Learning a New Craft Vocabulary
Quilting has a vocabulary all its own, including initialism.
When you decide to sew and/or quilt, you will quickly be aware there are terms you would like defined. If told you will need to make a sandwich before you start to quilt, would you head to the kitchen? How about borders? And do you avoid bias? Do you press to the dark side? Sounds mysterious, doesn’t it?
Now you know why I felt compelled to define words familiar to quilters. You will find these terms becoming part of your vocabulary before you know it.
Quilting Terms Alphabetically
Aa
Analogous Colors: on a standard color wheel, colors adjacent to each other.
Applique: fabric shape(s) attached to fabric block or border by machine, hand, or fusing. Different methods may also be referred to as freezer paper applique, fusible applique, and needle-turn.
Asymmetry: irregular shapes that do not produce mirror image of the other horizontally or vertically
Bb
Backing: fabric layered under batting and quilt top; made of one or more pieces to size required
Baste: stitch with long stitches to temporarily hold two or more layers together for permanent stitching, such as quilting
Batting: layer between backing and pieced top to add warmth, body, definition, and drape to the finished product
Bias: the cut with the most stretch is a 45-degree angle from the selvage
Binding: (n) finishing edges of a quilt with fabric; (v) the act of adding by hand or machine the fabric enclosing the edgers of a quilt
Block: fabric sewn in a particular order or randomly to duplicate a pattern from the past or modern quilts
Bobbin: Vessel for bottom thread. Modern machine bobbins come in assorted sizes – 15, L, M – and fit distinct types of machines. Style and size of bobbin identified by the machine manufacturer.
Borders: fabric that goes around the inner quilt top appearing as a frame
Cc
Chain Piecing: sewing pairs of fabric without breaking/cutting thread between pair units
Charm: 5″ square
Charm Packs: forty or forty-two 5″ squares from one fabric line and will coordinate in color and/or pattern
Complementary Colors: colors directly across from one another on the standard color wheel
Continuous-Line Quilting: stitching without breaking thread from beginning to end
Cornerstones: squares placed at intersections of sashing strips and/or border strips
Crosswise Grain: from selvage to selvage
Cut Size: the size including the seam allowances
Dd
Design Wall: flannel covered flat surface for the purpose of auditioning arrangement of units making blocks or quilt top
Diamonds: a symmetrical four-sided shape with same length parallel sides and equal opposing angles made from two equilateral triangles
Diagonal: a straight line joining two opposing corners of a square or rectangle
Directional Prints: definite up/down print requiring care to position fabric correctly in the quilt
Dog Ears: the small points at the end of a seam that stick beyond the fabric and resemble canine ears
Ee
Embroidery: the art of using thread and stitches to embellish designs on cloth
English Paper Piecing (EPP): combining common template shapes by hand or machine the – common shapes are hexagons, triangles, and diamonds
Equilateral Triangles: shape derived of equal length sides and all angles 60 degrees
Ff
Fat eighth: 9″ x 21″ cut of fabric from 9″ width of fabric or 11″ x 18″ cut of fabric from 18″ width of fabric divided into four fat eights (cut lines are parallel to selvages)
Fat quarter: 18″x21″ cut of fabric; two equal one half yard, cut from 18″ width of fabric (selvage to selvage)
Feed dogs: moves fabric under foot as stitches are created
Finished Size: refers to a cut size minus the seam allowance
Flying Geese: name of quilt block made by sewing two smaller ninety-degree triangles to the sides of a larger triangle – forming a rectangle that will finish twice as wide as it is high
Folded Corners: smaller squares stitched on diagonal creating a triangle on each corner of square/rectangle – also known as snowball block
Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP or PP): constructing blocks on paper pattern for sharp points and using small fabric pieces. Refer to my posts Foundation Paper Piecing – A Different Approach – Sewing with Stitcher.
Free-Motion Quilting: quilting motifs on home sewing machine with feed dogs dropped down
Fusible Web: adhesive designed for fabric to adhere fabrics together with an iron – one method for applique
Fussy Cutting: cutting specific designs from fabric such as a flower or animal to display in blocks
Gg
Grain of fabric: how threads lay in the weave of the fabric and affect cuts
Hh
Half-Square Triangle (HST): place two squares of equal size right sides together; draw one diagonal line and sew 1/4″ on each side of line; cut on center line and open newly made half-square triangles
Hand Stitching: the process of sewing using a thread and needle manipulated with thumb and finger to make the stitches
Hanging Sleeve: hemmed tube attached at the top back of a quilt for hanging/display
Honey Bun: precut roll of forty 1 1/2″ x 44″ fabric collection
Honeycomb: (40) six-inch hexagons cut from a fabric collection
Ii
Initialism: this link says it all /initialism-and-acronym-differ/
Ironing: moving a hot iron over fabric, different from pressing
Imperial Measurements: units used in the United States for measuring (inch, foot, yard, etc.) in contrast with metric measurements used throughout other countries
Jj
Jelly Roll: (40-42) 2 1/2″ x 44″ strips from a fabric collection
Junior Jelly Roll: Twenty 2 1/2″ x 44″ strips from a fabric collection
Junior Layer Cake: (20) 10″x10″ squares
Kk
Ll
Label: (n) physical notation on fabric with name of quilt, who pieced it, who quilted it, date made, where made, who it was made for, occasion; (v) to document quilt
Layer Cake: (42) 10″x10″ squares with at least one of each print in a collection
Layering: backing, batting, and quilt top with backing right side down, batting smoothed on top of backing, and quilt top right side up on batting
Lengthwise Grain: parallel to the selvage – least stretch
Locking/Nesting Seams: ease of matching seams by pressing seams in opposite directions on blocks to be joined
Mm
Mat: the protective cutting surface required when using a rotary cutter
Medallion Quilt: a large center block frequently appliqued surrounded by multiple borders
Mini Charm Pack: (42) 2 1/2″ squares, also called Candy by Moda Fabrics
Mirror Image: reverse shapes
Mitered Borders and/or Binding: corner fabric folded at a 45-degree angle
Motif for Quilting: a motif for quilting is the pattern or design stitched, such as feather, meander, hatch
Nn
Needle: an exceptionally fine slender piece of metal with a point at one end and a hole or eye for thread at the other, used in sewing
Needle Kind/Use: Needle Guide | SuperiorThreads.com has an educational page on needles that should answer any questions you may have.
