Essential Quilting Tools and Supplies for Beginners

hi emily here from homemade emily jane welcome to my sewing room i'm going to share with you my top essential tools to use for a beginner quilter so if you want to learn how to quilt maybe you want to learn how to sew so that you can make a quilt this video is for you it covers all of my essential supplies and tools that you need in order to get started so i'm going to display these tools in the process that you would use to make the quilt step by step if you want to see a video about how to make a quilt in 12 steps check out the video linked above so let's go ahead and dive on in if you're going to make a quilt the first tool that you need that's absolutely essential is an ironing board and a hot iron so i've got mine right here my ironing board is from polder and it is actually 14 inches deep so it's a little bit wider of an ironing board it has a place to set my iron on the side and then i also have here my iron so the one i've been using lately is a reliable steam iron but if you are just getting started quilting i don't recommend going out and spending a bunch of money on a steam iron instead what i do recommend this is my backup iron and i love it it's a black and decker with a um cord that comes in and out and it gets super super hot so it's great the only thing i don't recommend putting water in well any iron really but definitely not a super cheap iron like this one because that's where problems start to come in where the water feature starts to leak and then can possibly ruin a quilt i haven't had that happen to me but i have heard of it from a lot of people whatever iron you have and whatever ironing board you have those will be great we'll go ahead and use those to make your quilt so that's the first essential tool that you need and you will use that to press your fabric before you start cutting and then also you'll use it to press your blocks as you're going the other thing that really helps with ironing and pressing is a starch the one that i use i'll show you i buy it by the gallon it's called best press best press is like a spray starch however it's not as firm as a typical starch so i like to use it i actually put it in a spray bottle like this one and spray directly onto my fabric before pressing it and then i use the hot iron to dry the fabric once it's been sprayed i personally find that using starch like best press makes the process go a lot smoother as you're cutting and sewing and pressing especially if the pattern that you're using involves sewing at a diagonal or on the bias because it keeps the fabric from stretching or getting wonky in different ways the third essential quilting tool that you will need to get started making a quilt will be a cutting mat specifically a self-healing cutting mat there are a couple really great options the two most popular ones that i've seen are olfa or fiskars and they both make great products i use one because of the color it's pink and i love pink it's a havel sewing cutting mat i'm really happy with it i love it what i do recommend though is to get the biggest size that you can for the space that you have mine is 34 inches by 22 inches having the 22 inches there is really really great because fabric typically comes in 21 inch once you're folded over so having something that can cut larger than the width of the fabric is really important find a cutting mat that works best for you and i definitely recommend one that's at least 22 inches long in one direction when i first started quilting the cutting mat that i had was only 18 inches long and it definitely required a lot more shifting and i could have worked a lot quicker and more efficient and more precise if i would have had a bigger cutting mat the fourth essential quilting tool that i want to share with you today is a rotary cutter these tools are also sometimes called a cutting wheel we like to joke around and call it a pizza cutter in our house but most of them will look something like this they'll have a handle and a blade and then this one has the safety on it so i can move the safety back and forth so that when i'm cutting i have the blade out when i'm not cutting i am being as safe as possible and covering up that blade so if i do happen to drop it i don't hurt myself different rotary cutters come in different sizes the most popular size for quilting is 45 millimeters that's the size of the actual blade itself you can also get 60 millimeters which is great if you're cutting lots of long strips but 45 is definitely the most popular when you do get your rotary cutter i also recommend getting some extra blades i actually buy my blades in bulk i buy like 10 or 15 at a time so that i always have one available and i try to change it out every project or two so every time i'm making a like a big quilt i'll get a new blade for it because typically there's cutting at the beginning of the quilt project but then a lot of times you're going to be trimming and squaring up blocks as you go as well so a new fresh blade will really help especially if you have joint problems i personally have like issues with my wrist and shoulders so a lot of that rotary cutting can be really tough on your shoulder the next quilting tool i want to talk about is quilting rulers so obviously there are a ton of quilting rulers out there and there's so many different sizes i want to share some of my favorites just so that you can get the bare minimum to get started and then as you quilt and fall in love with the craft you can collect more and more and grow your collection but the most important ruler i'm probably going to say a couple the one that i use the most is 6 inches by 24 inches and the reason for that is because it does cover the width of fabric so you can cut strips which is really important you're definitely going to have to cut your fabric in some way so that's my most used ruler i also use the six inch by 12 inch quite a bit and if you're gonna get a square i know i just showed you this one this is six and a half inch square i love it but i would actually recommend a 12 and a half inch square ruler simply because it gives you so many more options it is a little bit bulkier to deal with if you're cutting little pieces but if you're only going to get one i would say to get the 12 and a half inch square on that note there are tons of different quilting rulers out there that do specialty things like half square triangles or flying geese or other types of triangles i really want you to just focus on what you absolutely need to make your first quilt and then as you start coming into contact with more patterns as you start leaning towards different designs then you can collect more rulers but i want to make this as economical as possible for your first quilt project so stick with just the basics this time around the next quilting tool you might already have if you've been sewing at all it is pins and a pin cushion so pins typically the ones that i love are the glass head pins super sharp is really important for quilting these are extra fine and they're size 22 which are one and three eighth inch long pins they're kind of short compared to some sewing pins but personally i think they work great for piecing a quilt together and you might already know what a pin cushion typically looks like but the one that i love looks like this it's actually a slap bracelet so i will literally slap it on my wrist and