How to make a quilt as a beginner

These days my living room looks rather unorthodox. Because of the nature of the building I live in (it used to be a Salvation Army Hall), the living room also contains the sitting room and the kitchen. Part of the reason for the disarray is the arrangement of furniture to allow filming to take place. There are marker tapes on the table and floor, a stool has been purloined from another room to act as a stand for a goose-neck clamp (seen above), and so on. (The goose neck clamp, by the way, will hold a smart-phone to allow a view from above the table on which I work – the dining room table.) The tripod for the main ‘camera’ (actually a tablet) is propped up next to the front door and there’s a small ‘gorilla’ tripod with a clamp standing next to be on the table.

All this effort is to support several activities. There are a couple of art projects coming up which need to be filmed (since in-person teaching is obviously not possible just now). I’m revising an introductory course called ‘Make your first quilt’ which I hope will be available soon. It is with the film-editor at present. Plus, I wanted to make a new introduction to my ‘Animals Quilt’ project to go on the Amanda Jane Textiles YouTube channel. There are five very simple videos about how to cut fabric, join pieces to make blocks and make rows, which are connected to the making of this quilt.

I’m passionate about helping people get started with quilting and I’ve made this beginners’ pattern available free, right here on the website. You can find the downloadable PDF on the ‘Tutorials’ page or you can just click here

So the new piece of film was made to introduce the project, to make sense of the five disparate videos on the YouTube channel, which connect with the project. It’s here.

If you’ve never made a quilt before, take a look – and have a go. I chose earthy colours for the quilt to tie in with the fabric in the central rectangles of each block, a print of Australian animals (koala, kangaroo, wallaby, turtle). If you make it, you will pick your own central fabric and then choose fabrics to coordinate. Every quilt is unique!

I have a small business, so I’d like you to buy my fabrics and my quilt patterns in the long run, of course, but whether or not you buy from me, I’d be so pleased to be responsible for getting you started on quilt-making as a hobby. It’s engaging, positive, mindful and pleasurable.

Thank you for reading my blog. Quilt patterns are here, Fabrics are here, Classes are here.