Welcome to "Quilting 101"

Expert quilter Marianne Fons shares great advice for the beginner quilter and that all-important first quilt.

Quilting Tools
A rotary cutter is probably the single most important tool you'll use as a quilter. It features a sharpened, round razor blade with generally a plastic handle. Rotary cutters should be used in conjunction with a self-healing surface mat and some sort of measuring tool that helps you cut accurately.

Other useful tools are scissors (to snip threads), pins, a seam ripper, a sewing machine, a regular steam iron and a pressing surface.

Fabric
Quilters love fabric. In fact, most quilters have a "stash" that they add to periodically. Depending on your quilt, you could need three fabrics or 50 fabrics. Scrap quilts can have many hundreds of different fabrics in them. Most seasoned quilters choose 100 percent cotton for consistency. Cotton handles well, wears well and dyes easily. It also presses easily, which is important in quilting.

Pre-Washing Fabric
It's a good idea to pre-wash because fabrics can shrink and fabric dyes can bleed. Also, if the quilt is going to be used, you want to wash the fabrics just like you probably would do prior to wearing new clothing or using a store-bought blanket. If you're making a wall quilt that won't be washed, you can skip the pre-washing.

Quilt Top Designs
When just beginning, choose simple patterns. You can find patterns and books in local quilt, craft and book stores and via the Internet through mail order.

Figure B

Ribbon Star Block
Here's the easy Ribbon Star block to get you started. It looks complex, but don't worry. It's a variation of a 9-Patch, one of the easiest patchwork designs you can make. To make your quilt, you'll need three quilt top fabrics — a light color, a medium color and a dark color — batting (wash or prepared according to manufacturer's instruction) and backing fabric. The experts recommend a print fabric on the back to hide any imperfect quilting stitches. Here's how to make the quilt:

Quilt Top
1. Line up selvage edges then fold fabric in half. Using rotary cutter, measured self-healing mat and ruler, trim away cut edge of fabric at a 90-degree angle (straight up and down).

2. Cut 3-7/8-inch strips of light color fabric. Cut strip into 3-7/8-inch squares. Cut squares in half diagonally to create triangles. You will need four light color triangles per block.

3. Repeat step 2 with dark color fabric, cutting eight dark color triangles.

4. Repeat step 2 with medium color fabric, creating four triangles. Cut an extra 3-7/8-inch square to use as the center block.

Figure D

5. Lay out cut fabric as shown. Stitch the half-square triangles together using a 1/4" seam allowance. Tip: To ensure you're getting an accurate 1/4-inch seam from your sewing machine, measure 1/4-inch from the needle to the throat plate. Place a sticky note at the 1/4-inch mark. Next cut two squares that measure 2-1/2 inches each. When stitched together on all sides, the squares will finish at 2 inches. Stitch the squares together with a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Measure across the front of the stitched squares. If your results are 4-1/2 inches, you're well on your way to blissful patchwork.

6. Chain piece the triangles by stitching two at a time in assembly line fashion without clipping the threads.

7. Take the chained patchwork to your pressing surface and press seams (toward the dark fabric is the rule, but press adjoining rows in opposite directions to get more crisp corners. Set the seam by holding the iron on the stitches for a second, then open the triangle to reveal a square shape and press. Tip: Press fabric while it's right side up so you don't press a tuck into it.

Figure F

8. Sew pieced and pressed squares into three rows. Sew adjoining rows together with a 1/4-inch seam to create the block. Repeat steps to make four blocks.

9. Stitch blocks together to create quilt top design.

Figure G

10. To add borders, measure across the quilt from one raw edge to the other. Cut the top and bottom borders at 3-7/8" x the exact measurement found in the first part of this step. Stitch the top and bottom borders on to the quilt top using a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Press. Next, measure from the top border across the quilt to the bottom border. Cut two side borders at 3-7/8" x the exact measurement just found. Stitch the side borders on. Press.

Quilting
11. To complete the quilt, layer the backing fabric (right side down), batting and quilt top (right side up). Tape down the corners of the backing so it doesn't shift.

12. If hand quilting, take long hand-sewn basting stitches down the center of the quilt top, biting into all three layers. Baste horizontally, vertically and diagonally. Use a neutral color thread for basting to avoid any dye bleeding issues that could occur. If machine quilting, baste with quilter's basting pins (curved safety pins). The goal is to keep the layers from shifting while you quilt. If hand quilting, position the quilt in a hoop to keep it taut while you quilt.

13. Quilt thread designs into the quilt layers. You can quilt simple lines or squares, or go for bolder, freeform designs. For quilting ideas, look at other quilts.

14. Add a binding by folding and stitching a bias-cut (cut diagonally across the grain of the fabric) strip of fabric to the front of the quilt. Trim away excess batting and fabric, squaring up the quilt. Fold bias strip around to the back, turn under and hand stitch down.