How to Sew a Quilt – Everything You Need to Know about Quilting Packed into a Simple Coaster Tutorial

We’re going to sew a five inch mini quilt together as a means to understand all the facets of putting a quilt together. Better yet, this mini quilt is the perfect size for a coaster.

(Fabrics used: Blue Happy Trees  |  Yellow Katie Jump Rope)

This tutorial is a great way to start understanding terminology and the major parts of a quilt. This tutorial also assumes you have all the basic sewing supplies for a beginner.

1. There are three major parts of a quilt. There’s the quilt top. The quilt top is the patchwork part after you’ve pieced all your blocks together.

The middle of the quilt is the batting. This is a fluffy layer usually made with wool or cotton.

The quilt backing is the fabric used on the bottom or back of the quilt.

2. Below is our pieced ‘quilt top.’ I took two strips of fabric, each measuring 3 1/4 by 5 1/2. I sewed them together with a *quarter of an inch seam allowance.

(Click here to see a tutorial on squaring and cutting your fabric.)

*Sewing with an accurate quarter inch seam allowance is one of the most important parts of sewing a quilt. If you aren’t sure where a quarter of an inch guide is on your presser foot or sewing machine, please measure your seam before you get too frustrated when your corners don’t match up. If you don’t have a presser foot with a quarter of an inch guide, I’d highly advise purchasing a quarter inch sewing foot. They’re not very expensive.

3. For this project, iron the seams open on the back of your ‘quilt top.’ Ironing your seems flat will keep your quilt top smooth and easy to work with…especially when it comes to quilting the top.

4. In the below picture, I squared my quilt top. (You can see two pictures back that my quilt top was not a perfect square or rectangle.) Using my rotary cutter and ruler, I trimmed around the edges until my ‘quilt top’ was exactly 5 1/4 inches by 5 1/4 inches. I now have a perfect square.

5. Gather your three quilt layers. Next up is basting the quilt.

6. Basting your quilt means you are going to sandwich your three layers together. This has traditionally been done with basting pins. Basting pins are basically a curved safety pin designed to pin all three layers together.

Many quilters now use basting spray instead of pins, or they use even both. Basting spray is like glue in a spray paint can. You use it to temporarily to glue all the layers together, and then the glue washes out in the washing machine.

Whichever route you choose, your goal is to carefully and thoroughly baste your quilt. You want to avoid fabric slipping and sliding around as you quilt. As you baste, be really careful for wrinkles on the backing or the front. Make sure all three layers are as smooth as possible. Always baste on a hard surface. (Carpet is not ideal.)

Iron your backing and lay it flat on the floor (right side down). I recommend using masking tape or painters tape to hold it from shifting. Next lay your batting (my current favorite batting is Warm & Natural cotton batting) and smooth it and smooth it some more. Then lay your ironed quilt top on top. Use pins and pin every two to three inches. Or use basting spray before you lay down the batting and again before you lay down the quilt top.

7. When you begin quilting your quilt, as a rule of thumb, always start in the middle and quilt toward the edges. The fabric may shift and slip a bit no matter how well your baste your quilt. By starting in the middle, you have opportunities to smooth your fabric toward the outside if you notice large wrinkles while quilting.

‘Quilting’ is the process you use to stitch the three layers of your quilt together.

For this little quilt, we are going to learn a basic straight line quilting method.

Beginning in the middle, and using your seam as a guide, sew a quarter of an inch down either side of the seam. You can also stitch right over the seam. (See below.)

8. Continue quilting using a quarter of an inch seam allowance. See below how I line up the presser foot with each additional stitched line.

Continue quilting basic lines until you are completely done with your little quilt.

9. This is what my quilt look likes right now. The quilt has been basted and quilted.

Here’s the back.

10. Since the quilting is done, you can trim around the edges of your quilt top. Use your quilt top as a guide, and trim the batting and backing down to size.

11. Good job making it this far! Your last step is sewing on the binding. This is the edge of the quilt. Begin by cutting a two inch strip of fabric that will go the entire perimeter of your quilt. Then click over through to this tutorial to see how to sew a binding onto a quilt.

Here’s what the binding looks like after being sewn to one side and before handstitching it onto the other side.

12. Here’s the finished product!

And the back…

Last of all. Where are my favorite places to shop for fabric?

My most recent favorite is Morgan Kelly Quilts. Since she doesn’t carry a high selection of fabric, it’s a good shop to browse if you’re overwhelmed easily. What she does carry is beautiful and well curated.

Other favorites are Sew Organic, Kiwi Fabric, and Field and Cloth. If I’m looking for lots of yardage of basic colors or linen or something like that, I will shop from Fabric.com.

Now you can pour a cup of coffee or brew a cup of tea while your browse pinterest and decide what kind of quilt you will sew first. 🙂

(Please note that affiliate links were used in this post.)