Things I've learned while quilting

Like almost everything I do, I have almost no 'training' in quilting. I started sewing because my mum's mum's machine lived under a table in our dining room, and I liked playing with fabric. I made tote bags and quilts because they were square(ish), and the vagaries of my FE college (16-18 education) timetable meant that I had extended periods of 'free study' time in the middle of the day that I could spend in the library, which just happened to subscribe to British Patchwork and Quilting. I'd read the instructions and daydream... and it is possible that I watched How to Make an American Quilt at a formative age.

At some point, I started buying the occasional quilting magazine or book, and every so often I'd get some fabric, make some decisions, and make a quilt, or a cushion, a table runner, or a quilt top (yes, I have a king-size quilt top that has never been quilted; yes it was originally intended as a gift; no, that's not my story to tell). I go to quilt shows, and I buy fabric. But I don't consider myself a quilter - I don't have a series of quilts that rotate around when I want to freshen up the decor by swapping soft furnishings, I've never been to a patchwork or quilting class - I'm making it up as I go along!

Despite this, it seems I have acquired some useful knowledge over the course of time, and since the lions are nearly finished, and I need to stop blogging and go and hand stitch a binding... let's see what I can share:

1. Patchwork and quilting are two different things. You can make a patchwork cushion (like the one that Otto is sitting against below) and not quilt it. You can make a quilted cushion, and it not be patchwork. You can like one, and not be much bothered about the other. I love patchwork. I do not enjoy quilting. If I could afford to ship my patchwork off to be quilted by someone else? I probably would.

2. Patchwork is mostly a question of accuracy. If you cut pieces carefully and accurately (I recommend a rotary cutter and a ruler and mat), and stitch accurately - a quarter-inch foot is amazingly helpful for this - then your patchwork will come out much better.

3. If your piecing is not perfect, the bigger the project, and the more additional seams you have, the less noticeable it will be. That said, if you don't check and re-square your blocks as you go, then it will get further and further out of alignment. Depending on how you quilt it, you can also encourage the eye to see straight lines where there are none. You are making something for your home or your loved ones - remember that, and try to forgive yourself imperfections.

4. Pressing your seams really does help. If you press them consistently to the darker side you often find that the seams will naturally alternate in your patchwork, and you won't find yourself in a position where you have all the seam allowances on the one side. This will also help keep them in line and abutting more closely.

5. You will usually find that patchwork can be done in small blocks, and therefore suits having 'bits' of time to do it. I wouldn't say that you can accomplish much in 10 minutes, but if you set aside half an hour, then you can definitely make progress, and depending on the rhythm of a particular project or design, know where you've put it down.

6. Remember that quilts used to be made from leftover scraps and bits and pieces. You don't need to use pristine sets of fabrics from the same collection, or designer. Again, depending on your design, you may well find that you only need little bits of one fabric or another, and at that point, the stash you've been curating for a while will come into its own.

7. Similarly, quilt backs can be made of multiple pieces. Quilting shops will stock quilting back fabric, because it's extra-wide, and you can back a whole king-size quilt with it. But you don't have to. You need something that isn't too dissimilar in weight to the front and the wadding, and you don't want anything unstable to work with, but I've backed a quilt in fabric intended to be curtains before, and there are no quilting police knocking on my door.

8. Making the quilt sandwich takes time, patience, and floor space. I don't have a solution if you don't have the floor space (I've contemplated access to a church hall before now), but you really mustn't think 'it'll only take a moment'. I use an adhesive spray (505) to stick my layers together initially, reinforced by quilting safety pins (they're bent), and the lion quilt (1m20 square) took me about an hour to lay out and pin.

9. Quilting eats thread. Just eats it. Buy more (500m more) than you think you need, and if you're doing it on the machine, wind a few bobbins before you start.

10. Before you start quilting, decide on your quilting design. With my sewing machine, anything other than straight line echoes of the patchwork is very hard work, but even that merits being planned out before you start.

11. Binding doesn't have to be the same fabric all the way round, and binding clips are fantastic for keeping the binding in place while you work without your thread catching on pins all the time.