Have you found starting a big project like a quilt made of a thousand pieces, a daunting task to begin, especially if you haven’t worked on one before? Don’t worry, there are a lot of easy quilting options, patterns, inspirations and tips to help you out even if you haven’t sewn that much before. First of all when you pick between beginner quilt pattern choose designs that are made from straight rows or columns, unless you’re working on applique quilt patterns.
Keep your beginner quilt patterns simple
If colors are an integral part of the over all design effect, don’t make your choice of colors too complicated, just stick to an attractive range of 2 to 6 different colors and your quilting project will stay fairly simple to handle. If you would like to use an attractive color scheme for your quilt and don’t know where to start you can also hunt for a pretty collection of complimentary colors, textures and prints offered by the jelly roll quilt patterns available at many online fabric stores such as fabric.com and Hancockfabrics.com. If you’ve chosen patchwork quilt patterns start by sewing your blocks or patch rows or columns together and then sew those strips or blocks together to form your quilt face. You can then sew on the backing of the quilt with batting sandwiched between if desired then finish with a simple but attractive quilting.
Rag and applique quilt patterns
Applique quilt patterns and rag quilts are two kinds of quilting approaches highly recommended for beginners. Following, are descriptions on how to get started on these quilting styles.
How to sew applique quilts
Applique quilt patterns are basically smaller shapes of fabric stitched in place on a larger single piece of fabric. As a beginner you may want to work on a simpler image for your quilt with large pieces of fabric making up the different areas of your design. Sew around the perimeter of each piece separately, then snip almost to the stitching line and turn down the edge toward the underside of the applique piece and gently press. When all your pieces are completed, arrange and pin them in their correct places on your main quilt face and sew into place with either a hem stitch, machine stitch, button hole stitch or any attractive embroidery stitch that would compliment the over all look of your quilt. The most important thing about finishing your applique quilt patterns is to make sure your applique edges are finished neatly and won’t fray.
How to sew rag quilts
Rag quilts are often described as cuddly and very warm, but the method used to put them together is particularly suited to the beginner because it escapes the need for pressing and perfect matching of seams. It’s a little like sewing faux chenille only not with so many stitching lines and layers. You want to choose a combination of cottons, flannels and even denims that will look good together once their edges fray and fluff up nicely together. You want to sandwich these layers together in blocks, then seam these ‘sandwiches’ together with 1/2″ seams sewn toward the right side of the quilt face only.
If you decide to add batting to your rag quilt
If you want to have batting to fill the sandwiches instead of just using flannel, be sure to make the batting blocks smaller than the size of your blocks for example if your rag quilt blocks are 10 x 10, so that the batting doesn’t get caught in the quilt seams between the blocks, you want to make your batting blocks 8 1/2″ x 8 1/2″. To keep the batting in place however, you’ll need to do some quilting within each block (not through the ‘rag’ seams though). When you’ve sew all your rag rows or columns, complete the quilt by stitching them together, again with 1/2″ seams on the right side of the quilt face and then doing the same around the perimeter. Then carefully snip all the seams and perimeter, being careful not to snip too close to the seams. When finished, place your rag quilt in the washing machine to help the rag ‘bloom’ into a soft fluffy grid like pattern, some say using extra soap in the wash can help this along as well as a few more washings.
Wedding quilt patterns for beginners
If your own or someone else has a wedding coming up, don’t think for a minute that you won’t be able to make a gift quality quilt for this important occasion. Similar to patchwork quilt patterns suitable for beginners, there are wedding quilt patterns beginners can safely tackle as well. Color choice simply needs to have a white base with bright or pastel colors to match the wedding theme. Some easy, beginner friendly patterns to choose from are the: Love Bird Block, Heart in Hand, Engagement Announcement, Ring Design, Fancy Fan and Rose Wreath.
