A Beginner's Guide to Quilting

The rotary cutter is still in its case. The fabric you ordered is on a shelf in the bag it arrived in, waiting for an afternoon that keeps not quite arriving. You have a working theory of how quilting works and a rough sense of what tools you need.

That gap between knowing and starting is its own thing, and this book closes it.

This book starts exactly there, and it takes you from a bag of unwashed fabric and a new rotary cutter through fifteen projects to three finished, bound, and labeled lap quilts.

Fifteen Blocks, Three Lap Quilts, Done

• Read any patchwork pattern and understand it completely before you touch the rotary cutter
• Cut squares, strips, and rectangles accurately enough that every block finishes at the right size
• Maintain a true quarter-inch seam allowance consistently from your first project seam to your last
• Press each seam correctly so your blocks lie flat and your rows join without tugging or distortion
• Build four-patch, nine-patch, half-square triangle, and strip blocks from the very beginning
• Complete log cabin, rail fence, flying geese, churn dash, and bear paw blocks with clear diagrams
• Finish three full-size lap quilts: each sandwiched, basted, quilted, bound, and labeled

• Rotary cutter safety, mat setup, and grain-following cuts that keep your blocks true
• Quarter-inch foot calibration and the seam allowance test run before any project begins
• Quilt sandwich, batting selection, and three basting methods honestly compared
• Walking foot setup and three straight-line machine quilting methods explained step by step
• Binding yardage, applying, mitering all four corners, and hand-finishing the back