Master These Quilting Techniques And You'll Be Ready For Any Project

When creating a quilt there are many elements you need to consider, from the colours and patterns you'll use, to the size of your quilt, and what tools and fabrics you'll use to create it. We most often first prepare ourselves for our next project by gathering all these tools and inspiration. But there's more you can do in quilting than just shopping for the overall design.

Whether you're new to quilting or an advanced expert in the craft, it's important you know the quilting techniques needed to create your final project. We've put together a few of our favourite types of quilting techniques, including patchwork quilting, that you can practice to get the best out of your next project!

Quick Links

• Types Of Quilting Techniques
• Patchwork Quilting: Piecing Techniques
• Foundation Paper Piecing: Neat, Distinct Shapes
• English Paper Piecing: Mosaic Style Quilts
• Strip Piecing: Even Strips of Patchwork Quilt Blocks
• Applique Technique: Adding An Artistic Flair
• Trapunto Quilting: Dimensional Designs
• Free Motion Quilting: Create A Range of Designs

Types Of Quilting Techniques

When we talk about types of quilting techniques, we're referring to the method of creating your quilt. While all quilting techniques are focused on putting together a final quilted project, there are many approaches and methods you can take in the creation of your design.

Patchwork Quilting: Piecing Quilting Techniques

Patchwork techniques in quilting, also known as piecing, involve sewing pieces of fabric together to make a single layer of gorgeous texture and patterns, and then sewing this layer with others to create a complete quilt. When using this technique, you want to ensure your patches are accurately measured to allow for an easy connection and seamless sewing process. Because of this required accuracy, the most common types of quilting techniques when it comes to patchwork quilting involve quilting over paper templates. Whether it's for a full quilt or just a small coaster, we hope you enjoy utilising these patchwork quilting techniques to make your own patchwork quilt designs!

Foundation Paper Piecing: Neat, Distinct Shapes

The foundation paper piecing technique involves sewing fabric shapes directly onto a paper template to create clever patterns with neat lines. The templates used for these patterns contain numbers to indicate the order in which you need to attach your fabric shapes, so there's never any doubt about what your next step needs to be. You can find free patterns for foundation paper piecing all over the internet or in a quilting book at your local library, so it's one of the easiest quilting techniques to start with.

You will be pinning and then sewing your fabric shapes into the reverse of the paper template, removing excess fabric, pressing the shape flat with an iron and then adding more and more fabric layers until your patch is complete. Once it is finished, you can use a seam ripper to remove the paper backing, leaving you with a perfect cloth patch!

English Paper Piecing: Mosaic Style Quilts

This popular style of quilting involves using pieces of paper or card to help you make your fabric shapes, before sewing them together and removing the paper. English paper piecing creates mosaic-style patterns using popular shapes like hexagons, squares and diamonds, although more unusual shapes like scallops and pentagons can also be implemented.

You can buy or even make paper templates to use for the English paper piecing technique. Make sure if you are creating your own that the paper you are using isn't too stiff or strong, as you need to be able to remove it from your quilt when it's finished!

The paper templates can be attached with glue, stitches or even ironed on if the paper is a special adhesive variety. Once all the pieces are attached, simply pull the paper out. Because your fabrics are being attached to templates, you can use this technique with fabrics that are usually a bit tricky to work with.

Strip Piecing: Even Strips of Patchwork Quilt Blocks

If you want a faster way to create identical patchwork blocks, strip piecing is the technique you've been looking for! This time-saving method involves sewing together sets of fabric strips which are then cut into your patch squares, instead of creating each individual patch on its own.

The most important thing to remember when creating your strips is to ensure they have been carefully measured and cut to all be exactly the same and perfectly squared. Tips like reversing the starting point of each strip (as your sewing machine feed dogs will pull the bottom fabric strip a little differently than the top), keeping a consistent seam allowance and pressing your seams constantly will help you create perfectly straight strips every time.

Applique Technique: Adding An Artistic Flair

Applique is one of the easiest quilting techniques if you want to add fabric shapes to your quilt! Applique quilting involves making a shape out of fabric and attaching it to a larger quilt piece by sewing, ironing or gluing. If you want curved shapes like waves or circles that are traditionally hard to sew, using applique is one of the easiest ways to feature them on your quilt. Applique is a technique you can also use on clothing, so it's a handy one to master. Add patches to your jackets, jeans or even a fabric bag to customise them to your liking. It's a good choice if you want to add extra accessories like beading or sequins to your quilt too!

A handy tip for applique is to pre-cut and plan the placement of your shapes, as you may be able to cleverly hide stitches by layering shapes partially on top of one another.

Check out our Floral Quilted Textile Art By Alaura Poole Project for a beginner friendly quilting project, putting this technique to the test!

Download the Floral Quilted Textile Art By Alaura Poole Project

Trapunto Quilting: Dimensional Designs

Roughly translated from Italian, meaning "to quilt", trapunto refers to inserting additional wadding or stuffing into a quilted design to create a puffed effect. This technique is ideal for adding extra dimension to your quilt project, making any designs such as motifs or messages stand out.

For this quilting technique, all you need to do is simply stitch your design onto your quilting fabric. Then, make sure that there is more wadding added to your design than to the remainder of the quilt. This gives the raised effect of trapunto quilts.

Free Motion Quilting: Create A Range of Designs

Create a variety of different shapes and designs with the free motion quilting technique. Free motion quilting allows you to move your fabric in any direction through your sewing machine, rather than following a straight line. This skill involves disabling the feed dogs on your sewing machine so that you can move freely. This means you can not only create straight lines but also circles, jagged lines and other intricate designs, ideal for quilters looking to express their creativity through their quilt project.

The best way to practise free motion quilting is to draft your design on a piece of paper. Continue to draw your design until you feel confident in your ability to recreate the design through your muscle memory. Before starting your quilt, practice free motion quilting on a mini quilt sample to help you to get the into the motion of this technique.

Put Your Newfound Quilting Techniques To The Test!

Once you master these quilting techniques, you'll be ready to create a wide range of quilting projects! Looking for creative inspiration? Spotlight has put together a collection of free quilting and patchwork projects, ready for you to download.

Discover everything you need for quilting, from quilting tools to quilting fabric, online or at your nearest Spotlight store today!

Explore our Quilting Projects