Lessons
Every Quilt Has a Story
10:14 2Suitable Textiles for Quilting
05:59 3Cleaning and Preparing Textiles for Quilting
06:51 4Gear You Need to Make a Quilt
15:29 5Cutting into Clothes to Make Quilts
16:26 6Cutting the Squares
14:40 7Planning Your Quilt Design
06:17 8Sewing Squares into Rows
17:59Lesson Info
Every Quilt Has a Story
My favorite thing is making new stuff old stuff and helpfully after this class he will know exactly what I mean by that I published a book in twenty fourteen called wise craft turning first or fines, fabric scraps and natural objects into stuff you love and this is pretty much what I how I kraft I craft from thrift store furniture, clothing things like that and I find it really inspirational I find it I love hunting for the things that I craft with and so we're going to talk about how I do exactly that in this course today so um up cycling closing to quell it's what we're going to talk about today and when I help you learn is why we would do it why cycle closed there's so much beautiful fabric out there why would we up cycle clothes into quote but we would and I'm going to show you why and what work ox what textiles are suitable for it how you would prepare the fabric that you're going to use in a quilt and then I'm going to show you a really simple of quilt block in a design called fo...
r patch and it's really versatile but it sort of if you're new to quote making this will sort of show you the basics and it's a really fun design well planet out using our design wall and we'll also go over I don't like to call them rules, but basic quote making points of interest, I guess, is what you would call it. So so let's jump right in why would we reuse clothes and quilts? Um, a lot of the people that I talked with, my lecture, they get into fired by things that they've had in their family, it might be a collection of your father's favorite flannel shirts, it might be baby clothes, it might be, you know, something like that. I I have a couple things here and grab this when you cracked with old stuff like me, you're also given a lot of old stuff, and this is, you know, this is a box of coat linings that someone gave me her mother was a tailor, she wondered, can you make quota of this? Absolutely you can totally make quotes out of this, and I'll show you how to do that. So I love the fact that this has meeting, and I also love the fact that it get these out of boxes into things that we can really enjoy. And so there's those kind of things and there's also maybe tablecloths from your grandmother, things like that all of these types of fabrics are important to us individuals because they vote memories, and I love using things that have a story they have their own story before I got them and I love that they tell our own stories I can look at every quote that I make and it has a story with it. It has a story of making it a story of collecting the fabric and I will show you my first quilt and sort of tell you how I got into the idea of quote, making my daughter who's now sixteen when she was a toddler she had outgrown these really cute clothes. I worked in the apparel design industry we had really creative friends and she got these really sweet close when she was born and I wanted to somehow preserve them and I had the idea of making a quilt never made it quote before I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea that certain fabrics may work better paired with other kinds and I just made it. And so this is the result of that pretty wonky but spread it out here so you can see it what's great about this this is all this is her baby clothes. This is little bits of in bravery this is bits of her bedding and I love the fact that there's there's not a box of these things somewhere these air these air her things and there's bits of buttons from her plaque it's there was like she had a little diaper cover that had her name embroidered on it and like I said, I didn't know what I was doing, and I did not know how to quote the layers together, so I tied them because that also hid my wonky seeming, and then the funniest part about this quilt is that on the very bottom quarter, I stopped tying. That was when I had her little brother, and I've never gone back, but my point is, is that it doesn't matter these air, you know, it doesn't matter that the bindings monkey, these fabrics have a really sweet story, and she'll always have them. So, um, but I did not. I did not grow up with quote makers. I grew up with makers, but not quilt makers. So this was something I learned on my own. I had no idea about a quarter inch scene. I had no idea that it's probably not a good idea to pare knits with whoa van's. I just did it. And so that what I really love about that kind of work that I do, that you could break all of the rules and use whatever works and those coat linings would make a beautiful quilt. And the last part is that it you know, it's really unlike anything else that anybody else would bank because it's your story and it's your clothing, it's your decisions you can certainly make a beautiful quote going in and buying beautiful fabric, but you can also make a quote that is just your story with your pieces and then also I love that it's thrifty. I love that I can get forty to fifty squares of fabric out of the men's dress shirt that cost me six bucks on dh it's really nice fabric so it's it's pretty thrifty and the other thing is, if I mess it up it's six box, I didn't really totally, you know, break the bank on it, you know that's terrible fabric it's been washed before I made a quilt of my children's corduroy clothes that I will show, and this one's actually in my book we're not going to learn to make this today, but if you would like to make it it's in my book, this one so I had corduroy pants and jackets that my kids had outgrown, and I really wanted to use them, and I didn't have enough because they were small. So then what I did is I went to the thrift store and supplemented with other corduroy things that sort of made a nice a nice combination, and then I also backed it and just a flannel seat and so it's really durable you could throw this in the washing machine it's going to last a long time and it's comfortable so the other reasons I love shopping at thrift store I just feel like the possibilities are endless and uh, you know, my kids they've kind of gotten the thrill of the hunt they sort of get that I didn't get that when they were younger, but now they get it and it's just really fun once you sort of know what you're looking for and have an idea of what you want to make it's just really fun to search for all of the different components that'll make your quill and last but not least in any kind of handmade project we have such a computer screen driven world and I really want everybody to try some sort of hand making it's just so relaxing and when I am quote, making I am totally focused on that I'm not focused on anything else and that's really the only time of the day that I am that focused on something. So um I think everybody should find some hand making type of medium that they love and and do it and then I love this quote are you guys familiar with the gee's bend quilters they archie's bend is an area in alabama that's very remote and it's a very impoverished area and they knew there were no trash cans. They made quilts a because they had to, because they were cold and they needed them and b they didn't have to make them beautiful. They had to get the maid, and they did. They chose to make them beautiful, and they made them out of old clothes, and one of the original one merrily bend off. But, she said, I like to work with old clothes, because it's got loving it so close carries something with them, and it feels lovely and warm to may. And I just love that because that's, exactly what it feels like to turn textiles in tow our clothing into quilts.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
This class is a very basic class on making your first quilt out of square blocks. And on tieing a quilt. It is good on that level. She didn't go into much detail about how to work with different fabrics, advantages and disadvantages and different applications for say using jeans vs. linens vs. cotton. Or how to combine them so it does work. I did like that she wasn't from the quilting police and really encouraged us to try things. And to get stuff from Thrift stores, yards sales, etc.
Janelle Embree
I have been sewing for about 55 years and have made a few quilts. This class was better than I expected, in that it got me thinking about how I can use fabric scraps, fabric from my stash, and designer swatches I got from Fabmo in Sunnyvale!! The teacher had good ideas that you may not find in more traditional quilting classes. So not so perfectionistic and limiting. GO for it!