2. RECOGNIZE THE PARTS OF A QUILT

As we mentioned earlier, quilts have three basic components: the quilt top, the batting and the quilt back. Imagine a tuna sandwich:

The bread that is on top of the sandwich is known as the quilt top. Quilt tops can have several different looks:

  • Quilt tops can be made out of scraps of fabric, a procedure known as patchwork.

  • Quilt tops can be made using a technique known as appliqué. Appliqué is a French term that refers to attaching smaller pieces of fabric on top of bigger pieces. Appliqués can range from flowers to people to anything else you can cut out.

    Here are some examples made specifically for SoYouWanna.net. The heart on the left is patchwork, while the heart on the right is appliqu.

    patchworkappliqu
  • Quilt tops can have both patchwork and appliqué elements mixed together.

  • The tuna in the sandwich is called the batting, which can be cotton, wool, polyester or a blend. This is the cushy part inside a quilt that makes it fun to sleep on or wrap yourself in. For your quilt, you can use whatever you like, as long as you make sure that you're not allergic to it.

  • The bread on the bottom of your tuna sandwich is called the quilt back. The quilt back is usually comprised of only one or two pieces of cloth (so it can be stable).

Don't forget the crust of your sandwich; in this analogy, it is called the binding. You make the binding of a quilt when you've finished attaching all of the blocks together and you want to hide the ugly rough edges of the quilt (or in this case, it helps tuck in the tuna so it doesn't spill over the edge).