copycat

What a nice thing to do is pass on your love of quilting. As for fabric....Think outside the box...cotton shirts that are no longer loved. I've seen many quilts made with men and women's cotton dress shirts. Blue jeans if not too thick are fun. If you have a local guild to contact, they may have fabric and notions to donate or machines to lend. I learned to quilt making place mats or if smaller projects are needed...a mug rug.

bearisgray

I am not aware of any "law/rule" that says one "has to" use only one method when making a quilt.

My first quilt - I hand pieced the blocks - sewed the borders and sashings to the blocks by machine and attached the binding by machine. Hand quilted the quilt and hand sewed the binding to the back.

Still would mix methods/techniques if it is reasonable to do so.

cashs_mom

I sewed for years in a 6' x 8' breakfast nook in our townhouse. You'd be amazed how creative you can get with storage and different areas. I used to do tailoring and made beautiful suits to wear to work, plus some formals and I even started wearable art in this small area without any special tools. I had a basic sewing machine, an iron and a good pair of scissors and that was about it. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have and add stuff later.

I'm still not big on one use rulers, don't have a die cutter and do a lot of things the "old way".

WesternWilson

Everyone has raised excellent points! Personally I love my Bernina 170, but I was nearly 50 before I could save up enough to buy it, and even then it was used. I have gone on to acquire most or all of the nice quilting "upgrades", including a very large stash, but none of those would be easy or possible on a tightly restricted income.

That said, I would sure hate to quilt without my rotary cutter, mat, 24" and 12" rulers.

These young women just want to know where and how to start their quilting careers, and we will begin with a mug rug and doll quilts, then a lap quilt. Most cannot initially afford any kind of machine, and will if they like the craft have to save up and hunt for that great, affordable first sewing machine. I am in Canada and we do not have a plethora of resources for recyled/used/thrifted items or materials.

I would like to ask all of you who have hand-pieced about the durability of hand piecing. I take those quilts are handwash only?

cjsews

Hand quilting will hold up just as well as machine stitched. As long as the stitches are not too long and a small back stitch every so often. Machine washing on a gentle cycle is possible. If there is doubt, try washing in a front load machine where there is no agitation

bearisgray

I have had to unsew some of my hand-pieced blocks. They are almost as hard to take apart as some of my machine sewn ones.

There is a "however"

The stitches need to be small/short - less than 1/8 inch showing (I do not know how to count hand-sewn stitches) and back stitched every 4 to 6 stitches. Anyway,that's what I do. Ginny Beyer's hand quilting book is awesome!

Basting type stitches will not hold together . I picked up some squares that had been "sewn" together. Those did not even survive being picked up.

A fairly short, interesting article on needles:

https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/the-sewin...9th-centuries/

bearisgray

I think the idea of a mug rug or place mat or table topper as a starting point is excellent. They are fairly useful items, and still provide a lot of opportunities to learn if one like the idea of sewing or not.

Also, it the item ends up being "a learning experience" - the investment was comparatively small in materials and time.

I still think a pot holder - while a useful item - is not the "right" thing to try to learn about quilting.