Quilt Care
Quilt Frame
Binding
Shadow Quilt
Purchasing
Tutorial - Purchasing A Quilt
There are a lot of things to consider when purchasing a quilt.
Although we all enjoy finding a bargain, often the lowest price may not be the best value for your money. If I was purchasing a quilt, these are the things I would evaluate: |
The Quilt Top: |
Quilts made with 100% cotton fabric remain soft. For strength, accuracy and durability, I prefer to machine pieces each top. In the gallery, you will notice quilts #28 and #179 were made with poly-cotton and the colors look off depending which side of the fabric was up and if it was the warp or weave. This is not a problem with quilter's 100% cotton, but can be with 100% cotton broadcloth.
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The Quilt Backing: |
I prefer backing that is 100% cotton or cotton muslin, color coordinated with the top. This helps assure the quilt wears evenly. To save money on my first quilt, I used 100% cotton on the front, but a poly-cotton on the back. The poly cotton did not age well and is now very thin. Since I'll only have one first quilt, it saddens me that to save a few dollars I used poly cotton that did not wear well.
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The Quilt Batting: |
For easy washing and quick drying, I prefer 100% polyester batting. There is a tutorial on quilt care to help your heirloom quilts last a long time.
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The Quilt Binding: |
I like to finish each quilt with double binding and mitered corners. Normally the first part of a quilt to age and need repaired is the binding. Using a double binding gives extra fabric for strength and also extra material to turn the binding as it ages. Then if you need to repair the binding, extra material of the same color is already there and aged the same as the quilt. You may want to have a quilt finished with an added sleeve so at a later date you can display it on a wall. This is especially nice for a baby quilt.
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The Hand Quilting: | The majority of the time spent making a quilt is on hand quilting. Ten or more stitches per inch are considered heirloom or museum quality. 7 to 9 stitches per inch are considered excellent. 5 to 7 is considered adequate and less than 5 is unacceptable. The quilts I make display between 6 to 8 stitches of hand-quilting per inch. This means there are 6 to 8 stitches on the top and 6 to 8 stitches on the bottom for each linear inch of quilting. Each quilt has approximately three and a half yards of hand quilting per square foot of quilt. If the ready to sell quilts vary from this, it is noted on the description. Stitches vary depending on the type of fabric, batting and the pattern of the quilting and top. |
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