Difference Between Quilting And Patchwork will help you to know how these two sewing techniques are made and why sewers around the world love to make both.
Both sewing techniques, quilting and patchwork are used to make large sewing projects to make quilts. And both can be made by hand or with a sewing machine.
Making quilts and patchwork has become popular in many countries and once you make your first quilt whether is only with quilting or with top made with patchwork, you might get hooked on a new hobby.
So let’s take a look what makes these two sewing techniques different.
Difference Between Quilting And Patchwork
What Is Quilting?
When you love to make quilts, you might know any quilt is made by stitching together three layers of textiles or fabrics, the top, the batting fabric in the middle and the back fabric on the bottom.
Quilting is a sewing technique that is made by stitching small or big stitches through the three layers of fabric, the quilting can be made by hand or with a sewing machine, and it can be made as simple as making just a few stitching lines on the quilt, or it can be made creating amazing designs.
The basic or simpler quilt to make will be made by layering three pieces of fabric as big as the bed size that will be used on, quilters will do some basting stitches around the project, to keep the three layers of fabric together while they work on the quilting.
When working on the quilting by hand, it can take from a few days, to some weeks and months, as it will require from the quilter to work for many hours in one quilt until it is finished.
If you’re planning to make the quilting on your sewing machine, this sewing technique is well-known as Free Quilting Motion, and it will take less time to finish a quilt, and it can be done with a simple or with an elaborate quilting pattern.
What is Patchwork?
Patchwork is a sewing technique where small pieces of fabric are stitched together to create a bigger piece, these bigger pieces are well-known as Quilt Blocks.
When a sewer makes a good number of quilt blocks, they can be stitched together to create a bigger piece, which can be small size for a baby crib size, or it can be as big to cover any size of any size bed, twin, full size, Queen or King Size bed.
When a sewer finished making a patchwork piece, very often they will put another layer of fabric to cover all the seams on the back of the patchwork piece, by doing this the patchwork piece will become part of a quilt.
To make a patchwork piece even warmer, the sewer might add a third layer of fabric in the middle, the batting fabric, this is how a patchwork piece will be part of a quilt as many people know them.
How To Make A Quilt From A Patchwork Piece?
When you love to make quilts with a patchwork piece, you need to stitch on the three layers of fabric to hold the layers all together, by doing this your quilt will keep you and your love ones warm during the cold nights and the quilt will last for many years.
Is It To Hard To Make Quilting?
Learning to make quilting can take any sewer some time to learn the ropes, as it can be made easy by making some knots with a thread through the three layers of fabric.
Traditional Quilting – When you’re interested to learn to make a quilt, you can get the help of a friend who already makes quilts, or by signing up to a quilting course, where you will be taught to make the traditional hand quilting by stitching through the three layers of fabric on a quilt, with small stitches (5 to 7 stitches in one inch). Practice will make you an expert!
Modern Quilting – As many people are falling in love with making quilts, some new or modern quilters are creating their own rules, bigger stitches and creating new patchwork quilt patterns. The benefits of making a modern quilt is that you don’t need to worry about making small stitches as you work on your quilt, every stitch you make is perfect and your quilt will look amazing!
Wholecloth Quilt – Is made with a single piece of fabric for the top and is quilted with a simple quilting design like the Japanese quilts with cotton batting, or a wholecloth quilt can be made with an elaborate quilting design like the Welsh Quilts with a wool batting.
Is It Hard To Make Patchwork?
The first time you look at one quilt made with patchwork, you may get the feeling that you’re not a good sewer to make one, but don’t feel discouraged, if you start making your first piece of patchwork with simple shapes, it will go great and it will help you to learn how patchwork is done.
Everything about making patchwork is about the sewing technique, as you start making your first piece, you will understand how to cut the small pieces of fabric with different shapes and how to stitch them together to make first strips, which then they will be stitched one strip to the next one to create a patchwork pattern.
As you keep working on different patchwork patterns, you will get skilled and then you will be working on any patchwork pattern you want to make.
Practice will make the master, and remember this, every amazing quilter, was a beginner one day.
When you learn to make quilts with a patchwork top, soon you will be making your quilts with different patchwork patterns, some of the most known patchwork patterns are:
Trip Around The World – Made with squares of the same size in different color and pattern fabrics, the design starts in the center and squares of the same color are stitched together to create the quilt pattern.
Log Cabin Quilt Pattern – This Quilt Block is always started in the center with a square of red fabric as a symbol of the fireplace in the cabin, then strips of fabric are sewn around the central piece.
Hexagons – Fabric is cut with a hexagons shape and these pieces of fabric are stitched on together to create flowers, which are stitched on together to make a bigger piece.
Quilts made with hexagons are known as hexies quilts and can be made with different quilt patterns.
Difference Between Quilting And Patchwork, Closing Thoughts
Whether you make a quilt with a wholecloth and do some quilting on it, or if you make a patchwork top to make a quilt to later work on the quilting, both methods will help you to make a beautiful quilt.
As you start working on this new hobby, start always with a small project like making a pillow or a small size quilt, it will help you to work on all the process and you will see your project finished in a few hours of work, or in one or two days.
Making a quilt is not a work of working just a couple of hours, it’s about working on the same project for days, weeks and even for months, but as a quilter I can asure you it worths making a quilt!
We love to hear from you, if you have any tip about making a quilt, that can help other quilters around the world, leave a comment, we all can learn more about making a quilt!
Happy sewing and hapy quilting.
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Thanks for sharinmg a well written, informative and extremely interesting article with us all here. To be honest with you, i wasnt even aware that you even got different types of quilts. I just thought that they were all just bi duvets for your bed that were stuffed full of feathers. But it was interesting to read about them here.
This is a wonderful article and one full of great information in case you want to make a quilt. My grand mother made all of our quilts when I was a kid over 80 years ago I remember helping her rolling the frame wood frame down we had one in the Livingroom of her house and she did it all by hand I did not know how beautiful they were back then but now I would love to have one. We have some now that we bought but nothing like a good home made quilt
Thank you sharing information on quilting and patchwork. This is a hobby I have admired for a long time but have no one to teach me how to do this. My interest has been roused, I will think about getting the appropriate training. I did not know the that one can quilt by machine! that must be easier than hand quilting.