Discover the Best Quilting Classes Near Me
The word “quilt” entered the English language as early as the 13th century and derives through Old French from the Latin culcita, meaning cushion or mattress. Although the word quilt is used to describe a variety of bedding items (such as a down quilt), a quilt, strictly speaking, is a sandwich of three layers of fabric: a generally colorful top, a filling (called batting, or webbing if you’re British) and plain backing. The three layers are joined by stitching (this is what is termed quilting), which can be more or less elaborate, depending on the taste and talent of the person doing the quilting.
Quilting can be used for more than bedding, and the technique can be employed to make other padded objects and even clothing. The first instance of a quilted anything comes from as far back as the Egyptian Old Kingdom: a First Dynasty ivory figure depicts a pharaoh wearing a quilted garment. Thus, quilting has been around since the fourth millennium BCE. It was either brought by the aliens who taught the Ancient Egyptians to build the pyramids, or someone terrestrial, wondering how primitive textiles could be made thicker, came up with the idea of stitching multiple layers of fabric together to create a stronger and better insulated whole. From there, it was only a few logical steps to decorating the top layer and then using a fishbone or bronze needle and making the stitching something attractive in its own right.
One culture that took up quilting with a vengeance was the United States, where it developed into a domestic art practiced by women with gorgeous results that have justifiably become heirlooms and museum pieces. Although patchwork dates back to the Ancient Egyptians, it was elevated unquestionably into an art form in the 19th century United States, sometimes done with leftover scraps of material or old garments and sometimes made out of fabric purchased expressly to be turned into patchwork. Although the days of the quilting bee in which a group of women assembled to create a quilt for a bride’s dowry are long-gone, quilting as a means of self-expression and passing the time remains a popular hobby in the contemporary United States.
Why You Should Learn Quilting
Although quilting can be used to create garments that can be worn in place of chain mail (recte: maille) under or even instead of armor, the odds of getting arrows shot at you from a long bow as you attempt to storm a castle today are slim indeed. That doesn’t mean that there’s no reason to learn to quilt today. And, while you can buy a perfectly good quilted comforter in the bedding aisle at Target to keep from freezing, there are some excellent reasons to learn to quilt on your own.
The first is that it makes a great hobby for those who are seeking to find something amusing and creative to do in their downtime, such as it is in today’s harried world. People (not only women) have long turned to needlework as a way to pass the long winter evenings, and quilting is a practical form of the craft that can create highly attractive results. Embroidery, needlepoint, knitting, and crocheting have their adherents, but instead of yet another sweater with one sleeve longer than the other, quilting produces a handy product that can be made in any size, from baby quilts to lap quilts to king-size bed quilts.
Quilting also allows for a great deal of self-expression in the pattern you choose for the quilt’s top. The earliest European quilt (the so-called Tristan Quilt, currently in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London) depicts episodes from the legend of Tristan and Iseult: you can thus go anywhere from abstract patchwork designs to something that tells a story. (For an example of a modern-day narrative quilt, consider the AIDS Memorial Quilt with its nearly 50,000 panels.) One of the interesting aspects of quilting is that it comprises two very different stages: the designing and sewing of the top and the quilting proper. The fine needlework, with its repetitive small stitches, can have an enormously relaxing effect on the quilter.
That said, quilting can also be a social undertaking. Although the quilting bee is extinct, quilting groups, guilds, clubs, and other kinds of quilting communities abound, both in-person and online. These allow people to share their knowledge and love of quilting, as well as the latest patterns and techniques. People seeking more human contact in the impersonal age of the internet can find it in a quilting group, which combines a shared activity with a shared interest. You’ll thus potentially be gaining more than a hobby: you’ll be gaining friends.
You can also think about turning quilting into a small business. There is a big market for handmade goods (and something called “granny chic”)—witness the success of Etsy—and there is money to be made from it, either by producing your own style of work or by taking commissions and creating work for customers seeking a quilt for a specific occasion. Etsy is only the tip of the iceberg for online quilting stores: even Amazon has gotten in on the action for handmade goods with the aptly titled Handmade by Amazon. Your hobby and social outlet can, therefore, even turn into a lucrative side gig that may even develop into an online quilting supply store or even a brick-and-mortar one where fellow quilting enthusiasts can gather. Some of the most fulfilled people on Earth are those who’ve been able to make a career out of a hobby. Who knows? That first quilting class you take can be the first step to such a life.
