hi gals, i'd like to make my brother and his fiance a quilt for my wedding gift to them. but i've never really quilted before. does anyone have any suggestions? any links or books they like? i think i want it to be funky, not country-kitch and somehow reflect who they are. i plan on stitching their names and date on probably the bottom corner and i have a sewing machine, so i'm prepared in that way. any ideas?

my friend and I just made a quilt for her bf and we were totally inexperienced. We just went to the fabric store and asked a ton of questions. We didn't have a lot of time to sit down w/ a book and figure it out. The lady there was nice enough to have us come in over the weekend with our machine and she led us through it step by step, right in the store. I think she normally charges for lessons, so that was really sweet of her. I guess we just seemed so helpless yet determined. If you cant find an experienced quilter to help for free, maybe you can find out about taking lessons in which you make the quilt.

my advice would be, if you don't want it to be even, normal sized squares, then you should plan out what size you want each square to be... like, 1 14x20 piece, one 8x14, etc. Then pick a theme/color scheme, and stick with it. Decorate each square all pretty, piece 'em together, quilt... there are tons of instructional sites on quilting, but to make in unusual, just go with whatever works for them-- applique is usually a good way to add images of things that might represent them! Have fun!
-meli>http://melimade.fuzzyspaceoutpost.com

I just recommended Kaffe Fassett's book 'Glorious Patchwork' in another thread.... in general he tends to use pretty basic techniques, but in such a way that it doesn't look too traditional.


The quilting.about.com site has tons of info on the techniques of quilting. (How to get the layers of front, batting and back together without majour puckers, etc.)


One technique that is often used to give a non-traditional feel - do a quilt top in a traditional pieced pattern (squares is probably the easiest), and then do an applique over that.

I used a book by Alex Anderson (from Simply Quilts on HGTV) that was written for beginners and it was pretty good. I think taking a class would be great. There are a lot of techniques used in quilting--more than you'd think. One of the biggest helps in terms of tools (besides the sewing machine) would probably be to have a cutting matt and a rotary cutter.

something else you could do to make it kind of funky might be to do a crazy quilt where you sew odd pieces of fabric together, and then cut squares out of that for your blocks like this:>http://www.hgtv.com/HGTV/project/0,1158,CRHO_project_11123,FF.html

good luck

Recently, I've been wanting to make a quilt out of strips of muslin, or some other more-or-less cream colored, more-or-less textured fabric. Just sort of uneven stripes running vertically (pillows to toes), maybe without any quilting except along the seams. In my imagination it would have good texture value and still be nice and simple. You could even combine different textures in the same color. Or - I have been thinking of this but it might get more complicated - unevenly curvy strips.

good luck!

it hink squares and rectangles tend to look more modern and edgy than triangles, for some reason. calico triangles just scream old fashioned quilt pattern. which is lovely, but not what you are after.

actually, stay away from calico all together if you don't want your quilt to be too quilty. try something unexpected; i really like that muslin idea, or get some broadcloth of oxford cloth. i love end on end blue shirt fabric.

the bigger the quilt pieces, the cleaner the lines, the more modern it looks. plus, the easier it is for you.

depenging on how much time you have, try looking around for fabrics at thrift stores. i like using vintage tablecloths, and mining old clothes for interesting prints. i'd stick with a particular fiber and texture to unify it.

and iron, iron, iron! press open all your seams religiously. i know it seems like you could skip that step till the end, but it makes everything so much nicer and better. iron it all.

april