#creative tutorial

Quilt tutorial: how to make a patchwork star

This article is published before during the artisan craft week at projecteducate. I promise you a never-ending sense of pride and accomplishment when you’re holding your first finished quilt.

In this article, I will discuss the following techniques:

Basting of a quilt

Quilting a quilt

How to sew a border around your quilt

Binding a quilt

If you want to know a bit more about the separate part of a quilt or how to make a quilt, see the following articles:

A lesson in the basic elements of a quilt

How to make a scrap quilt with many pieces in 4 steps

Which materials do you need?

18 x 19.5 cm of fabric for the border.

18 x 18 cm fabric for the back

18 x 18 cm fabric batting; either a piece of a fleece blanket or you can buy it in a quilt or craft shop

Quilting thread (quilting thread is best, but embroidery thread or any other thread you have is also fine)

Standard sewing notions (scissors, pins, needle etc…)

Fabric choices: I used the fabrics I also used for the star. You can choose any you want though! A contrasting border fabric will look very good as well.

Step 1: Basting your quilt

What is it?

A quilt consists of three layers: the top, a back and batting. When you bast a quilt you temporarily sew the pieces together with big stitches so the layers won’t move when you start to quilt.

How do you do it?

1. Put the three layers together. The batting goes in the middle. The ‘right’ side of the backing and quilt block face the batting.  The right side is the front of your fabric which will be visible when the quilt is finished.

  2. Cut off the excess batting and background fabric. Leave a border of around 2 centimetres.

3. There are two ways to bast a quilt: with pins and with thread. Normally I would not bother with thread for a piece this small, but I will show you both techniques.

Basting with thread: For this, you can use any leftover thread you have because you will remove it from the piece when it’s finished.

Basting with pins: This follows the same principle as basting with thread and is quicker. This technique is not suitable if the quilting will take a long time or when you’re quilting a big quilt. The needles will either fall out or prick you when you’re handling a lot of fabric.

Step 2: The quilting

What is it?

The term ‘quilting’ or ‘quilt’ is confusing because they are both used for the finished object, a verb and for the process we’re going to do now. Quilting means sewing through the three layers of a quilt. This is both to keep the layers in place, but also has ornamental value. Small stitches used to be the norm, but it is more important to create stitches of a consistent length. Quilting can be done to exaggerate the original pattern or to create a new kind of pattern. You see an example of both below.

How do you do it?

1. Thread a needle. Tie a knot at the end. Start with the first stitch where you gently pull the knot through one layer of fabric. This will secure the thread into the fabric.

2. Quilt in any pattern you want. I decided to quilt around the star shape, but you can also draw X-es in boxes, stripes, circles, whatever strikes your fancy!  The middle block is ideal for some initials as you see in my finished piece.

3. If your thread is almost gone, tie a knot near the fabric and finish in the same way you started by pulling the knot through one layer of fabric.

4. Keep repeating this process until you’re satisfied with the quilting.

Step 3: Putting a border on your quilt

What is it?

To speak in the words of the brilliant Beyonce: ‘if you like it, then you should put a ring on it’. And that is what we are going to do with this quilt! A border is like a ring around a quilt which finishes the raw edges.

How do you do it?

1. Cut your block to the right size. About half a centimetre from the points of the star.

2. Cut four border strips of 19.5 by 4.5 cm

3. Pin the border strips with the pretty side to the block and sew as you see in the picture. Use pins on the star points inserting them at 90 degrees from the line you’ll sew. This will make the quilt look neater. Also, make sure an equal piece of the border fabric sticks out at either side of the block. That’s why the border strips are longer than the block. You’ll need that length later. When sewing the second set of borders don’t sew over the borders already attached (as shown in the picture).

3. Now fold over the border fabric at the back and pin it down. You have to fold twice so the edge of the fabric is secured inside the border. The corner is always fiddly, the pictures show how I usually do it but stick to any way that works for you.

4. Sew the border to the back as shown in the picture, With this stitch, the stitches are nearly invisible.

Step 4: Finishing your quilt

1. This part is always a lot of fun: removing the basting thread.

2. If you haven’t done that already, you can sew your initials in the middle block to make this quilt your own.

3. If you make many of these blocks and sew them together you get a big quilt!

I added two pictures of the finished result so you can see the initials I embroidered onto the quilt.

And now your first quilt is finished. Congratulations!

If you have any questions about this tutorial or suggestions leave a comment or sent me an email at [email protected]! I am always open to help people to get into this quilting obsession.

