Guide to Quilting: The Right Tools for the Job
As quilters, we love our tools! But when you’re getting started on your quilting journey, it may be difficult to discern what is necessary for your kit and what is not. Here at Old Spool Sewing we can help you gather the essentials.
Starting from the top, be sure to have a supply of spare sewing machine needles that are the correct fit for both your machine and the kind of sewing that you’re doing. For piecing fabric together, use a thinner needle like a 75/11 or 80/12. For quilting the layers together, generally you’ll use a thicker 90/14 needle, though this can vary based on your machine and batting choice. More information can be found in your machine’s manual about recommended needle size. Don’t forget to change out your needle regularly, as they become blunt with use. It really does make a difference to your finished product!
Good quality thread is an absolute must when quilting. This is not the place to cut corners! For the long term sturdiness of your quilts, choose a thread that is either cotton, or cotton covered polyester. There are a range of weights of thread, from thinner 50 wt which is recommended for piecing, up to 8 wt or 12 wt thread, which is much thicker and commonly used for statement hand quilting.
A rotary cutter makes cutting out a multitude of pieces a breeze. This cutting tool uses a circular blade that rotates in a protective casing to slice through several layers of fabric at one time. If you’ve ever used a pizza cutter, you’ve got the gist! There are several sizes for different applications. 45 mm blades are fairly standard in quilting, and practical for most applications. Larger 60 mm blades are useful for cutting more layers of fabric at once, while smaller 18 mm blades are ideal for fine detail cutting. Like machine needles, rotary cutter blades need to be switched out periodically to ensure the smoothest (and safest!) cutting.
A hard edge plastic ruler goes hand in hand with a rotary cutter for quickly and accurately cutting fabric. The marked grids on these transparent rulers make lining up fabric for cutting as easy as possible. There are a plethora of square and rectangular sizes to choose from, and there are also curved rulers, triangular rulers, strip rulers… the list goes on and on. For a beginner, a few well selected rectangular rulers will serve you well. 6” x 24” and 3” x 18” are perennially popular sizes that can be found on many quilters’ sewing tables. Depending on your pattern, smaller rulers of specific sizes might come in very handy – for example, when trimming half square triangles to their final size.
A self healing cutting mat is the final part of the cutting trio – a surface on which you can use your rotary cutter and ruler to line up and cut fabric into smaller pieces. These mats are labeled with a grid of measurements and also come in a variety of sizes. The best advice is to buy the largest mat that can fit on your workspace, to allow plenty of room when cutting from larger pieces of fabric.
A solid pair of fabric scissors is key for sewists of all kinds, and quilters are no exception. The Gingher model shown here is a splurge worthy choice, as are these more budget friendly Fiskars 8” Razor Edge Scissors. Whichever you choose, make sure your household members know not to use them for paper or anything other than fabric, which can dull the edges and make for extremely frustrating cutting.
A small pair of snips kept close to your machine will make for quick and easy thread cuts, keeping you humming along on your quilt piecing. Some sewists will tie them onto their machine handle with a ribbon, or mount them with a command hook to make sure they don’t wander away from the machine.
Pins come in a variety of types for different applications and benefits. Glass head pins are easy to iron over, whereas plastic head pins can melt. And longer quilting pins are easy to use for beginners and matching up quilting seams.
You can face down the occasional quilting ‘oops’ with a seam ripper to unpick your stitches and get right back on track. This is another item that dulls over time and should be replaced periodically.
There are too many irons to count on the market, and every quilter has their own preferences as to which bells and whistles are essential and which are not. To keep it basic, you want an iron that has a steam function and feels good in your hand. A comfortable handle and an appropriate weight are key, as you’ll be using the iron often while piecing. Pair your iron with a sturdy ironing board, which you can transform with a few yards of fabric and our tutorial on recovering!
Treat your machine to a walking foot, an accessory that manages multiple layers of fabric at one time. This foot works by mirroring the feed dogs already present on your machine, but on the upper surface of what is being sewn. As your needle moves up and down, the walking foot’s feed dogs move or “walk” along the upper fabric — hence the name. This keeps the quilt layers moving at the same rate, eliminating pesky folds in your finished quilt.
Now that you’ve gathered the essentials, there are a few other more optional items you may want to consider adding to your quilting arsenal.
Topping the list of ‘Nice to Haves’ is spray starch. This spray on product stabilizes and stiffens fabric, with several benefits. It keeps bias and curved pieces from distorting while being cut, handled, and sewn. It also makes for more accurate cutting and easier seam matching, as seams in starched fabric press more easily and stay flatter.
Looking into the hardware aisle, painter’s tape is a cheap and versatile tool in quilting. It can be used to keep quilt layers in place while basting and is perfect for marking quilts for straight line quilting.
To really nail that quarter inch seam, you may want to invest in a ¼” presser foot for your machine. This easy to use foot has a guide bar on one side that keeps the edge of your fabric lined up at a perfect uniform distance for accurate seams.
Finally, fabric clips like Wonder clips are helpful to have when binding a quilt by hand. They easily handle the thickness of the top, back, batting, and binding, and keep them firmly in place as you work around. They’re also more useful than traditional pins for extremely thick seams, for example in a quilted bag.
Once you’re fully kitted out, take the next step and sign up for one of Old Spool Sewing’s upcoming quilting classes. Beginning this October we’re hosting a six week Your First Quilt course for beginners, which is perfect for fanning the flames of your fledgling love of quilting! You can check out all of our adult class offerings to see what else could be in store for you.
Check out the other post in our Guide To quilting series below, and stay tuned for our next post that qill guide you through choosing the perfect beginner quilt pattern.
Guide to Quilting: What are Precuts?
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