use it for pinning my pieces and then as i'm sewing i put it on my opposite wrist and take the pins out and stick it on this one that's just what works for me i definitely love this type of pin cushion it wasn't very expensive and i'll go ahead and link it in the description below for you on that note i will try to link all these products in the description below and they will be affiliate links where possible which just means that i make a small commission if you choose to purchase through the link the next tool that is absolutely essential for you to get before you start quilting is thread so as a beginner if you've looked at the thread section of any arts and craft store or quilt shop it can be very overwhelming so i'm just going to tell you my favorites i like to use cotton thread when quilting you can use polyester or all-purpose that it's not going to like ruin your quilt but this is just my preference if you're going out to buy new thread this is what you should get cotton thread i have 50 weight i like to buy it in a cone but you can also call it get it in the spool of course and i like white or gray when piecing a quilt i don't like to really mess with a ton of the colors because the threads and piecing are typically not actually seen so i just want something like color that's going to blend in really well but you can get really fun thread for the actual quilting which is a whole other ballgame so we're just going to cover the basics of piecing so 50 weight cotton thread is ideal but if you already have thread at home pull it out give it a tug make sure the thread doesn't break when you tug it and if it doesn't you're good to go you can go ahead and use that thread on your quilt project one essential tool for quilting is a sewing machine and a quarter inch foot of course you can definitely make a quilt by hand lots of people did it for many ages before us but most modern quilters do prefer using a sewing machine at least for the quilt piecing so finding a beginner machine can be a little overwhelming i'll share i personally learned on husqvarna viking emerald machine i took a sewing class in my high school and those were the machines that we used there and then i learned how to quilt on a similar emerald that my parents actually gave me for my 16th birthday so i absolutely love that machine it's a great one for beginners and it'll last a really long time i still have mine so i suggest checking that out but the really important thing is that you have a quarter inch foot for your machine so regardless of what kind of machine you have you can typically find an all-purpose quarter inch foot with a guide the guide is really helpful if you are just learning how to piece on that note i also have a video about how to get the perfect quarter inch seam i'll link it above and it gives you more tips on setting up your machine to get your seam allowance the way that you want it another tool that you definitely should have before you start making a quilt are small scissors or snips like these they don't have to be fancy or anything special but just a small pair of scissors that you can use to trim your threads as you're sewing i've known people who have put a hook on the side of their sewing machine and just hook their little snips on their machine so that they're never too far out of reach and you can use it to trim your threads as you're sewing along the next essential quilting tool regardless of if you're a beginner or very advanced quilter is a seam ripper the one i have here is a scalpel style seam ripper you don't actually need this type but find one that works for you i do have a video that compares different types of seam rippers i'll link it above for you regardless of how long you've been sewing you are guaranteed to make at least one mistake so grab a seamer braid to make sure that you are prepared to take those stitches out of your quilt all right now that we have covered the essential tools that you will need for getting your fabric ready cutting your fabric and then piecing your quilt top let's cover a few more tools that you'll need when you actually have your quilt top finished and you're ready to quilt it into your quilt sandwich the first thing that i recommend is spray based i've been using otif 505 lately to spray my layers together if you don't want to use a spray adhesive you could also use curved safety pins either of those options work really well the purpose is to put your three layers of your quilt sandwich together so that it is basted for you to actually do the quilting one more essential quilting tool is a hair marker i actually debated whether or not i wanted to include the hair marker in this post because for the longest time i actually used a butter knife instead but i do love the hair marker and now that i have one and my butter knives are all back in the kitchen where they belong i definitely recommend you get one too it is just a piece of plastic with a handle this is actually a dual purpose this is a point turner and this is what i use to mark the quilt so i use this curved edge to mark my straight lines before i actually quilt on them so this helps a ton and if you're a beginner and you're quilting your own quilt i definitely recommend straight lines and using a hair marker to mark them now we did talk about your sewing machine earlier and your quarter inch foot but another foot that you will need as an essential tool for beginner quilter is a walking foot a walking foot is an attachment to your sewing machine that pulls the fabric through all three layers at one time and it makes sure that there's not any puckering or dragging going on with the back of your quilt so see if your machine model has a walking foot included or if you can get one separately i personally quilted for years before i even knew what a walking foot was and it would have made my quilts a lot better and it would have made it less stressful for me and the final essential quilting tool i'm going to share with you today are fabric scissors these ones have a nice safety guard on them nice big area to cut and i use these for trimming the batting off of the edges of my quilt so any really sharp fabric scissors will do just make sure that you only use them on fabric anyway that concludes this video sharing all of the basic tools that you need in order to get started quilting if you have any questions or if there are any tools that you absolutely cannot live without please drop a comment and let me know so that other people can see it as well if you enjoyed this video please go ahead and give it a thumbs up below and subscribe to my channel so that you can see more of these quilting tutorials and videos you can find more quilting tips and tricks and tutorials over at homemadeemilyjane.com

Channel: Homemade Emily Jane

Views: 685

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Quilting, Homemade Emily Jane, cutting fabric, modern quilting, quilting for beginners, sewing notions for beginners, quilting tools, essential quilting tools, quilting tools for beginners, quilting supplies, supplies for making a quilt, quilting tools and supplies, learn to quilt, learn how to quilt, how to quilt, how to make a quilt, tools for quilting beginners, tools for quilting, beginner quilting tools, must have quilting tools, quilt tools, sewing supplies

Id: lQi5Dj8dGTo

Length: 14min 10sec (850 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 08 2021