Good Evening Every1,

I was told (when I was in school) that there are no DUMB QUESTIONS.. so well it here goes.
How do you know if a quilt pattern is a bug jar, paper pieced, miniatures, foundation pieced, applique, art, crazy, scrappy, a eight quarter or a fat quarter quilt?
I know alot of the magazines put in the instructions what skill level is recommended to make the quilt. I welcome and (appreciate) any (and all) comments, help, & suggestions.

Thank you all for your help. I really do appreciate it.

:-D :-D :-D :-D Have a blessed day. :-D :-D :-D :-D

:thumbup: :thumbup: debra :thumbup: :thumbup:

I have found in the magazines I have, that they tell you what the quilt is in the description for example one of the quilt patterns in the magazine is described as
"paper pieced hexagons, needleturn applique, a peeper border and three dimensional flowers feature in Bobbie's medallion quilt"
So it is telling me which techniques are featured in this quilt.
Hope this helps

Sounds like they should have put "Expert" in there too. LOL.

do you mean, just by looking at a picture of it? that takes some experience. but just ask if you happen to see a quilt that you like in the many posted pictures. someone will know if it meets your skill level.

you just have to learn what type of patterns each is.

Bug jar - a block consists of 3 fabrics - a "bug" print, a "lid" print (often a gray/brown/black) solid or tone-on-tone print), and a background fabric. It is pieced to resemble a jar filled with bugs. These should be obvious to spot once you've seen one.

8ths or FQ - these quilts can be pieced with regular yardage or scraps, but the directions and pattern is friendly to using special cuts of fabric (Fat Eighths or Fat Quarters). These are not usually obvious to spot based on appearance of quilt.

Paper pieced and/or foundation pieced. Similar techniques, but paper-pieced uses paper that is removed at some point before the top is quilted while foundation pieced uses a thin foundation fabric that remains in the quilt. Either technique is often used for better accuracy and piecing when the block is really small, or the block uses small, odd-shaped, or bias pieces of fabric. Once you've seen some paper-pieced or foundation pieced blocks, you can often tell when other blocks are paper/foundation pieced.

Miniatures - small versions of quilts. Think hot wheel sized :-). These are often paper pieced because of the small sized.

applique - rather than piecing fabrics together, small pieces of fabric are cut to shape (but slightly larger) and sewed to a background fabric.

art quilts - quilts designed to be works of arts. Generally do not follow a traditional pattern and often give the appearance of a painting. Very easy to spot.

crazy - traditionally used non-cotton fabrics like velvet and corduroy. Embroidery stitches were used over the seams in place of traditional quilting. Generally these were more for decoration than use because not all of the fabrics were washable. Easy to spot.

scrappy - uses a variety of fabrics/prints. Emphasis is more on the way the values interact than how specific fabrics interact. Some quilts may be "controlled scrappy" and only use fabrics from certain color ways - like blues and yellows - while others uses all sorts of colors and use the contrast in lights and darks for the quilt pattern. Some quilters claim that true scrappy quilts are made up from scraps of fabric. Others just say that using lots of fabrics makes it a scrappy quilt.