my 2 dd a paychwowork quilt (i think thats what they're called) but i dont have any idea as where to start so im hoping for some advice on what i will need and how to do them. Many thatnks in advance.

deborah64

Will be keeping an eye on this thread as i have wanted to do something like this for ages.

buxtonrabbitgreen

As you have not had any answers yet. May I suggest you look on the special occasions board. They have a crafting section there so someone may be able to help you. I did make one years ago. My ex made me 2 hexagonal temlates from metal. One slightly bigger than the other. I am pretty sure you can buy plastic ones now. How I did it was, to cut newspaper to the size of the smaller hexagon then material from the larger hexagon template. Turn the edges of the material over the newspaper and stitch down. Then just keep making pieces and join then in what ever pattern you like. It is nice to use scraps of material that have been somthing else. For instance a babies dress etc. It took me 3 years as I was doing it all by hand. I have no idea what happened to it though. hth
You can sew just squares on the sewing machine, which would be much easier. Oh and you do need to make a backing and obviously take out the newspaper. I used a sheet for mine. hth

ChocClare

shazba wrote: »

Hi i have been thinking of something new to do and came up with idea of making my 2 dd a paychwowork quilt (i think thats what they're called)

I really hope that's a typo and not some special kind of quilt, otherwise I'm just wasting your time here!

You don't say how old your daughters are or what size of quilt you need - let me know and I'll be happy to help you.

If you are a beginner, you might be best off with something REALLY simple, which will still look effective. Don't try to make the patches too small, as you'll end up slashing your wrists. Do you have a sewing machine, or are you going to be making this by hand?

OK: easiest way, without knowing any of the above (and without pictures!), to make a quilt:

Find some nice fabric - it doesn't matter what colour, something your daughters will like. It MUST be cotton, otherwise you'll be s-ing your w-s (see above). Let's be really sexist, and say it's pink flowery cotton. If you've got some fabric, great, if not, you're looking for quite lightweight cotton.

Now, find a piece of white fabric - an old sheet will do, as long as it's 100% cotton and not too worn. If it is, you can always cut out the worn bits - the edges are OK.

I have no idea what size quilt you're making, remember, so let's say for this example only that you have a metre of pink fabric which is 120cm wide and a metre of white fabric which is 120cm wide. (If you're an imperial kind of girl, you can say you have a yard of each fabric and they're 48 inches wide. )

Now let's say you've decided on the size of your squares, and you think you'll go for 15cm/6" squares. You want to end up with a square that's 15cm/6", so you have to give yourself a bit of a margin for the seam. Take your pink fabric; put it on a hard surface like a table and find yourself a straight edge - a long ruler preferably or if not, a tape measure and something with a decent straight edge. Lay the fabric out face down on the table. All along the edges of the fabric you will see a selvedge (sorry - if this is patronising, skip it, but I don't know how much of a beginner you are!!) It is a thicker edge to the fabric where the ends have all been sewn in and there are usually a series of "holes" like needle marks running the length of the fabric. You need to cut these selvedges off as straight as you can. You'll be left with two strips of fabric about an inch wide. There are doubtless thousands of OS things you can do with these - tie up your plants, make cheap hair ribbons - but you don't need them here. Chuck 'em.

Now measure in 17cm/7" from your new edge. Measure at intervals all along the edge of your fabric and mark with a pencil, so you have a series of dots which you can join into a straight line. Repeat across the fabric and do the same with the white fabric. Cut along the pencil lines (along the length of your fabric). You now have a series of strips in white and pink which are each 17cm wide and 1 metre long.

With right sides together, pin one strip of pink fabric to a strip of white fabric along the long edge, 1cm/half an inch in. You can draw a pencil line on the wrong side of the fabric to mark where 1cm comes, if you like. Now sew the two pieces together along this line. When you've done that, sew another pink piece to the other side of the white piece as before, right sides together along the length. You should now have a long strip of fabric, pink-white-pink.

Now do the same again, but with two white pieces of fabric, so you have white-pink-white. Turn the fabric face down and press the seams open so they're nice and flat. Press on the right side. Now turn over again, and press the seam towards the pink fabric. This makes it stronger. If you can't be bothered, don't. However, it will make sure that the pink fabric seam doesn't show through the white fabric.

Now comes the fun part. Take your pink-white-pink piece and measure along the long edge until you reach 17cm. Mark out 17cm intervals all the way up. Now cut across, so that you have "slices" of pink-white-pink. If you had a metre of fabric to start with, you should get 5 pink-white-pink pieces, plus one that's a bit shorter. Do the same with the white-pink-white pieces. (Yes, you're cutting through your stitches but don't worry - you're going to sew across the other way in a minute, so they shouldn't unravel.)

Now lay them out alternately on your table: pink-white-pink piece, then a white-pink-white piece, then a pink-white-pink piece etc. Now you can sew them together in rows, again using a 1cm/half inch seam.

Obviously, one pink-white-pink piece will only be 45cm/18" wide, so you'd need to sew several of them together, but I hope you get the idea.

If you haven't lost the will to live, get started: I'll come back to tell you how to quilt it later in the programme...:rotfl:

If you'd prefer lots of different colours in your quilt, or if you want to make a quilt out of scraps, then you'll have to cut out individual 7"/17cm squares rather than long strips - again, I'll tell you how if you like.

radiohelen

Ooooh Chocclare pretty please do the quilting bit for us. I've got a lovely quilt I've been making for the last two years and I'm scared to finish the bit with the squares because I don't know what to do next. I know I've got to get some batting and a bit of material for the back but what I do with it all is a mystery!

ChocClare

Oh, ok, twist my arm :rolleyes:

What sort of quilt have you got, Helen? How big are the squares? Do they have a pattern? Do they alternate with white squares/plain squares, or are they all different colours? Who are you making it for?

Sorry for the number of questions, but how you quilt it kind of depends on the answers to the above.

While you're waiting for the next instalment, look out for a vanishing marking pen. This is a pen you can draw lines with and then the lines vanish in the air after a few days. You can get them in the quilting section at Hobbycraft, or in most haberdashers. They cost a few quid, but you'll thank me later. Honest.

nanokitten

nice one ChocClare, in addition to the excellent instructions can I suggest a trip to the library, most have an excellent handicrafts section and you will find lots of inspiration / templates / further instructions and illustrations.

Pont

There's a rather strange woman on 'Rural TV' on Sky called Eleanor something or other that shows the process quite simply. I've made a few patchwork quilts in my dim and distant past but this woman never fails to amuse/bemuse me!

carolbee

I am going back to patchwork this winter, and am doing the haxagonal way, with two templates I have had for years, the larger one for fabric and smaller one for card/paper. I'm buying themed fabric for a certain person, of all the sorts of things they like, ie cars, beach etc, we have a great shop where we live.

If you want to buy a book that includes full size quilt blocks, I have just bought one, but am not sure if I can give details on here, pm me for details.

seem to think there is also a demo on you tubed?

minimiser

Look on youtube there are loads of tips. I particually like crazy patchwork as you end up with a random look and don't have to cut pieces all the same size.