5 Ways to Learn Quilting
Once you’ve decided that you’d like to take up quilting, you’ll have to decide how to learn to do it. You can skin that particular cat by taking a live hands-on class, either from a local school or, possibly, from your local quilting store (if it offers instruction, and many do.) There is little that can replace learning from another human being in a live setting, especially when it comes to learning manual techniques like stitching or operating a sewing machine; sometimes, the learning process requires another pair of hands to steer yours in the right direction.
If you’ve looked for a local quilting class and come up empty-handed, you might want to consider an online class. Learning online is something that many people discovered during the recent pandemic as they tried to do things together without being together in the same room. Although, true, the instructor can’t reach out of the screen and hold your needle for you, the teacher in an online class is nonetheless live and can see your work, where you’re erring, and how to help you get it right.
The shortcoming of both live and live online classes, especially for busy people who are already short of time for a new hobby, is that they have to take place at a given point in the spacetime continuum. You may already get off work late, and while you may be willing at eleven o’clock at night to learn to quilt, you may not be able to find a class at that hour. This is where the online tutorial comes in handy, whether it be from an online school such as Udemy or simply from instructional videos on YouTube. These don’t allow for give-and-take with a live teacher but do allow for show-and-tell with the tools of the trade and can be a good way to learn a skill at your own convenience.
Another alternative is going completely old-school and buying a book. The bibliography on quilting is considerable and includes quite a few books for absolute beginners from which you can learn the essentials of quilting. (If you have yet to learn to sew, you can get a book on that, too.) You can definitely teach yourself to quilt this way.
There are also quilting kits available from places like Etsy that can help you teach yourself. These contain all the pieces for a quilt, cut out and ready to go; all you need to do is break out your sewing machine and follow the instructions to stitch together a handsome quilt. These perhaps aren’t ideal for total beginners, but they can be highly useful teaching tools when used in tandem with a book. You will, of course, eventually have to learn how to cut out your own patterns, but for someone just starting out, the combination of a book and a kit would be a good and certainly convenient, way to learn quilting.
In-Person Quilting Classes
A sign of quilting’s popularity is the fact that live in-person quilting classes are to be found in most metropolitan centers in the United States. Quilting is a hobby that, by its nature, brings people together, whether it be at a sewing or quilting shop or at schools that teach the subject as part of a larger practical art curriculum.
New York City, for example, offers introductory quilting classes at Brooklyn Craft Company. Located in Greenpoint, the school occupies a 1400-square-foot building that was once a pencil company and is now used as a classroom space for teaching a wide variety of craft and DIY subjects, all tailored to the hectic lives of New Yorkers. Needlecrafts are only one aspect of the subjects taught, although sewing, knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and, of course, quilting are the headline offerings.
Beginner Quilting takes up a solitary weekend afternoon of the student’s time, and by the end of the class, students will have a finished lap quilt to show for their efforts. Students will learn to create the quilting sandwich, baste it together, quilt it using a home sewing machine with a walking foot, and bind and finish the piece. Although the class doesn’t teach you how to assemble a patchwork top, it will equip you with enough basic quilting knowledge to create further pieces on your own. Materials aren’t included, although students are welcome to bring their own fabric and supplies. They are otherwise available at a 10% discount to those enrolled in the class. Although the class is geared to beginners, it does presuppose the ability to use a sewing machine. (Fear not: Brooklyn Craft Company has a class in Sewing 101 as well.)
Gotham Quilts is a quilt shop in midtown Manhattan that offers a variety of sewing and quilting classes at all levels, which means everything from introductory quilting to all manner of classes in patchwork technique. If you’ve already got a quilt underway (or any other needlework project), you may also wish to attend one of their Social Sewing classes that bring needleworkers of all varieties together to work and exchange ideas and inspiration.
Across the country, in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, you’ll find Quilt Emporium, a store with everything a quilter could possibly need to execute a quilting project, including instructional classes in everything from My First Quilt to a bushel of classes in all manner of quilting projects, including holiday-themed undertakings such as a quilted Christmas Tree Skirt. At the other end of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, in the City of Orange, is Fabric Land, a large fabric store with classes in many different aspects of sewing technique, including quilting classes at all levels.
Other parts of the City of Angels offer classes in sewing and how to get to know (and coexist peacefully with) your sewing machine. Although the school is more fashion- than quilting-oriented, you can learn the basics of sewing at The Workshop @ Haley Solar in Eagle Rock, adjacent to Pasadena. Their Beginning Sewing class is a single session that teaches you the ins and outs of your sewing machine and how to make nice with an appliance that can be trying on the nerves when operated improperly.