Needle-Turn Applique: hand applique method of using needle point to turn edge of applique under before taking one-eighth inch stitches to hold it to background fabric
Oo
On Point: setting quilt squares rotated at 45-degree angles, placing points top to bottom; stitched together in diagonal rows
Pp
Panel/Panel Quilt: often used for the center of a quilt top enlarged by constructing borders, much like medallion quilts
Patchwork Block: two or more fabrics stitched together to form a block of a quilt top
Pieced Quilt Top: blocks attached to form a design
Piecing: joining fabric pieces in a specific order to result in a designed block
Pinked Edges: cut with pinking shears that leave an edge of peaks and valleys rather than straight; often used to reduce raveling
Piping: enclosing a cord in a strip of fabric
Pre-Cuts: fabric cut by manufacturer or quilt shop owners to make certain sizes popular in quilt patterns
Pressing: the up and down motion of the iron on and off the fabric avoiding movement when iron is on the fabric
Prewash: the act of washing fabric before cutting or using in a quilt
Quarter Square Triangle: The result of placing two half square triangles with right sides together, next stitching 1/4″ on both sides of a diagonal line. Cutting on the middle diagonal line and opening newly made block of 4 equal parts to make the square
Quilt (noun): fabric backing, batting, and pieced fabric top secured together with stitches made by hand, machine, or tied
Quilting (verb): the act of stitching/tying layers of fabric and batting together for use; to quilt
Quilt as You Go: A method of quilting smaller units (blocks most frequent) of a quilt, then putting them together as one complete quilt.
Quilt Block: a unit of pieced, appliqued or solid fabric used to construct a top; traditionally named; some may have more than one name
Quilting Motifs: the quilting design made by quilting
Quilt Sandwich: backing, batting, and quilt top layered for quilting
Rr
Reverse Applique: top layer of fabric hand or machine stitched and then cut away to reveal fabric layered below
Reversed Shapes: mirror images cut from fabric either right sides together or wrong sides together; cutting both layers the same time produces mirror or reversed images
Rows: quilt blocks left to right in a line
Rotary Cutter: handle with an attached circular sharp blade that turns to cut fabric
Rulers: made of acrylic for cutting with a rotary cutter and much thicker for machine quilting with a hopping foot
Ss
Sampler Quilt: Often each block has a different pattern. This is an effective way to learn new techniques.
Sandwich: backing, batting, and quilt top before quilting.
Sashing: strips of fabric between blocks to separate them
Scant 1/4″: a seam one thread width narrower than a full 1/4″
Scissors: used for light cutting, have shorter blades than shears, and the finger holes are equal. In the quilting and sewing world, it is nice to have a variety of sizes.
Scrappy Quilts: made from several different fabrics
Seam Allowance: 1/4″measured from fabric edge to stitches is most common in quilting
Selvage: the tightly woven edges of the fabric
Setting Triangles: used in on point quilts as fillers of empty space corners and along four sides
Shade: colors with black added to them
Shears: for heavy-duty cutting, long blades, sized finger holes for thumb in one and three fingers in the other. In the quilting and sewing world, it is nice to have a variety of sizes.
Square in a Square: a smaller square is inside a larger square, tilted 45 degrees to the larger; made by adding triangles to each side of the smaller square
Stash: the fabrics owned by a quilter and, as a rule, is more than she will ever be able to use in a lifetime but doesn’t stop her from buying more
Stitch-in-the-Ditch: quilting by sewing in the seams of blocks
Strip Piecing: strips stitched together on the long edges, then sub-cut into smaller segments to stitch to similar segments
Symmetry: in quilting is when a block looks the same on the left side as the right, as in mirror image
Tt
Thread: great reference information at Thread Weight | SuperiorThreads.com and Thread Characteristics | SuperiorThreads.com
Tint: colors with white added to them; pastels
Tone: in reference to fabric, a color with gray added
Tone on Tone: fabric with like color printed on like color and reads as one color
Trapunto: a way to give quilt shapes a three-dimensional appearance by stuffing the shape with bits of batting; most often done on wholecloth quilts or areas of solid fabric
Uu
Vv
Value: how light or dark a fabric appears when compared to other fabrics; a fabric value can change when compared to different fabrics; placement of different values is a major determination on how a quilt design will appear
Ww
Walking Foot: a foot secured to the pressure bar with the attached U-shape movable arm around extension above the needle; this foot works with the feed dogs to keep multiple layers of fabric to evenly feed under the needle to eliminate puckers or distortion of the bottom fabric; foot frequently used when quilting on a home sewing machine, especially doing straight line quilting motifs
Whole Cloth Quilts: made from unpieced solid fabric and elaborately quilted
Xx
Yy
Yo-yos: fabric circles stitched close to the edge with stitches gathered tight