Muslin?
 

I'm an extremely new sewer and quilter (though not in age :)) and looking for something easy to begin with. A friend has given me some 180 ct muslin that I've hand dyed and I was wondering if this would be okay material for a beginner quilt - something like the disappearing 9 patch sized for a lap quilt. My sewing skills are basic at best and while I love much of the material I've seen, I'm afraid my sewing skills just aren't up to par. I would like to practice on something more affordable until I get better.
Thanks
Sharon

It will be perfect to start with. Just spray starch your fabric as that will help to firm it up for cutting. Enjoy the process and before too long you will be hooked...lol

I agree , muslin is a good fabric to start with.. and the starching &ironing prior to any cutting is one of the best tools a quilter can use to help with accuracy.

I think that's a great choice to practice on! My only thought is to be careful washing the finished product.

I'm not sure what your methods are regarding hand dying. I recently read a blog post by a woman who does a lot of hand dying and she lets the dyed fabrics sit in clean water for 12 hours before using. She did a massive experiment and found this is the best way to release the excess dye from both hand-dyed and commercially dyed fabric.

I think the muslin is a great idea! Good for you for diving right in with dyeing fabric and choosing to make a quilt.

When I started, I hit the thrift shops for some fabric. Got a load of things like old sheets, big cotton shirts, jeans, flannel, tablecloths, and even some real fabric -- big load -- all for $25. I practiced on that. I did small projects, pot holders (which is where I came up with my now famous blue jeans potholders), lots of quilt blocks, some FMQ, figured out my thread tension, 1/4 inch seams, threading my machine and bobbin, worked up to a wall-sized quilt -- looked awful and wasn't square! -- practiced rotary cutting, precise cutting, got my rulers so they wouldn't slide, learned to use the same ruler for an entire project, read everything I could get my hands on, lived on this blog, and then I made my first quilt in over 25 years. No, not a newbie. Just real rusty. And the last machine I had was a "one stitch". These computerized models with a zillion options (all requiring a decision) took some getting used to. But at least I don't have to make my own button holes any more.

Best of luck to you!

I found this way to work the best too. I also press a bit of the damp dyed muslin between two white pieces to see if there is any dye left.
Thanks for all the support and comments! I can't wait to get started even though I really know nothing about either quilting or dyeing - but one has to always begin somewhere!

I've never tried hand dying. Might just try it some day. Sounds interesting.