At the beginning of my quilting journey, I was given one piece of advice I have never forgotten. This one bit of advice is what kept me from giving up on quilting, especially as a beginner. I want to pass this same piece of advice on to you.
1. Start Small
That is right! The WORST thing you can do for yourself is, to begin with, a large quilting project. I completely get the draw to choose a big project. The lure to make a beautiful quilt that is large enough to snuggle under is so tempting.
Sadly, the likelihood that you complete a large project as a beginner is very low. So do yourself a favor and pick a small quilt project. You want a quick win.
Sarah over at Fairy Face Designs has a great first-time project for beginners. I will link it below for you.
2. Keep It Simple
Your first project shouldn’t include partial or Y seams. It shouldn’t include curved piecing or any other difficult quilting technique.
Simple includes straight sewing. Yep. That’s it. Just straight sewing. So that might be a simple 4 patch or a rail fence block.
Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew has a great first time slightly bigger quilt project that is very simple. Go check out her tutorial by clicking below.
3. Embrace the Ugly
What I mean by the above point is what I had to learn right when I first started sewing. Your quilt project will be ugly before it is finished.
When you look through Pinterest or other social media you see glossy beautiful quilts. You don’t see the entire mess behind that lovely project. You think this will be such an amazing process.
You get halfway through and are abashed at the condition of your project. Thread tails are everywhere, and your project looks more like a rectangle than a square. You might ask yourself, “What kind of mess did I get myself into?”
It is okay. Just don’t panic and push through till the finish. It will be beautiful once it is quilted and bound. It is the last step to hide the beautiful imperfections that make this your unique project.
4. Grace for the Mistakes
If a friend gifted you a quilt would you look through it looking for errors? Would you ask her how she pressed her seams? Would you nitpick over a color choice in fabric because it doesn’t match? NOPE!
I think you would be so touched that your friend spent money and time. Thinking about you and creating a quilt just for you. So why beat yourself up over your first mistakes and blunders?
Making mistakes is part of the learning process, especially for self-taught quilters. Give yourself the same love you would give to your friend. I have gifted many quilts and one, in particular, I was shocked to discover that it is well-loved and had not fallen apart. I wasn’t sure if that one would make it past the first washing.
A Few More for the Road
If binding intimidates you as it did me when I first was quilting. I will list a few more projects below that don’t require binding. I will go into detail about binding in a future post.
Holiday's Note
This is all part of the Beginner Quilting series however it is December so many of your small beginner projects also make great handmade gifts. You can also find a small mug rug tutorial that would make a great beginner or last-minute gift idea by clicking the link below.
What project do you want to start first? What was your very first sewing/quilting project? I know my very first project was a pair of oven mitts that were meant to be oval-shaped and turned out more like a lumpy egg.
