Judyblooms

Hi Caleyh.

as a beginner myself I did the ultimate beginner quilt from fat quarter shop. She has a video tutorial for each block which is very informative. It comes with the fabric for the quilt backing and binding. It helped me quite a bit. It’s just a suggestionthst may help you.

CaleyH

I washed the 4 inch fabric squares I got off of Amazon. I also received my 3.5 inch square cutting template. Placing the cutting template over the pressed washed fabric, I found I have just 1/8 of an inch or less. That means the washing process shrunk these squares about 1/4 inch or a little more. This must mean the fabric is of very poor quality, or maybe I am wrong.

Anyway, fabric I purchase from now on will be much larger, if there is a requirement to wash all of the fabric you will be including in a quilt.

Oh yes, by washing these little squares, I came out with lots of balls of thread. Some was from my dismantling of my first botched attempt at making a quilt. But a lot of it was from the fabric pieces themselves. Overall, I must have gotten two handfuls of these threads from the 300 pieces of fabric.

Lesson, if it is applicable, is "You get what you pay for." I definitely need to find a source for quality fabric that doesn't shrink like this stuff did, and doesn't fray on the edges. And I did follow the suggestion of washing in a pillow case, and on the delicate cycle, as well as low heat tumble dry.

: Do I wash my "Connecting Threads" "Mirage Tonals" 40"x2.5" strips of cotton fabric?

osewme

I believe this is what Judy is referring to. Looks like you can watch the video series & use your own fabrics if you don't want to purchase the kit. I watched a few of the videos & Kimberly does a good job of walking through your beginner quilt. It might help you with general information & steps in making a first quilt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM9v...tbCEX0Oq1TYaat

glasqlts

I hav2 bought kits from Connecting threads and found them to be very generous with their fabrics.

Jakers1

You may want to watch a tutorial or six from Jenny at Missouri Star Quilt. They are on Youtube. She has a great personality and gives lots of good tips, especially for beginners.

Jingle

I do not buy precuts. I buy yardage and cut my own pieces. I always wash fabrics when I bring them home. I fold them using a 6" x 24" ruler. To cut fabrics with a ruler, you will need a large mat, rotary cutter, extra blades and know to keep fingers away from the edge. You tube should have directions for using rulers.

All fabrics ravel along a cut edge. Quality really doesn't have anything to do with it. Same for fabrics that bleed dye. Some colors are more likely to bleed than others. I would find medium quality fabric for a few quilts. Top quality fabrics can cost quite a bit.

It will take lots of time to learn all you want to know and learn to do. Remember practice - practice and practice some more.

osewme

I don't pre-wash my fabrics. I like the "crinkle" look that my quilts have after I've made them & washed them. If I wash my fabrics before making my quilts, it causes them to pre-shrink & I don't get as much crinkle that I like with my quilts. I've heard that you should never pre wash the pre cuts like jelly rolls (2 1/2" x 40" strips), layer cakes, etc.

CaleyH

Thanks, I won't be pre-washing my fabrics anymore. I thought the suggestion to do so might help things, but it created a nightmare. I am recovering the fabric the best I can by pressing it back flat. Since I don't have enough fabric to use the 3.5 inch fabric cutting square, I am going to wait until I obtain a cutting ruler, which will be 3 inches wide.

My idea at using this fabric is to cut it to three inches wide that I can dew in a long strip. It's kind of like using scraps to make a quilt. I will alternate these strips and the long 2.5 inch strips I purchased from "Connecting Threads", and finally put a border around the whole mess.

I doubt I will put a back or cotton center into it. I just want to see if I can create something out of all this mess.

Anyway, back to pressing fabric to get most of the wrinkles out.

Trudii

All fabric shrinks a bit it is just much more obvious when you are working with pre-cuts. In my experience, if you wash fabric, you need to wash all fabric for a single quilt. If you mix pre-washed and unwashed, the quilt might shrink differently in different places and not in a way you are expecting. If you are piecing this just as an exercise to learn and not planning to quilt it, then maybe mixing is OK.

If you are just getting into things, check out thousandsofbolts.com - they sell quilt shop brand fabric at much reduced prices, largely because it is not the newest fancy thing. IThey sell mainly full yards but have some fat quarters. Fat quarters might be a good choice when starting out, for a variety of fabrics.

CaleyH

Thanks, I guess I will just quit trying to recover this fabric. I've put it away for when I can figure out something to do with it.

I'll just wait until payday to purchase a small basic kit from "Connecting Threads". Maybe I'll have m,ore luck with something simple, and with instructions. I wrote them about the tools I would need to do one of their kits, so sometime next week they should be able to tell me the basic kit, and what tools I will need.

Until then, I am taking a break from the quilting thing, and will explore more on my new machine. I'd like to learn how the machine makes letters on cloth.