How to Make a Quilt

There is no one way to make a quilt. Quilt artists use a vast range of techniques, from fabric dyeing and painting to machine and hand stitching. Many choose to experiment with different methods and approaches to their work. The Quilting Arts online community offers ideas, inspiration, and advice to help you along the way.


Related Posts

  • Join me and Cloth Paper Scissors Editor Jenn Mason for CREATE with Cloth Paper Scissors Mixed Media Retreat, August 25-29, 2010, in Rosemont, Illinois--just outside of bustling Chicago.
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  • I'm pretty sure that when most people think about how to make a quilt, "metal" isn't the first thing that pops into their mind. But there are so many ways you can incorporate metal into your quilts and wall hangings, adding texture, dimension, shine, and that element of surprise. Here
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  • Above: Diane Nunez's dimensional fabric flowers Five days, 39 segments, and 13 episodes later, Season Six of Quilting Arts TV is born. A number of very talented guests joined me this season: Jane Dunnewold was back to dazzle us with two surface design
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  • There is no doubt that Nancy Crow is one of the most influential individuals in the history of art quilting. From her intricate geometric pieced to quilts to her well-known teaching workshops and her co-founding of Quilt National in the 1970s, Nancy has
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  • I'm packing my suitcase again, getting ready to fly to Cleveland to tape the sixth season of "Quilting Arts TV." As hectic as the shooting pace is, I always look forward to taping, because I get to learn new tricks and techniques in person
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  • I knew I had a difficult task ahead of me when my undergraduate thesis advisor informed me that my research on the history of the art quilting movement should focus on only a few innovative quilt artists. There were so many to choose from and narrowing
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  • Last week the staff in our Stow offices got together for some after-hours creative play-time, making gelatin monoprints on fabric and paper. I'd been cranking out monoprints for a segment I'll be shooting for the sixth season of "Quilting Arts TV" and everyone else wanted in on the
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  • Quilters tend to be savers. We save fabrics (no scrap is too tiny), embellishments, threads, tool, and even ideas. This is a good thing—we find inspiration all around us and build a collection of resources that allows us to act on it whenever our
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  • In winter I crave creating with color-- during the darker, bleaker months, my studio is completely taken over by paints and dyes (think periwinkles and lime greens, cerulean blues and bubble gum pinks). Imagine my glee when I got the latest book offerings from surface design experts and Committed to
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  • When something goes awry in the creative process—the ink splatters, the dye color is murky, the stitches have minds of their own—you have two choices. You can toss it and start over, or you can, as my favorite fashion designer advisor Tim Gunn would say, make it work.
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  • This new month also means a new issue of Quilting Arts hits the newsstands! If you don't already have your copy of the February/March 2010 Quilting Arts , don't waste too much more time. This issue features an array of art quilting techniques
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  • I like to think I'm always open to trying new things, especially when it comes to surface design methods. But there was one technique I shied away from: batik. I loved the effects, but doing it myself always seemed so complicated and time consuming.
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  • We're introducing a new feature to the Quilting Arts Community... Every month I will be cruising the site, noting what people are posting in the galleries and forums, and essentially looking to see how you--our cherished members--are utilizing our
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  • I have an uncanny (some on my staff would say freaky) ability to remember exactly what artist's article appeared in which issue of Quilting Arts , going back to the very first issue nearly 10 years ago. And up until recently, I've been able to put my hand on the printed page more quickly than
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  • I'm sure that many of you will be inspired by Lyric Kinard's clever methods for turning fabric dyeing disasters into works of art in "Disappointments to Diva," on page 28 of the February/March 2010 issue of Quilting Arts . See if you've
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  • What's not to love about Virginia Spiegel? She's an exceptional fiber artist, has raised nearly $200,000 for the American Cancer Society with Fiber Arts for a Cause (FFAC), and heck...we share the same birthday (October 2nd in case you wanted
