Quilt Frame A quilt frame is made for easy hand quilting. It is a big, free standing device that can hold the quilt so that the quilter can quilt comfortably. You may find many quilt frames that have numerous poles. This will allow the quilter to stitch the quilt right on the frame without the help of pins or threads. Quilt Top It is the finished top portion of the quilt sandwich. All the squares will be pieced together and borders added. Raw-edge It is an edge of a piece of fabric that is not sewn. Repeat You will find a number of inches in between a repeated pattern in a piece of fabric. This is known as repeat. Ruching In ruching, you pull and gather a fabric piece before it is appliquéd onto a background fabric. Running Stitch In this hand-needlework method, you will need the needle to gather many stitches on it before needle and thread are drawn through the cloth. You can use the running stitch in both quilting and piecing. Sandwich It is the common name for an unsewn quilt, since the many layers of a quilt resemble a sandwich. Sashing Sashings or lattices are strips of fabric sewn onto a quilt block. Satin Stitching Satin stitching is mostly used for attaching the raw edges of appliqué pieces to their background pieces. It is a very short, tight stitch. Seam Allowance It is the measurement of fabric between the stitched seam line and the raw edge of the joined pieces. The standard seam allowance is 1/4" in patchwork quilt making. You may get a quilting foot which is an exact 1/4" in most machines. In such case you will only need to line up the fabric with the foot edge. Secret Tacking In this technique of quilting, the needle and thread move through the filler between stitches. The stitches that are produced by secret tacking are more widely spaced than those produced by the running stitch. They are closer together and less visible than those produced by tacking. Selvage It is the completed edge of a piece of fabric. It is tightly woven and runs parallel to the lengthwise grain. It is hard to needle and also contracts at different rate than the other part of the fabric. Usually, it is snipped off before measuring and sewing. Set In This method is also known as inset seam. In this method, you sew the patchwork piece, which is formed already by two joined pieces, into the corner or the angle. Setting Setting is the process of arranging the completed blocks that form the quilt top. You can set the block with sashing, on point, or side by side. Sharps Sharps are very short, small and thin needles with very sharp tips. They are mostly used for piecing. Sheeting Sheeting is a very smoothly woven piece of fabric, with over 200 thread count, mainly designed for bed linens. Shibori Shibori is a method of resist dyeing. For this, the fabric will need to be folded, tied and twisted for making a resist pattern. Those portions of the fabric hidden by the manipulation resist the dye and will remain the original color of the fabric. Shirred Border Shirred border is mainly applied to give the three dimensional looks of the quilt. For this, you will need to insert a border in between the two inner borders of the quilt, where the fabric has been accumulated to give a three dimensional look. Such borders are very often seen in Heirloom quilts. Signature Block “Signature block” refers to those blocks that are signed by different people. Each individual signs her own block, and eventually all the blocks of each individual are combined together to create a special quilt. Slip Stitch It is a technique of stitching for appliqué that involves putting very small, smooth stitches in between the piece and the background. Squaring Up It is the process of making a 90 degree angle for each corner of the patchwork blocks or quilt tops. Stash It is the common name given to the fabric collection of a quilter. Stay Stitching Stay stitching is used to help a stretchy edge to become more consistent. This stitching is done 1/8" inside of a seam allowance. You may stay stitch a triangle that will be pieced with the bias edge facing the outer edge of the quilt in quilting. You will need to draw your cutting line on the piece before cutting; stay stitch 1/8" from the cutting line; and finally snip the triangle. It will help to avoid the bias edge from stretching as it is put into the final quilt. The stay stitching will remain in the quilt and add consistency. Stay stitching will not be visible, as it is done within the seam allowance. Stencils Stencils are shapes which are made to decorate the quilt top. They are cut out of template plastic or cardboard. Stitch-In- the- Ditch In this method of quilting, you will place the stitch either in or close to a seam of two fabrics. Straight Stitch Foot It is the common name given to the standard presser on most sewing machines. Strip It is a piece of fabric that is snipped the length of the width of fabric and then snipped to a particular width. String Piecing It is the process of randomly combining same sized pieces of fabric to create a bigger piece of fabric. After combining the pieces, you may combine them together with another string pieced fabric strip. You can also create squares or appliqué by cutting them into smaller pieces. Strip Piecing In this method, you will combine long strips of fabric together first. After that is done, cut the strip sets into individual blocks or squares. Strip Set They are the pieces that create strip piecing. Swaps Swaps refer to the exchange of fabric in a guild and on the internet, etc, by a group of quilters. Tacking This is a term given for tying a quilt. Tacking Gun It is another type of basting. This device is used for inserting a plastic piece into the quilt sandwich. It will help to hold all three layers of the quilt together. Template Templates are those patterns which are made with a very strong material for drawing over your quilt to add more flair and elegance. If you have templates, you will not need to wear off the edges but instead you can draw over them as many times as you like. You will find many shapes of acrylic templates in stores. By using plastic or cardboard or other things, you can make templates by changing the printed paper pattern. Templates for piecing and appliqué do not contain seam allowances while the templates for machine piecing usually do. Thimble It is a small cap made for protecting fingers from injury while stitching. It is also used for the smooth functioning of the needle through the quilt during hand quilting. You can get it in different sizes so that it will fit your finger. These caps are available in both metal and leather varieties. Thread Basting Long hand sewn stitches are used in this method of basting the quilt. You will usually start stitching in the middle of the quilt and then gradually move toward the edges. Remove these stitches when the final quilting is finished. Thread Count It is the number of threads in the warp as per the number of threads in the weft. Tone-on-Tone Tone-on-Tone, or tonal, fabrics have a print in different shades of the background fabric. A dark purple background fabric having small lavender flowers is an example of this fabric. Trapunto It is a very common style which is used in every quilt. It is mainly designed to give the three dimensional look of the quilts or let the designs appear as if they are rising from the surface. In order to make this, the tightly sewn lines of stitching are put into the batting. A walking foot is attached to the sewing machine. It replaces the straight stitch foot and helps in guiding the top and bottom fabric of the quilt sandwich smoothly through the sewing machine. Warp View They are the long threads that move from top to bottom of the material and intersect with weft threads. These threads are put onto the loom by applying tension. The warp threads will run parallel to the selvage. Weft View Weft threads run perpendicular to the warp threads. Yo-Yo These are fabric circles that are combined together to make a lightweight, un- backed coverlet. Before combining, you will need to accumulate and flatten them. You can use a single yo-yo for appliqué. Zinger Zinger is a small border that is attached just outside the completed and gathered quilt top. Quilting Terminology Quilting Terms C to G Quilting Glossary H to P Quilting Terms Q to Z Tools Types Machine Quilts Fabric Guide Caring More Quilting Tips Quilting Machine Benefits Quilt Sandwich Quilt Pattern Tips Large Quilt