Quilting For Beginners
quilting for beginners Make Money by Making Quilting Kits You don't have to quilt to start a quilting business. There are plenty of ideas to find your niche in the world of quilting businesses. Ma...
quilting for beginners
Make Money by Making Quilting KitsYou don't have to quilt to start a quilting business. There are plenty of ideas to find your niche in the world of quilting businesses. Making and selling quilting kits is one niche market. Beginner quilters would purchase quilting kits. They are your target market. As you plan your quilting kits, keep in mind some of the obstacles a beginning quilter would face and strive to overcome them. For instance, a beginning quilter might be daunted by all the patterns out there from which to choose. If a beginner selects a difficult pattern, chances are that the project will never be finished and the beginner might never try quilting again! To avoid that, select simple quilt patterns for your quilting kits. Another obstacle beginning quilters face is fabric selection. Your quilting kit will have the fabric pieces with it, taking the guess work out of color coordinating and fabric selection. Go ahead and cut the pattern pieces for your quilting kits, too. Beginners will especially love this! You could offer intermediate level quilters with another option. For the slightly more advanced quilter, you could print (or trace) the patterns onto fabric and allow the quilter to cut them out. Take into consideration how much time this might take, however. Don't forget to include threads and even a needle for hand stitching! There are many different levels at which you could offer quilting kits. You could make kits for quilt block pillows, wall hangings, lap quilts or full size quilts. You could also compile kits for quilted toys and dolls. Another niche market for quilting kits could revolve around holiday themes. Offer kits that will make ornaments and other decorations. How will you sell your quilting kits? Many have dreams of mass market production, but you can sell your quilting kits without a contract from a large chain store! Consider selling the kits from your own website or Internet store. You could even sell them from an online auction site/store. Small, classified line ads are an inexpensive way to advertise if you choose to advertise in craft magazines. Don't overlook all the free publications in your particular area, either. A lot of newspapers or local tabloid sized magazines offer free classifieds. Writing an effective classified line ad is not hard. Keep the information short and sweet, and don't forget to include your contact information. A good classified ad might read: "Quilting kits. Perfect for beginners! See designs online at www.mywebsitename.com." You will also need to consider how to package your kits. The first way that comes to mind (and probably the easiest) is to include the fabric pieces, threads, needle and good instructions in a resealable plastic bag. The idea is to keep the kit simple for your buyer but to make money for your business. So, the less paper you include for directions, the more profitable your kit. But, make sure you include all necessary directions! For instance, your detailed directions could fit on one side of paper or card stock. On the other side, take a photo of a completed quilt block from your kit. Make sure to include your business name and contact information on that side as well. Home computers and inexpensive color laser printers make professional printing very affordable. Consider investing in a laser printer if you will be printing your own directions. Copy printed by inkjet method smears and runs if it gets wet. When you assemble your kit, make sure the sheet or cardstock is inserted in the bag so that the photo of the completed quilt or block faces outside. This gives your customer a chance to see what they are purchasing and an example of how it should look upon completion. Penny Halgren |
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Create a Complex Quilt Design Using Only Simple Shapes
Quilt designs are created by combining blocks that have different color variations.
A block is the basic unit of a quilt top. Typically blocks are square. They can be made any size, and frequently a quilt is made using many blocks with the same design. They can be pieced together from smaller pieces (called patches) or could be appliqu? It is also possible that a block could be a solid piece of fabric.
The smaller components of a block are called patches. They can be many different shapes - triangles, rectangles, squares, diamonds, or curves - but the idea is to sew patches together so you end up with a square.
By changing the shapes of the patches within a block (i.e., substituting triangles for squares) and/or changing the placement of the colors of the pieces (i.e., switching light fabric for dark fabric), you can create a whole new quilt design while keeping construction of your quilt the same.
Simple is the name of the game for many quilters. Using one or two shapes for all of the pieces in your quilt makes it easy to sew; and squares and triangles offer many advantages in terms of simplicity. As a beginner quilter, making the sewing simple gives you the opportunity to focus on learning and practicing basic quilt making techniques that you will use as you develop your craft.
Interesting variations in quilt blocks can be achieved through placement of the fabrics in addition to how each patch is divided.
A simple nine patch quilt block can be used as an example of how different a block can look just by changing the placement of colors within the nine patches of one block.
Using only two colors of fabric in alternating squares creates a design like a checkerboard. With the same nine patch of two colors of fabric, using only square patches in each block, you can create a pattern that looks like a big X in your quilt simply by placing the colors in a particular position in each block. Thus, the Irish Chain, and variations of it.
Adding a little more complexity, you can take some of the square patches in the blocks and divide them in half from corner to corner (commonly called half-square triangles in the quilting world), and create a star design.
Using only half-square triangles and square patches, by simply re-arranging the fabrics, your checkerboard or square turns into a basket, or leaf shape, a bow tie shape, or even a series of diamonds.
Another type of triangle that is easy to make is a quarter-square triangle. That triangle is made by cutting a square patch into half-square triangles, and then cutting the half-square triangles in half once more, thus creating four small isosceles triangles.
You can add complexity to your design by increasing the number of colors in your quilt, and your design changes once again. What once was a black and white checkerboard can transform into a block that looks like the letter H.
Your block can look like it is 3-dimensional by using specific colors in designated places.
And all of those design changes can be created by using only three basic shapes - squares, half-square triangles and quarter-square triangles - plus a little imagination in the placement of your colors.
As you sew your blocks together, they can look completely different. For example, you could take blocks of two simple half-square triangles, place them in columns, alternate the direction of the cut of the triangle, and create a quilt that looks like columns of zigzags. Using the same blocks, placing them so all of the diagonals are facing the same direction, your quilt could look like an old-fashioned scrap quilt.
About the Author
Penny Halgren http://www.How-to-Quilt.com Penny is a quilter of more than 26 years who seeks to interest new quilters and provide them with the resources necessary to create beautiful family heirloom quilts.