Patchwork Basics Explained
A quilt is made up of a top, middle and a bottom. The top and bottom are pieces of fabric and the middle layer is the soft warm wadding or batting as it is sometimes called. These three layers are put together to make a quilt and the sewing together of the three layers is called ‘quilting’.
Creating Decorative Patchwork Designs
The top of the quilt can be a single piece of fabric, but more often than not is made by sewing smaller pieces of fabric together in decorative patterns, called piecing or patchworking.
Patchwork is simply taking smaller pieces of fabric and sewing them together to make a bigger piece of fabric, often to a
specific design. A design will often involve the creation of a single block which is then repeated.
Patchwork Blocks for Quilting
The simplest block is a single square of fabric and this block is repeated in different colours to create the design. A block can vary in size, but is often between 6-12 inches in length. A block can also be made up of (for example) several squares and triangles put together using complementary colours and sometimes to create a pattern such as a star shape. Blocks can also be alternated so you might have a star block alternated with a single plain block which creates a simple, yet lovely quilt.
Layered Quilt Patterns
The quilt is made by taking the patchwork top, a piece of wadding and a piece of backing fabric, pinning them together to secure the ‘sandwich’ and then sewing them together to make the final quilt. This practice of sewing the three layers together is called ‘quilting’.
The quilting is to make sure the three layers stay together and it can be as simple as straight lines up and down and across the quilt. Quilting can also be extremely detailed covering the quilt top in swirling intricate patterns. Quilting can be done by hand or machine.