Course description

If you can sew a straight line and you're ready for a bigger project, this course takes you from your first accurate cut to a finished lap quilt you'll be proud to give or keep. It's about patchwork and quilting: cutting, piecing, blocks, the quilt sandwich, quilting and binding.

You start with the parts of a quilt and the tools, and how to use a rotary cutter, an iron and a sewing machine safely. Then you choose fabrics, learn grain, colour and value, and cut strips, squares and triangles accurately. You sew an accurate quarter-inch seam and check it, chain piece, press and match seams, and make traditional blocks: the four-patch, nine-patch, half-square triangles, pinwheel, flying geese, log cabin and two simple stars. You plan a quilt top with sashing and borders, work out how much fabric to buy, make the quilt sandwich, quilt it by machine or by hand, bind it and add a label. Measurements are given in metric first, with inches in brackets, and the course explains how seam allowances work in both.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Thirza, a pharmacy dispenser in Much Wenlock, from her first evening at a patchwork group in January to the lap quilt she gives her father on his 85th birthday in October, with Ferne, who pieces and quilts by hand, alongside. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, an answer key and a cheat sheet, plus block diagrams and actual-size templates, cutting charts, colour and value worksheets, quilt layout planning grids, backing and binding calculators, step checklists and a fabric calculator spreadsheet with a worked example. All the drawings are simple line drawings made for the course.

What you'll learn

• Tools and a safe workspace: the parts of a quilt, rotary cutters, mats and rulers used safely, setting up your sewing machine, pressing rather than ironing, a safe workspace, hand piecing and seam allowance conventions in metric and inches.
• Fabric and colour: quilting cottons, fat quarters and precut bundles, grain and selvedges, whether to prewash, colour and value, and choosing a palette for your first quilt.
• Cutting accurately: squaring up fabric, cutting strips, squares, rectangles and half-square triangles, and reading and writing cutting lists and cutting charts.
• Piecing and pressing: the quarter-inch seam and its metric equivalent, a practice strip check, chain piecing and strip piecing, pressing seams, and matching seams and points.
• Your first blocks: how blocks work, finished and cut sizes, and the four-patch, nine-patch, half-square triangle, pinwheel and flying geese.
• More blocks and designing a quilt top: log cabin and simple stars, quilt layouts, sashing and borders, and working out how much fabric to buy.
• The quilt sandwich: wadding types, backing fabric and sizes, marking and planning the quilting, and basting the layers with pins, thread or spray.
• Quilting by machine and by hand: straight lines with a walking foot, in the ditch and grids, an outline of free motion quilting, hand quilting, big stitch and tying.
• Binding, finishing and care: making and attaching binding with mitred corners, finishing by hand or machine, labels and hanging sleeves, washing and caring for quilts, and unpicking neatly.
• Small projects and your first lap quilt: a cushion cover and a table runner, a baby quilt with the NHS safer sleep advice, selling or gifting quilts in outline, and planning and making a lap quilt from start to finish.

Who it's for

Crafters and sewers who know their way round a sewing machine and want to make their first quilt. If you're new to sewing, start with Sewing for Beginners: Hand Sewing, Machine Sewing, Mending and Your First Makes. Clothes and decorative stitching have their own Rootlet courses: Dressmaking for Beginners: Read Patterns, Fit and Sew Your First Clothes and Embroidery for Beginners: Hand Stitches, Patterns and Your First Hoop Projects.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a patchwork and quilting course. The safety points, the baby safer sleep advice and the outline of selling or gifting quilts are based on official UK sources, including the NHS website and GOV.UK, but the course isn't legal advice. The blocks are traditional ones described in our own words, and every plan, chart and drawing is original to the course. Thirza, her family, Ferne and every other person in the course are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Use a rotary cutter, ruler, mat, iron and sewing machine safely and set up a comfortable workspace
• Choose quilting fabrics and plan a palette using colour and value
• Square up fabric and cut strips, squares, rectangles and half-square triangles accurately
• Sew and check an accurate quarter-inch seam, and understand seam allowances in metric and inches
• Chain piece, strip piece, press seams and match seams and points neatly
• Make traditional blocks: four-patch, nine-patch, half-square triangles, pinwheel, flying geese, log cabin and simple stars
• Plan a quilt top with a layout, sashing and borders, and work out how much fabric to buy
• Choose wadding and backing, mark the quilting and baste the quilt sandwich
• Quilt by machine with a walking foot, try free motion, hand quilt or tie, then bind and label a quilt
• Plan and make a lap quilt from start to finish, and know the safety points for baby quilts and the basics of selling or gifting

Frequently asked questions