If you’re looking for a complete curriculum in sewing, an excellent option is Los Angeles City College in East Hollywood. Here, the offerings begin at the beginning with Sewing Made Easy Level One: Beginning, which is followed by an intermediate and an advanced class. The course runs once a week for five weeks. Evening and weekend times are available. The classes are presented by Los Angeles City College’s Community Services division, which provides not-for-credit classes in all manner of topics, as a means for students to pick up that skill they’ve always wanted to have but were never sure about where to learn.
Chicagoans will find a valuable quilting resource in Linda Z’s Sewing Center in Arlington Heights. In operation since 1967 and spread across three levels, Linda Z’s is a veritable sewing emporium with machines of all shapes and sizes (and price points), plus fabric, patterns, and all manner of notions. The store also hosts a variety of sewing clubs and offers classes that will interest sewers (that’s people who sew, not the other thing) of all types and interests. Linda Z’s offers a Beginning Quilt Basics 101 class that meets for five two-hour sessions and leads students into their first journey into quilting, from how to select fabric for a quilt all the way through binding the finished product. Students create a pair of quilts during the class. Designed for new quilters, the class does nevertheless require that you possess the ability to operate a sewing machine. (Linda Z’s Beginning Sewing Class can teach you that if need be.) Students interested in deepening their knowledge of quilting will probably want to stick around for Intermediate Quilting 102, a further three sessions that go into more advanced cutting and piecing techniques to create such classics as the log cabin quilt. (That’s the one with the blocks that are divided on the diagonal into two different sets of colors.) Meanwhile, if you’ve already done the quilting work and are at a loss as to how to finish your project, Linda Z’s has a class devoted entirely to Quilt Binding Techniques to give your quilt the perfectly mitered corners it deserves.
In the area, Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria offers introductory quilting classes, including Beginning Quilting, and some interesting spins on the subject as well. The Octopus Sea Garden class teaches students to make charming little art quilts employing embroidery techniques to give the impression of an underwater scene. Artistic Artifacts can also show you how to get started on a more modern type of project. The class, Photo Memory Quilt Jumpstart, demonstrates the techniques for transferring a photo to fabric. The workshop lasts six hours (one weekend day) and, as the name promises, will set you on your way to creating a treasurable quilted keepsake.
Also in the area is Capital Quilts (located in Gaithersburg), a sewing store that can provide you with everything from a thimble to a long-arm sewing machine for the most ambitious quilting projects. (Capital Quilts even rents out long-arm machines.) The store also offers a variety of sewing and quilting classes, from a Complete Course in Quilting to workshops in more advanced quilting topics such as Quilting by Hand, making a T-shirt Quilt, and Free Motion Quilting on the Longarm Machine.
Would-be quilters living in Charlotte can turn to Lee’s Creative Sewing & Vacuums, which offers daily classes in all aspects of sewing and quilting, including specific quilting projects such as a Garden Quilt, a Sewing Room Sampler Quilt and, for a seasonal touch, a Christmas Alphabet Quilt. The Charlotte Sewing Center, a sewing machine store with classes in the many ways they can be used, teaches quilting as well, including such arcana as a class in creating quilt blocks using an embroidery machine. The Charlotte Quilters’ Guild is another local resource that provides workshops in quilting topics and even arranges shows of quilting work done by its members.
Virtual Quilting Classes
Live quilting classes may not be available in your area or not fit your schedule, or perhaps you find the idea of dragging a half-made quilt and a sewing machine with you on public transportation to get to a class not to be enticing. These and other reasons are why the virtual quilting class was born: it gives you the option of learning to quilt from the comfort of your own space, thanks to that pandemic commonplace that’s become part of our culture, Zoom. An online class also gives you your choice of quilting schools anywhere in the country (the differences in time zones can work to some would-be students’ convenience as well.) The online class has every aspect of convenience to recommend it.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t have a downside. The biggest of those where quilting is concerned is that you won’t be able to have the teacher’s hands to guide yours when you can’t get the hang of a certain technique. You’re also obviously going to need your own full set of materials, including a sewing machine, which can make for something of an investment in a hobby you’re not even sure you’re going to enjoy yet. (For those with some experience sewing who have acquired their own equipment, an online class may make more financial sense.)
Among the online offerings, the Evanston Art Center (in Evanston, IL) proposes a five-session class in The Art of Contemporary Embroidery. The class teaches students to embroider (including on garments they can upcycle), as well as techniques including darning, quilt-blocking (that’s the creation of quilt blocks, not blocking a finished quilt), sashiko (a Japanese form of embroidery or stitching that is experiencing quite a renaissance) and couching. An internet connection and Zoom are, of course, required, as is a shopping list of supplies that does, however, allow students considerable choice when it comes to choosing what types of fabrics and floss to use.
