HOW TO QUILT – INSPIRATION FOR PATCHWORK QUILT PATTERNS

There are a number of websites that offer their own free quilt patterns and an even larger number that draw together selections of free quilt patterns in different categories such as civil war quilt blocks or star quilt blocks.rnOf course, learning how to quilt isn’t just a matter of choosing a particular block: a lot of patchwork quilts patterns use more than one block and different websites have different ideas on which blocks you can use together to mix and match for your quilt design. There is also the matter of colour to consider. The look of a quilt can be changed completely by swapping the position of the light and dark squares within a block – so much so that most blocks have different names when the colour tones are swapped even though the relative positions of the triangles and squares remain the same. A website showing you how to make a quilt will generally give ideas for the quilt design but must also show you the additional steps of layering, quilting and binding the quilt. Layering and binding are usually the same across each quilt but quilting (securing the three layers of the quilt together) is different for every quilt and free quilting patterns aren’t always supplied with patchwork quilts patterns. Here again the internet can come to your rescue because there are many quilting forums where you can ask for advice on how to quilt a particular type of quilt and the members of the forum tend to be very generous with their advice and can either suggest a quilting method or point you in the direction of a site giving free quilting patterns that would be suitable for your quilt. In the early days of quilting, patterns were shared by word of mouth and so reached a relatively small audience and took time to spread. After a while several magazines realised what a wide audience they would have for quilting ideas and began to write columns giving patterns that reached a much wider audience. These patterns are still widely used today because they are old enough to be free of copyright problems. The internet has drawn together the quilting community because now patterns and ideas can be shared across continents in a matter of seconds, with photos and videos to clarify techniques and shortcuts. Most quilters will now research quilt shops and groups before they visit an area. This would have been far more difficult and time consuming before the internet age.