I would love to see what you make with this tutorial, so please leave a link in the comments section once you do!

May this first quilt be the first of many more to come!

See my DeviantArt, Facebook page or Instagram (username: bella.g.bear.art) for more artwork and WIPs. You can also follow my blog by clicking on the button on the left or by filling in your email address. There will be a monthly update at the end of every month and a new blog post every Sunday or Monday.

The most obvious place to find supplies for quilting, embroidery and sewing is, of course, the quilt or embroidery shop. Those shops are either brick and mortar stores or online. However, there are many alternative ways to get supplies for quilting or embroidery. In this article will tell you about four of them:

Befriend a tailor or dressmaker.

Second-hand stores.

Give away groups.

Old clothes and other leftover materials.

I depend mainly on the options I’ve mentioned above. I don’t want to discourage you from going to official stores. Especially the small-scale indie designers do great things for the creative industry to keep it fresh and lively -I will dedicate an article to my favourites later. However, there are many reasons why it is sometimes better to find alternative ways to get supplies:

The environment: Every new item we buy needs to be made and requires resources to do so. It is better to use materials that are already created, be it second-hand materials or materials which had a different use before like clothes. This also prevents more waste from going to the landfill or waste incinerators.

Budget: Buying from specialist shops can be expensive. It is possible to find high-quality material cheaper if you learn how to look for it.

Creativity: Working with a limiting range of materials you cannot influence a hundred per cent triggers creative thinking. Also, I love that each piece becomes unique because you cannot buy the same materials time and time again.

I’ll discuss each alternative option below with some examples of my work. In that way, I want to motivate you to try alternative ways for yourself. It makes the whole creative process less predictable and controllable, and to me, that is part of the fun. And most importantly: it makes our beloved crafts more sustainable.

1. Befriend a Tailor or dressmaker

When I lived in Kenya for the first time in September 2018 I build my fabric stash with scraps from a tailor. At first, they gave me a long and strange look the first time I came round asking for their scraps. However, they gave me what they had and I showed them my work and both parties were happy.  When I came home to unpack my scraps I discovered that scraps might not be the right word. Some of the pieces they gave me were HUGE. Most of the fabrics in my Kenyan quilt are from that tailor. Also, there were enough leftovers to give my mother as a souvenir.

The Kenyan Quilt top is finished!

Kenyan quilt block finished

Currently, I am living in Kenya again, and I am doing the same trick with tailors to build a fabric stash again. However, this time I am using different tailors to get more of the African kitenge fabrics. You can see some of my loot in the picture on top. The picture below will give you an idea of how many scraps I already got. I’m planning a paper-piecing quilt with the fabrics and also the Bible Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird, creator of the Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt, with these fabrics. It will look amazing and colourful. And something says me my mother will be interested in these fabrics as well…

A treasure chest bag of scraps

The added benefit of getting fabrics through other creative people is that you will make friends. The last batch of fabrics I got through a new friend who makes souvenirs from kitenge scraps. Also in my experience, tailors love to see what you do with the scraps they give you which gives you a perfect reason to visit them again to check on their scraps. You don’t have to only focus on professions though, you can also ask hobbyists. I’ve seen many people in clothes sewing facebook groups wondering what to do with their scraps. You can do the honourable thing and relieve them of that problem.

2. Second-hand Stores

I love second-hand stores! They have such amazing potential to find the unexpected and awesome both in cloths and crafting materials. Plus, those stores are habituated by friendly old ladies which make you instantly feel at home (at least mine where). The start of my first fabric stash, both for sewing and cross stitch is from second-hand stores. Also, I got many cross stitch kits and finished embroidery pieces from those stories, which can be used in so many amazing ways. One example of that is the dragon bookmark you see below.  This dragon is created from a pattern I found online. and two cross stitch kits with a rose pattern. I didn’t like the rose pattern, so I used the floss and fabric to create something else. I’ll write a detailed post about this process later.

Finished embroidery pieces add a nice original touch to sewn projects. And since I don’t have the time to embroider the number of pieces I’d like to use, I also save finished pieces from second-hand stores, because it makes me sad to see that something somebody has spent months or years to create ends up in the landfill. One thing I did with one of those saved pieces is making a small material bag:

To turn an embroidered pillowcase into a material bag

Embroidered material bag

Second-hand stores are an amazing source for materials, however, it depends on luck as well. I used to live close to a second-hand store which always had an amazing stock of fabric and embroidery materials. Which is interesting, because it was tiny. It felt as if all the old ladies in my old hometown were on a schedule to donate their materials so I could stumble upon it. Although, it is more likely that the manager of the shop knew embroidery materials sold well in that place, so all the national supply went to that particular branch. My tiny store was part of a chain of stores run for a good cause.

