Hobbies today are moving along with world-famous trends and technology, like playing computer or mobile games and performing outdoor or indoor sports. This is because of the social trend that affects users of doing the same thing with the rest of the society, like a bandwagon effect. In this case, traditional hobbies that came from your parents or even grandparents aren’t that popular today.

Still, such hobbies from the past are considered important today to make time fly. And this such hobby is knowing how to quilt. Quilting is a method of stitching three layers of fabric together, either by hand or machine, to produce a single fabric with stitch designs. In which, this particular stitching activity dates back to the medieval period in England during the 13th century. Wherein the word “quilt” means cushion in old English.

Today, only a few people around the globe are engaged in this kind of activity and would even set it as their hobby. So, the knowledge of how to quilt is not that common to everyone. But, in case you want to do this as a hobby, there are some things you will need to consider before you start stitching those fabrics.

Tools for Quilting

Before every battle, you need to prepare your ammo and weapons. This is similar to quilting or any other hobby that you want to start.

• Fabric Scissors. This tool is the most basic and most important of all tools when you want to start quilting. You cannot start this hobby if you don’t have this, so grab yourself a pair of fabric scissors.

• Rotary Cutters and Blades. This is an important tool to cut seamless layers of fabric at once. In quilting, you will need to start by cutting fabrics at first before you can stitch them together at the desired design.

• Cutting Mats. Cutting layers of fabrics can be troublesome at times, especially when the surface top you’re using is prone to cuts and damages as well. So make sure to use a self-healing cutting mat that is specifically made for this kind of craft.

• Acrylic Rulers. This kind of ruler has measurements and has a transparent body, so you can easily see the fabric below it. You need this tool for cutting fabric with markings on it to ensure precise cutting work.

• Seam Rippers. Regardless of your quilting level, you will need to use this for all of your quilting projects. This is used to rip the stitch out of the fabric.

• Sewing Machine. Quilting uses stitching and sewing as its primary design that sometimes covers the entire fabric. So, if you will have a pretty large quilting project, such as an Alaskan king-sized bed cover, well, you may need to consider your options in getting a sewing machine to do the job. Otherwise, you will need to prepare your hand for a longer hand-stitching time.

• Thread. This is considered as your main ammunition. And you will need to have a lot of this thing in different colors as well.

• Pins and Cushion. Pins in quilting are used to temporarily hold multiple pieces of fabric together before being stitched permanently – while cushions are used to store or hold the pins when you’re not using them.

• Clips. These tools are also used to hold pieces of fabric in place, similar to pins.

• Needles. Whether you are going to use hand-sewing or a sewing machine, you will need this for both of them. You could also get yourself a couple of spare, in case you misplace the needle or break it.

How to Quilt

Proper quilting does not only mean that you stitch three different layers of fabric together. It means the decorative stitching you used to sew all those fabrics together to form a creative piece of art. So here’s a brief guide to the main parts of a properly sewn quilt.

• Make first the Quilt Top. To start your quilting project, you will need to create a patchwork quilt top first. This is a cutout of squares of fabric that are sewn together.

• Sew Your Quilt Sandwich. Once the quilt top is finished, you can now start making sandwiches. Quilt sandwiches are layering of the quilt tops, wadding, and backing.

• Stitch Your Desired Quilt Design. After making the quilt sandwich, you can now start stitching your desired quilt design on it. There are a lot of quilt patterns you can choose from, but the basic patterns you can start with are In-the-ditch quilting, Outline or contour, Grid or crosshatch, and Echo quilting.