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  • This January, I’m all about soup. You see, I ate a little too much of this kind of thing while on vacation in Mexico: (the best chicken and mole I’ve ever had in my life) I received a glorious Le Creuset ® French oven for Christmas (basically
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  • Have the frigid temps, icy roads, and price hikes in produce got you down? Let's see if we can cheer you up with a sneak peek at the February/ March 2010 cover of Quilting Arts... This cover features a detailed shot of Kathy York's "Falling
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  • Want to make a unique imprint on your handmade quilts? Learn how to create your own fabric with our latest FREE eBook, Fabric Painting: 5 Surface Design, Paint, and Monoprint Techniques from Quilting Arts . You'll learn how to paint fabric with textile paints, fabric paints, and oil sticks. Plus
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  • I hope everyone was able to enjoy some time to themselves over the holidays! Since I was at our Interweave headquarters just before the break, I went skiing in Colorado for a couple of days. (This was to make The Husband happy.) Then when we came home
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  • I love the variety of novelty yarns and fibers available today: thick, thin, sparkly, variegated, fuzzy, sumptuous-and they come in every color you can imagine. They are a feast for the eyes and whenever I see a ball, skein, or even snippets of these yarns, I want to plunge my hands into them and get
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  • I’m sure many of you did a double take when you saw the cover of the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Quilting Arts . The quilt, “My Buddy and Me,” by Barbara McKie (featured in the exhibit “SAQA@20: Art and Excellence”
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  • Around the Quilting Arts Community, people with "tension problems" don't need relaxation techniques--they need a stitching specialist. Fortunately, we know several, and Susan Brubaker Knapp is one of the best.
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  • Downsizing and de-stashing are popular buzzwords today. We all just have so much stuff. So I think those of us who like to make gifts for others want to create something that's useful as well as beautiful. If it helps use up scraps from our stash, so much the better .
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  • Natalya Aikens recently whipped up some easy stitched leaves that she decorates with Pigma pens to add visual texture. You can dress them up with golden thread or just keep it simple and let the kids decorate them with "thankful" sayings or guests' names.
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  • What's New On the Quilt Scene: IQF/Houston Edition - As you read this, I'm on the Quilt Scene at the International Quilt Festival/Houston , surrounded by some of the most beautiful quilts-and talented quilt artists-in the world.
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  • Using this tutorial , I created this peasant blouse for Quilt Festival in Long Beach. In the next post, I will show this same blouse, surface designed and dyed!
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  • I've been a little absent lately, but that's only because we're meeting a few deadlines. I will be back in full force soon, but in the meantime, I wanted to share a brief blog entry about Louie, that little Min Pin you see both in the digital
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  • I will show you mine, if... well you know that deal. This is my sewing studio. It is a 6.5 foot by 9 foot room, just off our bedroom. If we were normal people, this room would be a walk in closet for clothing. But we are not normal. We are practical and
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  • I recently returned from the annual SAQA conference that took place in Athens, Ohio on the Ohio University campus, and what an incredible time! For those who are unfamiliar with SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) , it is the non-profit organization to
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  • What an amazing, beautiful, surreal, funny, busy time we had in Houston! Thanks so much to everyone who participated in Make It University!(TM) I had every intention of blogging every day from the show floor. Ha ha, that's a good one. The laugh is
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  • Fabric design with discharge dyeing, crayon rubbing, and painting; using your stash; digital design; machine needle felting; stamped fabrics with Adinkra symbols; designing with thread scraps; image transfers on fabric and paper; surface design in fabric
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  • Okay, dear blog readers, it’s that time of year again to announce our Quilting Arts Calendar finalists. (I know it seems a little early to be thinking about 2009, but welcome to my world!) With this year’s theme, “Celebrating Home,” we received 243 entries
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  • Go Green Quilt by Frances Holliday Alford Opportunities Knock Wanted! We have some very exciting publicity and publishing opportunities that I wanted you, dear blog reader, to find out about first. (Many of these aren’t even on the submissions pages yet
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