Choose the best fabric for quilts

If you don’t know much about quilts, you might find it difficult to select the best fabric for quilts. What is quilting fabric? Even as you purchase a quality fabric, you should make sure that it isn’t too heavy. It also shouldn’t be too light. As you should always remember those things, you should know that there are various ways that you can use fabric for quilt making. To choose the best fabric for quilting, you should study the tips listed below

Be familiar with the right terms

First of all, you have to know that quilting and piecing are not the same things. A lot of beginners think that they mean the same thing. Piecing means creating beautiful patterns. The patterns are made by stitching. You can always stitch different materials together as you like. A lot of techniques are used in stitching. When you practice a lot of them, you can stick to the one that you like the most. One of those popular techniques is complex shapes. They are made with paper piecing.

Another popular technique is string quilts. Whenever you’re piecing, you should always use fabric with a stable shape. If the fabric is also light, it would make it easier for you to work. Different fabrics respond to heat differently. You should always choose the best fabric for quilts. Such a fabric can withstand heat to an extent. The reason is that pressing is important in making the shapes of a quilt. Quilting involves sewing a sandwich of a quilt top, backing, and the likes. You can decide to piece the top back if you like.

What is quilting fabric? Quilting can be done in two ways. You can quilt with your hand or with a machine. What kind of fabric is used for quilts? The kind of fabric you choose depends on your quilting method. If you’re using a heavy fabric, you might have no option then to quilt with a machine. The reason is that quilting is not easy when heavy materials are in use.

Even if you’re going to be working with simple shapes, it would still be challenging for you. On the other hand, you might find it difficult to quilt with a machine if you’re using light fabrics. The reason is that light fabrics lose their shape easily. So you’ve to go soft on them.

Basics: Quilting cotton

A lot of fabric stores are established to produce the best quilt material. Even though some of them still offer some fashion fabrics, they focus more on quilting cotton. What is quilting cotton? With quality quilting cotton, you can sew the fabric of more than one layer easily. Since quilting cotton has lightweight, you don’t have to use a heavy-duty needle.

Even though quilting cotton is lightweight, it is a quality quilting material. They can be used for a lot of years. What is quilting cotton? There are various types of quilting cotton. So you will be able to select from a wide range of options. As they come in different patterns, they also come in different colors. Some of them also have themed options for different periods. No matter what type of quilting project you’re working on, you should always use quilting cotton. It guarantees efficiency.

Fat Quarters

As stated earlier, quilting cotton comes in different colors. To get better in your craft, you should experiment with them and try to create new things. Quilting cotton is quite affordable. There are a lot of fabric stores that sell fat quarters. So you don’t have to worry about your expenses. As the name implies, fat quarters are quarter yards.

To make a fat quarter, you just have to cut in a way that your fabric would be square. You can’t use any old cutting-counter method to produce such a result. Old cutting-methods only help to produce fabrics with long narrow strips. Fat quarters can be easily divided into pieces for quilting. They are also cheap. Instead of purchasing a bolt, you should go for a quarter yard if you don’t need too many fabrics to make your work. It would help reduce your cost price a lot.

Fabric packs are also a popular option. Fabric packs come in a lot of colors. As you can cut them into strips, you can also cut them into squares for sewing. Unlike others, fabric packs don’t come with a map. That is why you might not consider them if you’re used to laying out pieces. On the other hand, it can also be the best for you. If you just want to improve on sewing, you don’t need a map. You only need one when you’re working on a scheme of color.

Working with knits

Since knits can be stretched to a long length, it is not the best quilt material. Within a short period, it could lose shape. If you focus on how to resolve that, you can work with knits. While working on a t-shirt quilt, you can use a stabilizer. It would help you to handle the quilting easily. A stabilizer can also be used for other projects similar to t-shirt quilts.

Make use of supporting fabrics

What kind of fabric is used for quilts? Some materials are quite delicate. Some of them are lace and other fabrics that have lightweight. When working with any one of those materials, you should always use sturdier fabric under them. A layer would be enough. As the sturdier fabric supports the fabric, it would also make it easy for you to work on the fabric. You would be able to use fabric for quilt making easily.

Experiment with Appliques

At times, you might be left with a few fabrics. If the weight of your project is much, you won’t find it easy to match them together. Instead of using piecing, you should try to create appliques. It would work if your quilting material is too light or too heavy.

Quilting kits

If you don’t know much about quilting, you should purchase a quilting kit. Unlike purchasing everything you need to quilt one by one, you won’t find it difficult to purchase a quilting kit. Quilting kits contain the best fabric for quilting. All you just have to do is include backing and battling. You don’t even have to purchase them. They are usually disassembled in quilting kits. All you have to do is assemble them properly.

Wide fabric

Wide fabric is one of the best fabric for quilts. It is the best option for quilt backing. It helps to reduce seams. You would also find it easy to create large backing. Even if you’re working on big quilting projects, you won’t find it difficult. Unlike other fabrics, wide fabrics are not available in a lot of colors.

Quilting with found fabrics

Quilting is interesting. You can even include different kinds of fabrics. Some people use fabrics with meaning. Some of them are wedding gown, best baby blanket, and the likes. Sometimes, you might find it difficult to join two materials. For instance, joining a gown material to denim would take you a lot of time and energy.

Practice with sashing

Sashing is referred to as a narrow material that is placed between large blocks. Some people refer to those blocks as large borders. Whenever you’re working with fabrics of different weights, you can differentiate them by sashing. When you’re sewing a lightweight fabric to a heavyweight fabric, there would likely be damage. With sashing, you can give the support required to prevent the damage.