Quilting Tools
You Need for Basting
and Quilting Your Quilt
Basting
and quilting are some of the final steps to completing your quilt.
Make sure you have the right supplies to finish your quilts perfectly
every time.
Basting
Tools:
1.
Bent Safety Pins - These pins must have been a gift from
the heavens for quilters! Before we had to baste all quilts with
long running stitches. Now we can easily pin the three layers of
material together and unclip the pins as we quilt each area.
I
prefer 1" bent safety pins and have found that the nickle plated
brass pins never seem to rust, even when I leave them out for months.
Usually 2-3 boxes (around 600-900 pins) will set you for life, and
will cover even king sized quilts.
2.
Kwik Klip - It's very rare
that I recommend using a unitasking tool, but in this case it's
definitely needed. If you've ever tried to close 300 safety pins
with your bare fingers and thumbs, you will understand the pain
and discomfort that can come from this exercise.
The
Kwik Klip is basically a grooved rod that you can use to press against
your safety pins to close them easily. No more hurt fingers and
your basting time will be cut in half with this tool!
3.
Basting Spray (Alternative)
- If you'd rather not use safety pins, there is basting spray available
that can hold your layers of fabric and batting together while you
quilt them together. I personally do not prefer basting spray, but
many quilters swear by it. It's worth it to try your options and
see which method you like best!
Quilting
Tools:
The
quilting tools you need really depend on how you plan to quilt your
quilt. If you plan to quilt an edge to edge design that doesn't
need marking, then you won't need any extra tools at all except
the free motion quilting foot
for your sewing machine, and maybe quilting
gloves or fingertip grippers if you feel the need to use
them.
If
you plan to add a drawn quilting designs to your quilt, you will
need the following tools:
1.
Water soluble marking pens
- These are pens that have been tested and proven to wash
out of fabrics easily. I prefer the water erasable to air erasable
because you sometimes never know how long a project will go before
it's finished. You wouldn't want to spend 3 hours marking something
just to have the lines dissappear in 3 days! Make sure to purchase
multiple pens for the size of the quilt you're marking, and then
buy extra just in case. They really don't last very long, so stock
up so you don't have to run out and buy more in the middle of your
project.
2.
Quilting Stencils (optional) - Many quilters prefer to
mark their quilts using premade quilting stencils. I don't have
anything against these templates, but do find them limiting when
designing the quilting to fit within certain boundaries of a design.
When
confronted with a pattern that won't fit any of your design templates,
you may feel the need to throw up your hands in frustration and
then go shopping for more stencils that might fit better.
This
results in an endless chain of shopping and spending expeditions
for each and every quilt that could be completely avoided if you
were just willing to sit down with a pencil and paper and resize
the quilting pattern yourself.
Really I see that most quilters turn to these stencils not because
they love them, but because they don't realize any alternative.
Designing your own quilting patterns specifically for each quilt
is not actually difficult. It takes more time and practice, but
the end result is a 100% original design created just for your quilt.
3.
Large 1" graph paper tablet (optional) - You can
get these huge pads of graph paper at big office supply stores and
it really comes in handy for designing quilting patterns. Simply
draw your quilt (the pieced lines or appliques) on the paper and
then brainstorm about how you want the quilting to look. Do you
want the quilting to blend in with the background or stand out in
a design all of its own?
This is my favorite part about quilting: the design process, the
time where you sit and play with a quilt until you find a design
you like. Many times I hear the complaint "but I can't draw!"
from quilters that feel challenged by this experience. In truth,
you need a very limited ability to draw because so much of your
time will be spent tracing.
4.
Lightbox (optional) - In order to easily see your quilt
through the graph paper and to see your eventual design through
your quilt to mark it, you will need a lightbox. I actually recommend
building your own light box out of wood and flourescent lighting
fixtures and then mounting it into a table so that it's flush with
the level of your other quilting tables.
Once
you have a lightbox in your sewing area, you will be surprised by
all the uses it has. It's very helpful to have this box on the exact
same level as your other surfaces so you can lay out your whole
quilt over the surface while you're marking it.
Of
course these last items on this list are entirely optional depending
on your quilting level and how much trouble you want to go to when
creating your quilting design. These items can get quite expensive,
so make sure that you're willing to invest this amount into your
tools before going shopping.
My
philosophy is this:
Quilting
gives you the opportunity to expand two layers of design:
Piecing AND Quilting
Creating
a quilt that is beautifully pieced, but minimally quilted will just
not be as satisfying as creating a quilting pattern that enhances
the piecing and overall effect of your quilt.
I'm
also a sucker for wholecloth quilts that are designed entirely with
quilting patterns and no piecing whatsoever. Nothing opens the door
to creativity more than a blank canvas!