Gotham Quilts in New York offers a veritable cornucopia of virtual quilting classes. These run from Intro to Quilting with a Walking Foot (that’s a type of sewing machine hardware, and neither an ambulatory pedal extremity nor a foot pedal) to such unusual topics as Kawandi Style Quilting and how to make a Puff Quilt. All these classes are suitable for novices with only basic quilting knowledge. Gotham Quilts even puts together a Virtual Retreat that brings “fabric nerds” together for a weekend of communal sewing and amusing activities, including an early-evening “quarantini hour.”
A further major provider of virtual quilting classes is M Avery Designs. Based in Hoboken, NJ, the school teaches a complete sewing curriculum, from how to sew with a machine to such obscure quilting topics as Quilt Binding with Continuous Bias Tape. They even offer a class in creating a Hovea Quilted Jacket to show that quilting isn’t just for blankets. And, once you get totally obsessed with your new hobby, you may want to consider their monthly at-home Quilt Club.
Private Group Quilting Classes
Perhaps since the invention of the needle, people have gathered together to sew, share their work, and share their stories. Quilting bees allowed women to come together to sew a young bride a quilt in the space of a day. If you’re in the market for a team-building event for your organization or business, a group quilting class can be a great way to come together, have fun, and go home with something moderately useful. (Don’t expect to be able to finish a king-sized quilt in a three-hour workshop, of course.) Live online private group quilting classes are available through CourseHorse. Simply contact the CourseHorse Group sales department using the contact form on the CourseHorse website.
Other needlework team-building projects available through CourseHorse include a Virtual Modern Embroidery class. This two-hour workshop introduces total novices to embroidery step-by-step, from learning to position the canvas in the hoop, to selecting the right thread, to executing basic embroidery stitches, and finally to learning to finish their projects. A floral wreath pattern is provided, which participants should be able complete during the event’s two hours. Participants will then have the basic embroidery knowledge to embellish T-shirts, tote bags, and even pillows. All materials are included and shipped to each participant before the class. These include three embroidery hoops, a tote bag, patterns, and sufficient needles and thread to complete three embroidery projects. (Be aware that CourseHorse can only ship materials to United States addresses.) Up to 500 participants can be included, and the preferred modality for the class is Zoom, although other platforms can be accommodated.
Booking your next group event through CourseHorse has many advantages: it spares you the headache of arranging the event yourself, group sizes can be adjusted after the booking is made, confirmations are sent within 24 hours, and there are no booking fees. Moreover, you’ll have CourseHorse’s dedicated group event team helping you every step of the way.
What Will I Need to Learn Quilting?
Quilting can be as expensive a hobby as you wish to make it. The patchwork quilt was born out of thrift (sometimes old blankets were repurposed as batting, too), so the initial investment need not be enormous. You will need fabric, thread, and some basic notions like needles, shears, a quilting ruler, a rotary cutter, and since everyone is fallible, a seam ripper. The outlay needn’t be enormous, and the sewing supplies are probably things you already have. Although some classes do provide some of the tools of the trade (but not fabric), others expect you to come fully outfitted.
The biggest investment for anyone serious about quilting (unless you’re determined to go it old school and sew an entire quilt by hand) is a sewing machine. Usually, in-person classrooms have machines available for use, but if you’re going to get serious about quilting, you’ll need your own machine. You don’t need to invest in a huge long-arm machine if you’re just a beginning quilter, but you will need a good-quality home machine with a walking foot. Your quilting instructor(s) will be able to advise you on which type of machine to purchase if you don’t have one already.
Is it Difficult to Learn Quilting?
You can’t expect to become an expert quilter after one class, but you will be surprised at how much you can learn in the space of an afternoon. Further work will be required if you’re to negotiate the intricacies of patchwork quilt tops, foundation piecing, or free motion machine quilting, but the basics of assembling the sandwich, basting it together, and then doing the actual quilting aren’t all that difficult to absorb, especially if you already know how to sew by machine. Otherwise, it’ll probably take you longer, but the sewing machine may well have a longer learning curve than quilting per se. The path from being a competent quilter to someone who can make works of art that really will be heirlooms isn’t exactly short, but with practice, patience, and persistence, you’ll be able to craft handsome pieces and won’t have to worry about being cold on winter nights ever again.
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