How to Make a Patchwork Quilt

A patchwork quilt is created by sewing together small pieces of fabric to form a larger design or pattern. This process is also known as piecing, or self-discovery, or the art of becoming.

Step 1: Gather your Materials

Sewing Supplies

• Needle

• Thread

• Sewing machine (optional—you may sew by hand for a more arduous experience).

Fabric Scraps

• These scraps will make up the top portion of the quilt.

*A Few Tips: Take a personal inventory. You likely have most of the material you will need on hand. Fabric inherited from previous generations is often used in quiltmaking. Scraps may include: your Granny’s grit, your Gigi’s grace, your grandpa’s knack for storytelling, your father’s determination, your mother’s welcoming warmth. There may be other, less admirable scraps that have been passed down like short tempers, addictive tendencies, or chronic worry. Make sure to hold these pieces carefully—you don’t always have control over your inventory, but you do have a choice in what the scraps become.

While you are sorting, you may wish to dig through your box of previously held identities. There, you may find scraps bearing titles such as ‘Eldest Daughter,’ ‘Preacher’s Kid,’ ‘Big Sister,’ ‘Southern Belle,’ and ‘Summa Cum Laude.’ You may think these scraps are old news, but many quiltmakers are surprised to find how often these pieces sneak into the final product.

Be sure to take a look at your current fabrics: ‘Mother,’ ‘Principal’s Wife,’ ‘Boy Mom,’ ‘Caretaker,’ ‘Friend,’ ‘Homemaker,’ ‘Sister.’ It is encouraged to blend new fabrics with old, but sometimes you must make difficult stylistic choices. For instance, you may need to trade the ‘City Life’ fabric for ‘Small-Town Living’, or the ‘Registered Nurse’ fabric for ‘Stay-at-Home Mom’. Don’t worry, if nothing else, the unused scraps are fun to look at and reminisce.

*Important: There may be scraps in your collection that you would rather not include in your final product—scraps like deep trauma, crippling anxiety, and buried shame. Don’t underestimate the beauty and strength held in the ragged pieces—be sure to leave space for them on your quilt.

Backing

• This larger piece of material will make up the entire bottom layer of the quilt.

*Note: The backing is not often on display, but it is crucial for both structural integrity and overall comfort of the quilt. You may wish to use a thicker fabric for this part like the goodness of God’s grace, or the understanding of His unconditional love. Remember: structure, integrity, comfort.

Batting

• This is the soft, fluffy material that goes between the quilt top and backing, adding warmth, thickness, and dimension to a quilt. You may want to consider what provides you with warmth, thickness, and dimension. Is it a mother’s love? A shared meal? A child’s weight? A steady shoulder? A baby’s giggle? A neighboring pillow?

*Tip: Gather, gather, gather this soft, fluffy material, until it can no longer be contained. Proceed to Step 2 only if you are certain the stuffing will provide an ample cushion.

Step 2: Prepare your Fabrics

Wash, Iron, & Cut

• The trick to a perfect patchwork quilt lies in the cutting. Accurate cutting is essential to getting all of your seems to line up nicely. In order to have perfect cuts, start by washing the fabric and ironing out the wrinkles.

*Note: You may spend hours and hours or months or years ironing out the wrinkles. It is possible to get stuck on this step, hyperfocusing on each tiny wrinkle until it’s perfect. If this is you, for God’s sake, put down the iron. You’ll never enjoy the quilt if you don’t stop focusing on the wrinkles. 

• Once everything is neatly pressed, it is time to begin cutting. You may be wondering how to know what to cut. It takes experience and years of therapy, but if you stare long enough and turn the pieces around and around and around, it will become apparent. Trust the process. Healing lives in each decision, shaping what this quilt will become. 

Step 3: Assemble your Quilt

Join, Quilt, & Bind

• If you have made it to this step, bravo! You have put in a lot of work to get here.

• To begin assembling your quilt top, you will need to decide on a layout. Remember all those fabric scraps you gathered in Step 1? It is time to see how they will all fit together. Maybe your inheritance of Granny’s grit will pair nicely with your ‘Eldest Daughter’ scraps. Maybe ‘Mother’ will find a spot right in the center.

*Note: The combinations are endless, but when you find the right piecing, you will feel it in your bones, and you will begin to understand the importance in the art of quilting.

• Next, join the fabric scraps by sewing them together—quickly, before you change your mind.

• Add in all that fluffy goodness you have collected over the years and relish in the warmth it provides. 

• Secure the backing and make sure to thank Him for holding the pieces.

• Now, quilt together the layers, one stitch at a time, so that you can admire each patch of the quilt that was once useless material. 

• Finally, bind the border to protect raw edges and make the quilt more resilient. After all, this quilt will be passed down to future generations—you wouldn’t want them to inherit a pile of scraps.

Congratulations, your patchwork quilt is now complete and ready to be enjoyed! Whether you use it for warmth or as a decorative piece, the process of creating a patchwork quilt allows for personal growth, self-discovery, and offers a rewarding sewing experience.

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This post is part of a blog hop with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs. Click here to view the next post in the series “Become.”