3. Give-Away Groups

Most of the giveaway groups I know are on Facebook. However, I also hear people getting materials from Craigslist and other websites. It serves to check local buying and selling groups and see what is available for free or a small price. I asked people for leftover fabrics and clothes in a local facebook group and got enough materials for more than two quilts! Creative people like to give stuff away because most of them have more materials in their homes than they can handle. My rally for materials ended in my first finished big quilt:

How to make a scrap quilt with many pieces

Finished scrap quilt

Also, sometimes your local quilt or embroidery guild gives away materials during meetings. At my local guild in the Netherlands, there is a table every meeting where people put fabrics and books they don’t want anymore. Members can take what they want and pay a price what they think is fair for the guild account. There, and second-hand stores, is where I got a lot of the fabric for my Dear Jane Quilt and my Nearly Insane Quilt.

Dear Jane Sampler Quilt Introduction

Nearly Insane Sampler Quilt Introduction

Nearly Insane quilt block 85

Lastly, there is a specific cross stitch facebook group where you can offer a WIP you don’t want to finish anymore. This group is perfect for people who get stressed by all the WIPs they have, but they fell out of love with:

Adopt a WIP facebook group

There are groups like this around for any kind of craft. Google and the search function will help you out here.

4. Old clothes and other discarded fabrics

The last way to get fabrics I want to discuss is using old clothes and fabrics. There is a particular style of quilt called a memory quilt where people use the clothes of persons as a memory to that person. This quilt I’m making for a friend is an example of that:

The big quilt for a lovely friend

The big Quilt example

Beyond this kind of quilts, clothes are in general not considered as suitable quilting materials. I don’t agree with that though, because it all depends on picking the right clothes, knowing the right techniques and the end look for the quilt you’re going for. I love the challenge of making any kind of fabric work in a quilt. It gives the quilt an original look and it teaches you lots of sewing techniques and tricks on how to make unruly fabric behave. And using any kind of scrap fabric is the tradition were quilting comes from after all: in the older days, quilts were made from any old scrap people had.  The scrap quilt above has a lot of material from clothes, my Kenyan quilt has, and the quilts below are made from old clothes as well.

The most suitable clothes item is a shirt. Shirts can have amazing patterns, especially the funky shirts that are popular nowadays. Also, they are made from a non-stretchy material. The quilt below is made from shirts and ties. Ties are trickier to work with because the fabric is slippery, but nothing using a lot of pins cannot deal with. The shiny effect of the fabric compliments the shirt fabric nicely in this quilt below.

Using old shirts to make a new quilt

This bird tote bag is another example of what you can do with old shirts.

Geometric bird tote bag

Beside old clothes, there are also other fabrics you can use for your sewing projects. The bag below I made from leftover curtain fabric from a friend. It was a strong fabric, which makes it suitable for a backpack. Especially because I like to carry around a lot of stuff. It was a fun thing that when I visited that friend to see how long it took people to see the similarities between his curtains and my bag. Jeans are also very popular to work with. My aunt makes amazing bags and pillows out of old jeans.

Penguin backpack

Conclusion: And did you learn?!

Now, here are my suggestions to find quilting and embroidery fabric cheap. Now it is time for you to go out and to explore for yourself. Maybe you’ll save a tree by upcycling some long ago loved coats or you’ll keep the ocean a bit cleaner by using the forgotten cross stitch supplies of a neighbour. Anyhow, every little thing we do in our day to day life to reduce the number of resources we use and the amount of waste we create contributes to a better environment. And many small steps will add up into a big leap. Follow my blog to read more of this kind of articles in the future. Let me end this post with some questions for you:

Which alternative ways to get materials do you use?

Are there techniques you use to make your hobby more sustainable?

Which of my alternatives inspired you most and why?

Will you share some of your upcycled projects in the commentary sections?

Would you like to know more?

Melanie Brummer has created the Up-cycled cloth collective. She aims to motivate sewing people to re-use more materials and to buy less new materials.  In this way, the creative communities become more environmentally sustainable. Her global facebook group is a good place to start:

Upcycle collective.

See my DeviantArt or Instagram (username: bella.g.bear.art) for more artwork and WIPs. You can also follow my blog by clicking on the button on the left or by filling in your email address. There will be a monthly update at the end of every month and a new blog post every Sunday or Monday.