Start with an Easy Quilt
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Patchwork and quilting may be as easy or as difficult as you like to make it. The easy option is the sensible way to start, should you wish to continue and progress to more complicated designs at a later stage.
A patchwork design is not inferior because it is simple. Start off using a good quality cotton patchwork fabric. This is easy to handle and stable when it is sewn.
It is easier to start making up the blocks from squares or strips of cotton fabric because in this way you are sewing along the straight grain of the fabric. In fact an entire quilt top may be made from using different squares and arranging them into a pleasing pattern.
Until you are confident do not work with very small squares. A good and easy size to cut is 6 inches. By the time you have joined these squares of fabric together - using quarter inch seam allowances - you will have squares of five and a half inches. Choose some cotton fabrics you like and more importantly - ones that will look pleasing together - and you are starting to design your patchwork quilt. Remember that you will need some light, medium and dark fabrics to give the quilt some interest.
Prepare you cotton fabrics before you cut the squares. The most important aspect to make your life easier is to be very accurate with your cutting. If you start with inaccurate squares, your sewing will be difficult later on when you are trying to make the squares fit together. In patchwork you cannot get away with a lot of inaccuracies. If you stitch two patches together and you are an eighth of an inch out, this will make an error of a quarter of an inch. If you repeat this on other patches, you may find it difficult to continue with the project.
The moral is to be as accurate on your cutting as you can and then enjoy your sewing.
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